The effects of suspicion on the recall of cues used to make veracity judgments

Abstract

The present study investigated the effects of suspicion on the recall of cues used to make veracity judgments. It was hypothesized that more noncontent cues would be attended to by suspicious individuals than nonsuspicious individuals. One hundred thirteen participants viewed videotapes of persons describing their work history truthfully or deceitfully under high and low suspiciousness conditions. Following the videotapes, the participants were asked to indicate whether the applicant had held the job and produced a written explanation for their judgments. When these statements were content analyzed for types of deception cues, the results supported the hypothesis.