Deception research today.

Abstract

Deception is a complex social behavior which involves a set of higher cognitive functions. Studying this common phenomenon in humans has in all epochs been driven not merely by the wish to understand the underlying framework of cognitive functioning but rather by the ambition to detect deceptive behavior in criminal suspects. Thus, identifying valid indicators of deceptive behavior has always been in the focus of deception research. Such indicators can be defined in terms of specific behavior, physiological correlates, or content of verbal reports. The question of how validly each indicator allows for differentiating truthful and deceptive accounts is inherent in the majority of research efforts in this domain. Another important aspect concerns the development of deception theory. According to current opinion, deception is not characterized by a single cognitive process but rather involves the combination of a variety of basic cognitive processes such as working memory, response monitoring and inhibition. Identifying these processes, modeling their interplay and their modulation by personality and situational factors is still one major challenge in deception research. Furthermore, deception is no unitary phenomenon. Correspondingly, researchers need to examine and describe different variants of this phenomenon occurring in distinct contexts, which entails a variety of experimental and theoretical approaches that largely differ in scope and methods.