title: Suppressing the truth as a mechanism of deception: Delta plots reveal the role of response inhibition in lying.
abstract: Lying takes more time than telling the truth. Because lying involves withholding the truth, this "lie effect" has been related to response inhibition. We investigated the response inhibition hypothesis of lying using the delta-plot method: A leveling-off of the standard increase of the lie effect with slower reaction times would be indicative of successful response inhibition. Participants performed a reaction-time task that required them to alternate between lying and truth telling in response to autobiographical questions. In two experiments, we found that the delta plot of the lie effect leveled off with longer response latencies, but only in a group of participants who had better inhibitory skills as indexed by relatively small lie effects. This finding supports the role of response inhibition in lying. We elaborate on repercussions for cognitive models of deception and the data analysis of reaction-time based lie tests.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Evelyne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Debey
authors.affiliation: Amsterdam Center for the Study of Adaptive Control in Brain and Behavior (Acacia), Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Cognitive Science Center Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Richard K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Ridderinkhof
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.
authors.forename: Maarten
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Schryver
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. Electronic address: b.j.verschuere@uva.nl.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Verschuere
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Deception; Delta plots; Reaction time; Response inhibition