Susceptibility to Deception in a Political News Interview: Effects of Identification,Perceived Cooperativeness,and Ingroup Vulnerability

This article explores people’s susceptibility to political deception. Participants watched a news interview in which a politician either answered all the questions or deceptively evaded a question. In Study 1 (n = 202), deception is perceived through the dodge being irrelevant for voters who do not identify with the politician. In Study 2 (n = 618), partisan voters consider the politician more deceptive, and acting more deceptively, when the politician has their opposing party affiliation, independent of whether he dodges. When the politician shares their party identification, voters identify with the politician more and consider his responses more relevant. Findings are consistent with theoretical positions of identification, the cooperative principle, and social identity.