Personality and deception ability

Thirty-eight undergraduate subjects were administered the 16 Personality Factors Questionnaire, the Bem Sex Role Inventory, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale, and a measure of sociopolitical attitudes and a week later took part in a videotaped deception task. Subjects were requested to give short, videorecorded presentations on different sociopolitical topics. The topics were chosen in order to assure that each subject would give two presentations that were consistent with their attitudes (truth-telling), two presentations that were counter-attitudinal (deceptive), and two presentations on neutral topics. The presentations were then viewed by volunteer judges who rated each on a scale of believability. Results indicated that outgoing and energetic subjects were more successful deceivers, and that apprehensive subjects were less successful deceivers, presumably due to honest/deceptive demeanor biases. Persons scoring high on social desirability and on the motivational distortion (lie) scale of the 16 PF, were also more successful at the deception task. These findings replicate and expand previous research on the role of individual differences in deception ability.