Deception Detection and Truth Detection Are Dependent on Different Cognitive and Emotional Traits: An Investigation of Emotional Intelligence, Theory of Mind, and Attention

Despite evidence that variation exists between individuals in high-stakes truth and deception detection accuracy rates, little work has investigated what differences in individuals’ cognitive and emotional abilities contribute to this variation. Our study addressed this question by examining the rol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPersonality & social psychology bulletin Vol. 45; no. 5; pp. 794 - 807
Main Authors Stewart, Suzanne L. K., Wright, Clea, Atherton, Catherine
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.05.2019
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Adolescent
Adult
Attention
Cognition
Deception
Emotional Intelligence
Emotions
Executive control
Executive Function
Female
Humans
Male
Social Perception
Theory of Mind
Truth
Women
Young Adult
attention
emotional intelligence
deception
social cognition
theory of mind
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Summary:Despite evidence that variation exists between individuals in high-stakes truth and deception detection accuracy rates, little work has investigated what differences in individuals’ cognitive and emotional abilities contribute to this variation. Our study addressed this question by examining the role played by cognitive and affective theory of mind (ToM), emotional intelligence (EI), and various aspects of attention (alerting, orienting, executive control) in explaining variation in accuracy rates among 115 individuals (87 women; mean age = 27.04 years [SD = 11.32]) who responded to video clips of truth-tellers and liars in real-world, high-stakes contexts. Faster attentional alerting supported truth detection, and better cognitive ToM and perception of emotion (an aspect of EI) supported deception detection. This evidence indicates that truth and deception detection are distinct constructs supported by different abilities. Future research may address whether interventions targeting these cognitive and emotional traits can also contribute to improving detection skill.
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ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167218796795