Which Helps Detect Lies, Eagerness or Vigilance? The Impact of Regulatory Focus on Lie Detection

Abstract

The current research explored the influence of regulatory focus on the accuracy of lie detection. We propose that a prevention focus leads to greater performance in detecting lies than those under a promotion focus, because a prevention focus engenders a vigilant state and enhances people’s sensitivity to negative information. Four studies supported this hypothesis using different lie detection materials. The first two studies considered regulatory focus as a chronic individual difference and found that prevention focus was positively related to accuracy in detecting lies. Studies 3 and 4 manipulated regulatory focus by a) framing the task as truth detection vs. lie detection and b) asking participants to write essays about their aspirations and hopes vs. their duties and obligations. Results consistently found that individuals under a prevention focus had higher accuracy in detecting lies than promotion focused individuals. Importantly, a prevention focus did not produce a mere response bias and increase people’s tendency to judgment truth as lies. Implications for motivation and conflict resolution are discussed.