An empirical evaluation of interpersonal deception theory in a real-world, high-stakes environment

Abstract

Purpose The study of deception and the theories, which have been developed have relied heavily on laboratory experiments in controlled environments, using American college students participating in mock scenarios. The purpose of this paper is to validate previous deception detection research in a real-world, high stakes environment where the unit of analysis is the question–response pair. Design/methodology/approach The study used previously confirmed linguistic and paralinguistic speech cues and the constructs of deception in an attempt to validate a leading deception theory, interpersonal deception theory (IDT). A combination of descriptive and predictive analysis was conducted to best understand the relationship between speech cues and changes in the subjects’ behavior. Findings The result validates IDT with mixed results on individual measures and their constructs. However, there is clear evidence across the 711 question-response pairs that not only was it possible to differentiate truth from deceptive behavior but also patterns of behavior can be seen over time. Research limitations/implications Because of the real-world nature of the study, it is difficult to generalize the results to a larger population. However, one implication for future research is the development of methods to capture, process and prepare raw speech into data ready for analysis. Originality/value This paper attempts to fill the gap between the controlled mock scenarios and the harsh reality of real-world deception.