TY - JOUR
T1 - The ubiquity of long-tail lie distributions
T2 - seven studies from five continents
AU - Serota, Kim B.
AU - Levine, Timothy R.
AU - Zvi, Liza
AU - Markowitz, David M.
AU - Docan-Morgan, Tony
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s).
PY - 2024/2/1
Y1 - 2024/2/1
N2 - Truth-default theory (TDT), a theory of human deception and deception detection, has two propositions that focus on the overall rate of lying and individual variation in the frequency of lying behavior. The distribution of lie prevalence is specified to exhibit a non-normal, positively skewed distribution in which the majority of people are normatively honest, and most lies are told by a few prolific liars. Together, these predictions form the few prolific liars modules in TDT. Although the findings of prior research align with TDT predictions, the pan-cultural scope of TDT warrants testing such predictions with new and diverse samples. The current studies (total N = 3,463) sampled participants from China, Germany, Mexico, Israel, Kenya, Russia, and Brazil. Similar long-tail distributions were observed in each of the seven locations, and in language and cultural subsamples. These findings add to a growing empirical literature providing pan-cultural evidence consistent with TDT.
AB - Truth-default theory (TDT), a theory of human deception and deception detection, has two propositions that focus on the overall rate of lying and individual variation in the frequency of lying behavior. The distribution of lie prevalence is specified to exhibit a non-normal, positively skewed distribution in which the majority of people are normatively honest, and most lies are told by a few prolific liars. Together, these predictions form the few prolific liars modules in TDT. Although the findings of prior research align with TDT predictions, the pan-cultural scope of TDT warrants testing such predictions with new and diverse samples. The current studies (total N = 3,463) sampled participants from China, Germany, Mexico, Israel, Kenya, Russia, and Brazil. Similar long-tail distributions were observed in each of the seven locations, and in language and cultural subsamples. These findings add to a growing empirical literature providing pan-cultural evidence consistent with TDT.
KW - deception
KW - lie
KW - lying
KW - prolific liars
KW - truth-default theory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85184514497&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/joc/jqad040
DO - 10.1093/joc/jqad040
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AN - SCOPUS:85184514497
SN - 0021-9916
VL - 74
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Journal of Communication
JF - Journal of Communication
IS - 1
ER -