1. Deceptive Communication (Floyd, 2017)
1 The Nature of Interpersonal Deception
2 The Diversity of Deceptive Acts
3 Communication Behaviors and Deception
4 Detecting Lies in Different Contexts

2. How Often Do You Lie?
Behaviors that we think of as tact or polite involve some degree of deception.
Do you pretend to be happy to see others when you are not?
Do you invent plans to avoid time with others?
Do you lie to avoid hurting others’ feelings?
What other instances do you tell lies?

3. Nature Most people conceal the truth on a regular basis.
Lying and deception have negative connotations.
Deception is a communication process.
Understanding deception helps you to become a better communicator.

4. Defining
Deception- the knowing and intentional transmission of information to create a false belief in the hearer/ communicating in a way that is meant to make someone believe a fact or form an impression you know to be untrue.
Deceptive Acts fall along a continuum
High-Stakes Lies- those for which penalties for getting caught are severe: Fraud (material gain), felony, or personal penalties (job or marriage).
Low-Stakes Lies- those for which penalties for getting caught are comparatively mild: “white lies” to avoid embarrassment or hurt resulting in emotional discomfort or guilt.
Mid-Stakes Lies- those for which penalties for getting caught fall between high and low stakes lies.

5. Elements (all three must be present to be deception)
The sender must know the information is false.
You aren’t lying if you believe that what you’re saying is true.
You cannot lie to yourself (sender and receiver must be different people).
The sender must be transmitting the information on purpose.
Deception involves the transmission of information (nonverbal), not just the transmission of words.
The sender must be attempting to make the receiver believe the information.
You aren’t lying if you don’t intend for others to believe what you’re saying (teasing and sarcasm).
Deception is deception no matter the motives; justified or not.

6. Common Occurrence
Component of Politeness
Express appreciation
Help maintain social harmony
Avoids disruptions in relationships
Communicating Online
More frequent
Protected by anonymity
Exaggeration and falsification
Gender switching
What would happen if everyone told the complete truth all the time? How would you treat others and what would you think of others treatment of you?

7. Diversity Benefit the hearer Help you get to know someone
Protect your privacy
Help you avoid conflict
Make you look better
Help you avoid punishment
Help you protect yourself from distress
Help you get revenge on someone
Help you hurt someone for no reason
Protect you or your livelihood
Amuse you

8. Deceptive Acts- Simulation
Involve fabricating information or exaggerating facts for the purpose of misleading others.
Falsification- outright lying, communicating false information as if it were true.
Falsifying an application
Telling someone you are excited about a date when you are not
Exaggeration- taking a fact that is true in principle and overstating it.
Exaggerating the level of responsibility at a job in an interview

9. Deceptive Acts- Dissimulation
Involve forms of deception that involve omitting certain details that would change the nature of the story if they were known.
Omission- leaving out particular details of a story to create false impressions.
Salespeople (recurring fees, extras, taxes)
Equivocation- expressing information that is so vague or ambiguous that it creates the impression it has communicated a message it hasn’t actually conveyed.
Waiters (positive response rather than truthful)

10. Communication Behaviors
Under normal conditions, the average person can detect deception about 55% of the time.
Detecting deception is difficult.
Looking for the wrong clues
(Truth Bias) We want to believe most of what we hear
We expect communication to be pleasant
It takes mental energy to question

11. Clues Someone Is Lying False Information is often inconsistent
Caught in a lie by a third party
Visual information contradicts lie
Deceivers often commit speech errors
long pauses, vocal fillers (“um”/ “uh”), abruptness, and time to respond to questions
Compare speech patterns that are usual to the person
Deception often increases vocal pitch
More reliable clue because may not be aware of pitch
Pitch is higher when nervous, excited, or agitated
Two eye behaviors are associated with lying
Eye blinking and pupil dilation
Liars often use false smiles
Genuine smiles cause the skin at the sides of the eyes to wrinkle
Many liars use minimum body movement
Fewer hand and finger movements, forward leans, gestures, and leg and foot movements

12. Assess your SKILLS (pg. 399)
True or False
It is easier to detect deception when you are talking to a stranger than to a friend.
Expressive people lie more often than unexpressive people.
Detecting deception is harder with people from other cultures than with people from your own culture.
We are usually more successful at lying when we are highly motivated to lie successfully.
Most people are better at detecting deception when they are suspicious than when they are not.
A lie communicated by is more likely to succeed than a lie communicated face to face.

13. Detecting Lies Familiarity Affects Detection Success
People are more accurate at detecting deception by strangers than by friends
Truth bias prevented friends from noticing when they were being deceived
Expressive People are Better Liars
Tend to be more aware and in better control of their own communication behaviors
Adopt a more fluent and normal communication style
More aware of other people’s behaviors
More skilled at anticipating a hearer’s suspicion and correcting their behavior

14. Detecting Lies, cont’d. Culture Matters, but Only Sometimes
People are more accurate at detecting deception within cultures more than between cultures (Visual study)
People are equally able to detect deception by speakers of their own culture and speakers of other cultures (Visual and Vocal study)
In face-to-face conversation, culture appears to matter less
Motivation Doesn’t Always Help
Motivation Impairment Effect- when people are engaged in high-stakes lies, their motivation to succeed will backfire by making their nonverbal performance less believable than normal
The harder we try to control nervous energy, the more rigid, insincere, and unnatural we end up looking and sounding

15. Detecting Lies, cont’d. Suspicion May Not Improve Detection Ability
Suspicion can make people worse at detecting lies
Interpersonal Deception Theory- argues that skilled liars can detect when people are suspicious and then adapt their behaviors to appear more honest
Othello error- occurs when a listener’s suspicion makes a truthful speaker appear to be lying even though she or he isn’t.
Nervousness at another’s suspicion of us can make us more nervous.

16. Detecting Lies, cont’d.
Best Detection Depends on Interactive or Noninteractive Context
If friends, the context does not matter
Interactive context- face-to face or telephone conversation
Lies are more likely to succeed when speaker is lying to a stranger
Interactivity helps create a sense of connection
People pay more attention to their own communicative behaviors than the behaviors of others
Noninteractive context- voice mail, , or text

17. In Your Relationships- How Much Do You Lie?
Truth About Deception- A Quiz
Floyd, K. (2017). Interpersonal Communication: Third edition. New York: McGraw Hill Education