Effects of perceived role and role success on the detection of deception

Abstract

75 college students participated in a detection of deception experiment designed to investigate conflicting results regarding the effect on the rate of detection of a preinterrogation demonstration of the polygraph's accuracy. It was hypothesized that the differences were due to differential demand characteristics in the 2 experiments. The information S received between Trials I and II and S's perception of his role were the major independent variables. If Ss received information which was consonant with their perceived roles, they were detected significantly less frequently than Ss who received information not consonant with their roles. The findings conform to the "consequences theory of detection" and support the hypothesized explanation of the disparate results. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)