Interpersonal Deception: Vi. Effects Of Preinteractional And Interactional Factors On Deceiver And Observer Perceptions Of Deception Success

Past research on deception success has focused on receiver judgments, ignoring deceiv perceptions, which may influence the ways deceivers choose to behave in interpersonal interactions. The present study investigated how several preinteractional and interactional factors affect both deceiver and observer perceptions of deception success. Preinteractional factors included three that have been found relevant to deceptive communication: social skill, self-monitoring, and motivation. Interactional factors included receiver suspicion, plus four proposed by the four-factor theory of deception (anxiety, affect, task difficulty, and behavioral control). Results indicated that deceivers’ perceptions of success were more affected b interactional factors (especially anxiety, interaction difficulty, and conversational normality). Conversely, observers were more affected by preinteractional factors such as deceiver socia skill. However, motivation, self-monitoring, and conversational normality affected both deceivers’ and observers’ assessments: greater motivation and self-monitoring, coupled with more natural, expected communication, yielded greater believability in deceivers’ own eyes and the eyes of observers.