People Lie for a Reason: Three Experiments Documenting the Principle of Veracity

Abstract

The principle of veracity specifies a moral asymmetry between honesty and deceit. Deception requires justification, whereas honesty does not. Three experiments provide evidence consistent with the principle of veracity. In Study 1, participants (N = 66) selected honest or deceptive messages in response to situations in which motive was varied. Study 2 (N = 66) replicated the first with written, open-ended responses coded for deceptive content. Participants in Study 3 (N = 126) were given an opportunity to cheat for monetary gain and were subsequently interrogated about cheating. As predicted, when honesty was sufficient to meet situational demands, honest messages were selected, generated, and observed 98.5% to 100% of the time. Alternatively, deception was observed 60.0% to 64.3% of the time when variations in the same situations made the truth problematic. It is concluded that people usually deceive for a reason, that motives producing deception are usually the same that guide honesty, and that people usually do not lie when goals are attainable through honest means.

Keywords:

• Deception
• Honesty
• Lies
• Motive

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (SBE 075685). We thank Judee Burgoon for her insights and contributions on the refined research design in Study 3, Mikayla Hughes and Allison Sullivan for their help in data collection in Study 3, and Hee Sun Park and Andrea Winnie for verifying the coding in Study 2. A portion of this article was presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Chicago, November 2007.

Notes

*p < .001.

^a Missing data from one participant who failed to complete last page of questionnaire.

*p < .001.

*p < .002. **p < .001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Timothy R. Levine

Timothy R. Levine (PhD, Michigan State University, 1992) is a professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University.

Rachel K. Kim

Rachel K. Kim (MA, University of Hawaii, 2004) was a graduate student in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University when this research was conducted.

Lauren M. Hamel

Lauren M. Hamel (PhD, Michigan State University, 2009) was a graduate student in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University when this research was conducted.