Good Liars Are Neither 'Dark' Nor Self-Deceptive

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 17;10(6):e0127315. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127315. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Deception is a central component of the personality 'Dark Triad' (Machiavellianism, Psychopathy and Narcissism). However, whether individuals exhibiting high scores on Dark Triad measures have a heightened deceptive ability has received little experimental attention. The present study tested whether the ability to lie effectively, and to detect lies told by others, was related to Dark Triad, Lie Acceptability, or Self-Deceptive measures of personality using an interactive group-based deception task. At a group level, lie detection accuracy was correlated with the ability to deceive others-replicating previous work. No evidence was found to suggest that Dark Triad traits confer any advantage either to deceive others, or to detect deception in others. Participants who considered lying to be more acceptable were more skilled at lying, while self-deceptive individuals were generally less credible and less confident when lying. Results are interpreted within a framework in which repeated practice results in enhanced deceptive ability.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Deception*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Machiavellianism*
  • Male
  • Narcissism*
  • Personality Inventory
  • Psychological Tests
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

This work was supported by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Ph.D. studentship ES/I022996/1, awarded to Gordon R. T. Wright. Christopher J. Berry was supported by ESRC grant RES-063-27-0127, and Geoffrey Bird by a senior fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.