Seeing through crocodile tears? Sex-specific associations between the Dark Triad traits and lie detection accuracy

Although overall people are poor at lie detection, the accuracy depends on the situation (e.g., high versus low-stakes), as well as the characteristics of the person detecting the lie. In an on-line experiment (N=347), we explored the relationship between the Dark Triad (i.e., Machiavellianism, narc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality and individual differences 2017-07, Vol.113, p.1-4
Main Authors: Lyons, Minna, Croft, Amanda, Fairhurst, Sian, Varley, Katie, Wilson, Clarissa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accuracy
Antisocial personality disorder
Credibility
Dark Triad
Emotions
Gender differences
High-stakes emotional lies
Individual differences
Machiavellianism
Narcissism
Polygraphs
Sex differences
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Although overall people are poor at lie detection, the accuracy depends on the situation (e.g., high versus low-stakes), as well as the characteristics of the person detecting the lie. In an on-line experiment (N=347), we explored the relationship between the Dark Triad (i.e., Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy), and accuracy in detecting lies in high-stakes, emotional TV appeals. The participants filled in a 27-item Dark Triad measure, and watched 20 video-clips of people appealing to find a missing person, half of whom had murdered the person they were appealing to find. In both cross-correlational and regression analyses, Machiavellianism had a significant positive relationship with accuracy in women, and narcissism had a significant negative relationship with accuracy in men. Our results suggest that the Dark Triad is a relevant individual difference affecting lie detection, but it has different correlates for men and women. •Investigated Dark Triad in relation to lie detection•Used high-stakes real life emotional lies•Used a signal detection analysis•Narcissism in men was related to low accuracy.•Machiavellianism in women was related to high accuracy.
ISSN:0191-8869
1873-3549
DOI:10.1016/j.paid.2017.03.008