Social Skills and Deception Ability

The role of social or communication skills in the ability to deceive was investigated. Thirty-eight student volunteers were administereda number of standardized social skill instruments. Subjects were then videotaped while giving short, persuasive messages. Messages were of three types: attitude-consistent (truthful), counterattitudinal (deceptive), and neutral. The videotaped messages were viewed by groups of judges who made ratings of the subject's believability for each message. Expressive and socially tactful subjects were more successful deceivers, whereas socially anxious subjects were less successful at the deception task. These results were attributed to an honest demeanor bias in the socially skilled subjects and a deceptive demeanor bias in the socially anxious subjects. Implications for future research on individual differences in deception skill were discussed.