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Effects of Importance of Success and Expectations for Success on Effectiveness at Deceiving

University of Virginia

Carol Steele LeMay

University of Virginia

Jennifer A. Epstein

University of Virginia

When people are motivated to tell an effective lie, they are less successful when others can observe their nonverbal cues. It was predicted that expectations for success would moderate this motivational impairment effect, such that it would occur primarily when expectations were low. Ninety-six women who thought of themselves as very independent told two stories (one true, one fabricated) that illustrated their dependence and two that illustrated independence to an interviewer described as very trusting (high expectations for success) or very wary (low expectations). They either expected to be evaluated by the interviewer (high importance of success) or did not (low importance).Judges rated the sincerity of each story. As predicted, participants' lies were especially detectable (in relation to their truths) when it was important to the participants to succeed but they had low expectations for success.

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