International Deception

This article reports three studies of international deception. Americans, Jordanians, and Indians were videotaped while lying and telling the truth, and the resulting tapes were judged for deception by other Americans, Jordanians, and Indians. Results show that lies can be detected across cultures. They can be detected across cultures that share a language and cultures that do not, by illiterates as well as university students. Contrary to a hypothesis of ethnocentrism, perceivers show no general tendency to judge persons from other countries as deceptive; in fact, they often judge foreigners to be more truthful than compatriots. There is, however, some evidence for a language-based ethnocentrism when perceivers are judging the deceptiveness of a series of people from the same multilingual culture. Ancillary results reveal that people from diverse backgrounds reach consensus in deception judgments and that motivation can impair a liar’s ability to achieve communication goals.