The Truth/Deception Attribution: Effects of Varying Levels of Information Availability

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Abstract
This study examines the relationship between untrained observers' accuracy in detecting deception on the part of strangers, and available total and nonverbal information as a function of transmission channel. Twelve subjects were put through a deception inducing manipulation procedure almost identical to the one used by Exline et al. (1970) and Shulman (1973). This procedure yielded six subjects lying and six subjects telling the truth in a postprocedure interview. Eighty observers viewed these subjects either live through a one-way mirror, saw them on a videotape, heard them on an audiotape, or read a transcript of the interview, Observers reported whether they thought each subject was lying or telling the truth. Trained coders provided ratio-scaled estimates of how much total and nonverbal information was available when viewing each subject through each channel. The results indicate no significant relationship between amounts of available nonverbal and/or total information and the accuracy with which untrained observers detected deception on the part of strangers.