IS THERE A KERNEL OF TRUTH IN JUDGEMENTS OF DECEPTIVENESS?

Abstract

This study is an extended replication of Bond, Berry and Omar´s (1994) work. Eighty-five undergraduate students completed a form to indicate in which experiments, from a list of seven deceptive and two truthful studies, they would be willing to participate, as well as the strength of their willingness to participate in a 10-point scale. Also, they reported in 7-point scales to what extent people who knew them well thought they were truthful or deceptive, and how truthful or deceptive they were in reality. In addition, participants provided us with a passporttype photograph of their faces. These photographs were shown to two samples of observers. The first judged their honesty and truthfulness. The second assessed their attractiveness and babyishness. Results show there was no relation between observers´ honesty or truthfulness ratings and participants´ willingness to collaborate in deceptive experimental procedures. Although participants´ selfreported honesty did not correlate with their actual honesty, close acquaintances´ impressions, as reported by the participants, did. Neither participants´ self-reported honesty nor close acquaintances´ views were based on targets´ facial appearance. Attractiveness and babyfacedness were unrelated to real and perceived honesty, and were marginally related to each other. Most of the students agreed to participate in most of the deceptive experiments, and they expressed no strong ethical concerns against lying.