Assignment 4:No more lying
To tell the truth, I think I stopped lying. When I realized I would be recording my lies this past weekend, I seriously reconsidered every interaction I had with people. I even limited some conversation and didn't send any emails. I consciously decided to go to the movies and interact with no one instead of going out to the bars or something more social. I slept more and made myself invisible on AIM. My reaction to heightened awareness is an obvious methodological problem with studies designed to capture the essence of deceptive behavior. It's hard to measure or analyze accurately when it exists less than normal.However, I did lie a tad. I was very surprised I lied to people whom I'm closest to, which doesn't follow previous research either. Those lies were self-oriented, another anomaly. They weren't serious lies, but I was uncomfortable telling them. I even regretted one regarding an outright lie to my Mom, "I don't feel well, I might be getting sick" when in fact I was not feeling well, completely hung-over, that I called the next day to explain my illness once it subsided. Both lies occurred on the phone. I was also surprised how few interactions I have every day, considering I speak to my Mom almost every day, live with 5 people, and this weekend included two sorority social events. Since I had fewer interactions, I also understand my fewer lies, but the proportion is comparable. One of our social events included activity that might have limited my ability to remember anything, let alone lies, so a PDA or clicker device would have been an improvement for the task and situation. In regards to circumstantial influences, I certainly felt my interactions were unlikely for an everyday diary, and would be more appropriate to record in a routine day during the week.
Another note which I found interesting through the diary study this weekend is how rarely I interact or lie to guys. Face-to-face interactions are usually less than the 10 minute suggested time frame, and, apparently, I'm not trying to impress anyone on first meeting. So much for impression formation. This realization is a reminder I need to get out there and...Lie!
posted by Jenna @ 10:16 PM
2 Comments:
Jenna is kind of a paradoxical student based on this post. So studious is she, her homework dictated her weekend plans. Yet so lazy is she, that she opted not to speak in order to decrease the amount of work she had. If anything, Jenna's experience is a prime example of the methodological flaws inherent in diary studies.
Nevertheless, this post had some really great insights on medium and deception. It is certainly true, particularly of people in our generation, that different media are used for communication with different types of people. This seems to be a variable not analyzed to the fullest in Hancock et al. Also, how does altered mental state play a role in these studies? Under the influence of alcohol, one might be less likely to recall her lies but also might be more inclined to tell those lies. Just a thought...
“To tell the truth, I think I stopped lying.” Interesting opening to a piece on deception. Only kidding! I liked your post a lot, partly because I had a similar experience, limiting my interactions and becoming increasingly wary of ones I did have. What’s more, I had few interactions because of my hectic weekend, so I got some very … interesting results – though I really do not want to imply that they’re not useful results.
Your results are also a bit puzzling, though I would have to believe it’s because – like me – your weekend became somewhat of a anomaly, conversationally speaking. (Self-oriented lies to your friends? Who knows how much the results means based on the sample?)
Wow. You’re right on target about the PDA: I wish I had one too. I was thinking it wouldn’t have been motivated to stop what I was doing and type everything out, but I know if I had the PDA, I would have remembered more often to write track things (since it would have been in my pocket, hitting my leg), and I would have tracked more lies. I probably forgot about a whole bunch … I certainly think I did, so I assume I did (though we know how accurate that can be).
And finally, I too rarely lied to the opposite sex. I have a number of theories why, but perhaps a large factor (aside from the sample) was the medium of conversations I had with females: nearly all FTF (as far as I remember). Harder to control cues, perhaps? Jeff, you’ve done it again.
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