Motivation Enhances the Ability to Detect Truth from Deception in Audio-only Messages

摘要

Previous studies have found that motivation to detect deception impairs participants' ability to do so when truthful/deceitful statements are presented via an audio-visual medium. However, the effect of motivation on detecting deception may be different if statements are presented via a different medium. The present study explored how motivation influences accuracy in detecting deception in an audio-only context. Eighty-one participants (45 women) were randomly assigned to a high-motivation or low-motivation condition, and participants' motivation was manipulated via a monetary reward. Participants were then asked to judge 10 audio-only statements about a travelling experience on a binary scale (truth or deceit). A 2 (motivation: high vs low)x2 (messages veracity: truth-accuracy vs lie-accuracy)x2 (participant gender) mixed model analysis of variance revealed that highly motivated participants performed better than less-motivated participants did in terms of truth-accuracy and total accuracy rates but not in terms of lie-accuracy rates. The theoretical and practical implications of the present results are discussed. Copyright (c) 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.