Interoceptive Accuracy Enhances Deception Detection in Older Adults

Amber Heemskerk, Tian Lin, Didem Pehlivanoglu, Ziad Hakim, Pedro A. Valdes-Hernandez, Leanne Ten Brinke, Matthew D. Grilli, Robert C. Wilson, Gary R. Turner, R. Nathan Spreng, Natalie C. Ebner

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Objectives: Difficulties with deception detection may leave older adults especially vulnerable to fraud. Interoception, that is, the awareness of one's bodily signals, has been shown to influence deception detection, but this relationship has not been examined in aging yet. The present study investigated effects of interoceptive accuracy on 2 forms of deception detection: detecting interpersonal lies in videos and identifying text-based deception in phishing emails. Methods: Younger (18-34 years) and older (53-82 years) adults completed a heartbeat detection task to determine interoceptive accuracy. Deception detection was assessed across 2 distinct, ecologically valid tasks: (i) a lie detection task in which participants made veracity judgments of genuine and deceptive individuals, and (ii) a phishing email detection task to capture online deception detection. Using multilevel logistic regression models, we determined the effect of interoceptive accuracy on lie and phishing detection in younger versus older adults. Results: In older, but not younger, adults greater interoceptive accuracy was associated with better accuracy in both detecting deceptive people and phishing emails. Discussion: Interoceptive accuracy was associated with both lie detection and phishing detection accuracy among older adults. Our findings identify interoceptive accuracy as a potential protective factor for fraud susceptibility, as measured through difficulty detecting deception. These results support interoceptive accuracy as a relevant factor for consideration in interventions targeted at fraud prevention among older adults.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbergbae151
JournalJournals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
Volume79
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2024

Keywords

  • Bodily awareness
  • Fraud
  • Phishing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Health(social science)
  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Life-span and Life-course Studies

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