title: Lying relies on the truth.
abstract: Cognitive models of deception focus on the conflict-inducing nature of the truth activation during lying. Here we tested the counterintuitive hypothesis that the truth can also serve a functional role in the act of lying. More specifically, we examined whether the construction of a lie can involve a two-step process, where the first step entails activating the truth, based upon which a lie response can be formulated in a second step. To investigate this hypothesis, we tried to capture the covert truth activation in a reaction-time based deception paradigm. Together with each question, we presented either the truth or lie response as distractors. If lying depends on the covert activation of the truth, deceptive responses would thus be facilitated by truth distractors relative to lie distractors. Our results indeed revealed such a "covert congruency" effect, both in errors and reaction times (Experiment 1). Moreover, stimulating participants to use the distractor information by increasing the proportion of truth distractor trials enlarged the "covert congruency" effects, and as such confirmed that the effects operate at a covert response level (Experiment 2). Our findings lend support to the idea that lying relies on a first step of truth telling, and call for a shift in theoretical thinking that highlights both the functional and interfering properties of the truth activation in the lying process.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: evelyne.debey@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Debey
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Houwer
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Verschuere
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cognitive processes; Deception; Distractors; Truth activation