When the body knows: Interoceptive accuracy enhances physiological but not explicit differentiation between liars and truth-tellers

Abstract

Recent research suggests that people experience distinct physiological reactions to lies versus truths. It is unclear, however, if this experience is incorporated into greater truth-lie judgment accuracy. We hypothesized that individuals with high interoceptive accuracy—those with greater access to bodily experiences and stronger physiological responses to emotional stimuli—might be particularly likely to accurately discriminate high-stakes, emotional lies and truths. Participants (n = 71) completed two study sessions: the first assessed their interoceptive accuracy with heartbeat detection measures, and the second assessed their deception detection ability while measuring their physiological reactivity. Interoceptive accuracy was associated with a greater difference in vasoconstriction to liars (vs. truth-tellers), suggesting that interoception was positively associated with physiological sensitivity to deception. Interoceptive accuracy, however, was unrelated to deception detection accuracy. While better interoception may enhance physiological signals that could better discriminate lies from truths, it does not improve explicit deception detection accuracy.