Extraversion and the detection of deception

Extraversion, neuroticism and threat of punishment were investigated in a detection of deception paradigm. Half of the 96 subjects, by instruction, had committed a mock crime while the other half were innocent of such an act. Extraversion was related to accuracy of detection such that those with high scores on this dimension were more likely to be classified correctly as guilty or innocent. This result had been predicted on the basis that detection is not determined by overall physiological responsiveness to questions but by contrasting responsiveness to critical and non-critical questions. Thus those high on extraversion, who were conceived of as difficult to arouse, responded only to the critical questions in the test while the more arousable introverts masked contrast by responding indiscriminately to both critical and non-critical questions. Neither of the other variables, neuroticism and threat of punishment, were related to detection.