Citation

Polage DC. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 2004; 18(4): 455-465.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/acp.995

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study explored what happens when participants lie in order to convince others that false stories are true. Participants' memories were assessed by comparing their likelihood ratings for the events before and after lying about them. Results showed that most participants rated the events as less likely to have happened after lying about them. Therefore, the most common result of lying seems to be a strengthening of, not a distortion of, the truth. This decrease in likelihood rating for the statement lied about is termed 'fabrication deflation'. In both studies, however, there were 10-16% of the participants who indicated maximum belief that the lie item was true. Whether this increase in likelihood rating for a lied about event is evidence of memory creation or the triggering of an actual memory is discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Language: en