Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire: How Verbal Deception Cues Signal Deceptive Versus Honest Impression Management and Influence Interview Ratings

Lenke Roth,Gloria Willhardt,Ute-Christine Klehe

doi:10.25035/pad.2021.01.007

Abstract

Impression management (IM), especially deceptive IM (faking), is a cause for concern in selection interviews. The current study combines findings on lie detection with signaling theory to address how candidates’ deceptive versus honest IM shows in verbal deception cues, which then relate to interview ratings of candidates’ interview performance. After completing a structured interview rated by two trained interviewers, 182 candidates reported their deceptive and honest IM. Verbal deception cues (plausibility, verbal uncertainty) were coded from video recordings. Results supported the hypotheses: Deceptive IM directly raised interviewer ratings (intended positive signal) but lowered the responses’ plausibility and enhanced verbal uncertainties (unintended negative signals). Honest IM raised responses’ plausibility. Plausibility related positively to interviewer ratings (receiver reaction), thus accounting for a negative indirect effect of deceptive IM and a positive indirect effect of honest IM on interviewer ratings. This study contributes to theory and practice regarding faking detection in employment interviews.

Highlights

Impression management (IM), especially deceptive IM, is a cause for concern in selection interviews
The use of IM can be understood in terms of signaling theory, which argues that a signaler may intentionally adjust the signals sent to a receiver
Research on lie detection suggests that deceptive IM might show, at least in theory (Vrij et al, 2010, 2019): When people lie, they send unintended negative signals that may give away their untruthfulness

Summary

Introduction

Impression management (IM), especially deceptive IM (faking), is a cause for concern in selection interviews. The current study combines findings on lie detection with signaling theory to address how candidates’ deceptive versus honest IM shows in verbal deception cues, which relate to interview ratings of candidates’ interview performance. Research on lie detection suggests that deceptive IM might show, at least in theory (Vrij et al, 2010, 2019): When people lie, they send unintended negative signals that may give away their untruthfulness. Many such clues have failed to translate into interview settings (Roulin & Powell, 2018; Schneider et al, 2015). The current study identifies verbal cues not included in such scoring guides that may yet be informative for good conceptual reasons

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