Diary Study on Japanese University Students’ Suspicions of Being Deceived in Everyday Life

Abstract

ABSTRACT How do people “suspect” lies? We conducted a study on Japanese university students using the diary method to investigate situations in which people are deceived. We also created a taxonomy of sources of suspicion and examined whether behavioral cues or non-behavioral evidence were more frequently used to develop suspicions about being deceived. Participants were instructed to record their suspicions of being deceived for one week using a voice recorder. Results indicated that the mean number of perceived lies was 1.52 per day. A total of 244 episodes of subjectively perceived lies were classified into ten categories. The results indicated that, rather than behavioral cues, non-behavioral evidence (i.e., “Prior Knowledge about a Specific Person,” “Decisive Evidence,” “Suggestive Evidence”) is more likely to trigger suspicion. Further analysis revealed that behavioral cues were often used with other categories.