Strong Diagnostic Questioning Effects on Deception Detection Accuracy With U.S. Customs Agents

Recent communication research shows several paths to improving accuracy in deception detection. According to truth-default theory, one promising approach is diagnostic questioning. A sample of elite U.S. Customs agents participated in a deception detection task. Agents viewed senders who were interrogated with one of three different sets of questions that differed in diagnostic utility. The different questioning sets produced a 36-point swing in accuracy from 42% to 78% accuracy. These findings demonstrate that how someone is questioned can make a substantial difference in deception detection accuracy and that improved accuracy is possible with diagnostic questioning.     

The Role of Consistency in Detecting Deception: The Superiority of Correspondence over Coherence

Inconsistency is often considered an indication of deceit. The conceptualization of consistency used in deception research, however, has not made a clear distinction between two concepts long differentiated by philosophers: coherence and correspondence. The existing literature suggests that coherence is not generally useful for deception detection. Correspondence, however, appears to be quite useful. The present research developed a model of how correspondence is utilized to make judgments, and this article reports on four studies designed to elaborate on the model. The results suggest that judges attend strongly to correspondence and that they do so in an additive fashion. As noncorrespondent information accumulates, an increasingly smaller proportion of judges make truthful assessments of guilty suspects. This work provides a basic framework for examining how information is utilized to make deception judgments and forms the correspondence and coherence module of truth-default theory.     

Deception Detection Accuracy is a Predictable Linear Function of Message Veracity Base-Rate: A Formal Test of Park and Levine's Probability Model

This study provided the first empirical test of point predictions made by the Park-Levine probability model of deception detection accuracy. Participants viewed a series of interviews containing truthful answers, unsanctioned, high-stakes lies, or some combination of both. One randomly selected set of participants (n=50) made judgments where the probability that each message was honest was P(H)=.50. Accuracy judgments in this condition were used to generate point predictions generated from the model and tested against the results from a second set of data (n=413). Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight base-rate conditions where the probability that a message was honest systematically varied from 0.00 to 1.00. Consistent with the veracity effect, participants in P(H)=.50 condition were significantly more likely to judge messages as truths than as lies, and consequently truths (67%) were identified with greater accuracy than lies (34%). As predicted by the model, overall accuracy was a linear function of message veracity base-rate, the base-rate induction explained 24% of the variance in accuracy scores, and, on average, raw accuracy scores for specific conditions were predicted to within approximately±2.6%. The findings show that specific deception detection accuracy scores can be precisely predicted with the Park-Levine model.     

To Catch a Liar: Challenges for Research in Lie Detection Training

Can we train people to detect deception? It is the contention of this article that communication scholars should learn how to train law enforcement professionals on how to detect high stake lies, like those faced by police, judges, customs officials, immigration officials, and so forth. It is proposed that in order to know whether we can train or should bother to train people to detect deception, each training study must meet 6 challenges: (1) relevance, (2) high stakes, (3) proper training, (4) proper testing, (5) generalizability across situations, and (6) generalizability over time. Our quantitative review of the literature suggests that training does significantly raise lie detection accuracy rates. Meta-analytic findings indicate a mean effect size of r = .20 across 20 (11 published studies) paired comparisons of lie detection training versus the control group (i.e., those without some type of training). It should be noted that the majority of the studies that attempt to train lie detectors fall short on many of the above challenges. Current research in lie detection training may actually underestimate the ability to train lie detectors due to the stimulus materials employed in most experiments.     

Detecting Deceptive Communication Through Computer-Mediated Technology: Applying Interpersonal Deception Theory to Texting Behavior

Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) argues that deception is an interpersonal action where people employ communication tactics to achieve various goals. Deception is a global concept; thus, much investigation has been conducted to determine the roots of such deceptive behavior. Through IDT, deception is categorized as a dynamic process where both the sender and receiver need to be engaged for deception to be successful. In extension of IDT, a study was conducted to determine the degree to which undergraduate students engage in deceptive behavior via text messaging. Through a survey design, undergraduate students' deceptive texting behaviors and deceptive detection traits were assessed. Results indicate that among undergraduate students, text messaging is an interpersonal form of communication that circumvents professionalism and power. Further, undergraduate students were much more likely to engage in deceptive texting with family and friends, but did so with significantly less frequency in the organizational setting.     

Development and validation of a parasocial interaction measure: The audience‐persona interaction scale

This research attempted to develop a multidimensional measure of parasocial interaction. A 47‐item questionnaire derived from qualitative responses was submitted to principal components analysis ‐ resulting in a 22‐item, four‐factor Audience Persona Interaction (API) Scale. The four sub‐scales were: Identification with Favorite character, Interest in Favorite character, Group Identification/Interaction, and Favorite Character's Problem Solving Ability. In the initial analysis, the index and it's subscales were found to be very reliable and positively correlated to program exposure level. In an additional construct validity test, mild linear relationships were found between PSI ‐as measured by the API Scale ‐ and viewing level.     

How did Americans Really Think About the Apple/FBI Dispute? A Mixed-method Study

ABSTRACT

Second-level agenda-setting suggests that news media influence how we think. As a case study examining the nature and effects of mainstream news media’s coverage of the 2015 Apple/FBI dispute about data privacy versus national security, this study found via content analysis that a majority of articles covering the dispute (73.7%) made the same potentially misleading claim about how the American public feels about the dispute. Nearly half (45.6%) of those articles made public opinion claims without offering empirical evidence, and almost all articles (97.4%) that cited the Pew survey appeared to have inadvertently created an unsubstantiated social reality. Then, this study found in a subsequent experiment that, consistent with impersonal influence, the above-mentioned news portrayals significantly affected the participants’ view on Americans’ collective opinion towards the Apple/FBI dispute. The long-term effect of this journalistic oversight is notable. Theoretical implications and practical recommendations for future science communication in the news are discussed.     

Crafting policies about controversial values: How wording disputes manage a group dilemma

Over a six-month time period a school board and its community discussed their district's strategic plan goals about diversity. This article analyzes that discussion within the practical theory frame articulated by Craig. Meeting talk and documents were analyzed to determine how the group's policy deliberation became an argument over what words to have (or avoid) in the strategic plan document. Proposals about document language were framed as technical editing, as inadvertent changing of a policy, and as wordsmithing. In addition to each frame being used, each was also challenged as to its being used to advance some group members' interests at the expense of others. Moving back and forth between using and resisting wording proposal frames, we suggest, is a reasonable way for groups to manage a dilemma they face in crafting policies about controversial, abstract issues. The paper concludes by identifying implications for dilemma theorizing and future study of groups.     

Sex as an Intergroup Arena: How Women and Gender Minorities Conceptualize Sex,Sexuality, and Sexual Health

We present a qualitative analysis of 186 women and gender minorities’ definitions of sex, sexuality, and sexual health, as well as their accounts of how those concepts changed for them over time. Participants describe these phenomena as communicative, layered, and related to identity. Definitions of sex produced themes of intimacy, consent, and who is involved; definitions of sexuality involved sexual orientation, sexual expression, and personal identity; definitions of sexual health included communication skills, an emphasis on physical and emotional health, and prevention and maintenance. Using the Communication Theory of Identity as a lens to guide our analysis and discussion, we argue that sex, sexuality, and sexual health are intergroup arenas that require an acknowledgment of group membership.     

Modern Mimicry and YouTube: How Technology Has Influenced Pedagogy and Performance of Poetry Interpretation Within Competitive Forensics

Plato's mimetic theory proposes art is an imitative representation of nature. Mimesis and imitation have a long history of rhetorical significance. This article investigates the potential impact increased technology might have upon the mimetic nature of the interpretation of poetry within modern forensics performances. Technological advances have made millions of performances available immediately. This vast increase in performance accessibility has created serious implications for repetition and impersonation within the genre of interpretation. As YouTube has made poetry performances visibly and audibly accessible to the masses, literal mimetic performances are quickly taking shape. This article utilizes a classical rhetorical framework upon modern-day technological advancements in an attempt to articulate significant educational benefits and limitations technology has had on mimetic performances for students, coaches, and judges.