Once a liar always a liar: Effects of individuating information on the utilization of base‐rates in deceptive attributions

Abstract

The present study examined social perceivers’ cognitive processing strategies when formulating deceptive attributions. Based on Reeder's (1985) hierarchical schematic attribution model, it was predicted that social perceivers would underutilize deceptive interaction base‐rates (ratio of deceptive interactions to truthful interactions) in favor of individuating information (contextual and relational information). Results confirmed our hypothesis that social perceivers would underutilize the base rate information and overutilize individuating information. The present findings indicated that social perceivers based their deceptive attributions on the nature of their relationship with the liar (friend vs. stranger) and the timing of the deceptive encounter (before truthful interactions vs. after truthful interactions). Women were found to formulate more severe deceptive attributions than men. Results concerning the relational consequences of deception also are discussed.