People Who Are Trusting Are Better At Detecting Liars

[R3g3CiDe]

According to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science (published by SAGE), trusting others may not make you a fool or a Pollyanna, instead it can be a sign that you're smart.

Study participants were asked to watch taped job interviews of 2nd year MBA students. Interviewees were all told to do their best to get the job. Half of the interviewees were completely truthful; the other half told at least three significant lies to appear more attractive for the job. All interviewees were guaranteed $20 for making the job interview tape, and both the liars and truth-tellers hoped to receive an additional $20 if a supposed "lie detection expert" watched the tape and believed they were telling the truth.

Several days before the participants watched the tapes, they filled out a questionnaire that measured their trust in other people, with questions such as "Most people are basically honest," and "Most people are basically good-natured and kind." They then watched the videos, and rated the truthfulness and honesty of the interviewees.

People high in trust were more accurate at detecting the liars - the more people showed trust in others, the more able they were to distinguish a lie from the truth. The more faith in their fellow humans they had, the more they wanted to hire the honest interviewees and to avoid the lying ones. Contrary to the stereotype, people who were low in trust were more willing to hire liars and they were also less likely to be aware that they were liars.

"Although people seem to believe that low trusters are better lie detectors and less gullible than high trusters, these results suggest that the reverse is true," write co-authors Nancy Carter and Mark Weber of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. "High trusters were better lie detectors than were low trusters; they also formed more appropriate impressions and hiring intentions.

"People who trust others are not pie-in-the-sky Pollyannas, their interpersonal accuracy may make them particularly good at hiring, recruitment, and identifying good friends and worthy business partners."

"Not Pollyannas: Higher Generalized Trust Predicts Lie Detection Ability" in Social Psychological and Personality Science. :SAGE Publications

[hortonpilot]

Yes , interesting .
Dishonest people get taken in more easily.

Seems an inversion but it is what i have found.

Untrusting people seem to be poor judges of character/


Horton

[Demiurgic Truth]

It seems to me that a lot of people are untrusting because they lie and expect others to be exactly like them.

From experience with people, that's how I've noticed it.

[Outsider]

This is fascinating; thank you very much for posting it.

I'd always assumed that honest people were successful because they earned the trust of close associates. It's satisfying to see that they also have some advantages against Machiavellianism in strangers - however, I'd be happier to know if they were able to detect lies from habitual liars.

[NataEames]

People who have been lied to a lot in their younger years will become liars themselves because they will feel someone did something unfair to them.
But some people after being lied to a lot will actually become a walking lie detector - those are the stronger ones

[hortonpilot]

As i said before the situation is an inversion.

Being un-trusting is a big mistake and it seems the power to reason and make distinctions is very difficult .

what i see is that when you go thru the process of establishing trust you notice small clues that enable trust .
People who are suspicious do not pick up these clues for some reason and the process is flawed.

This flows on into their lives at major levels where they misjudge people and situations very badly, so i guess the whole reasoning process in these people is very different/


Horton

[NataEames]

In any case, being too trusting or too untrusting is wrong. These things need to be balanced and adaptable to the needed situation.

[hortonpilot]

But for some the reasoning process does not enable them to make proper calls.

[voodoo scientist]

It's likely that distrustful people are distrustful because they are poor at detecting lies.