NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN THE DETECTION OF DECEPTION AMONG WOMEN AND MEN

From Shakespeare to sex differences in vocal communication--the human ability to symbolize in sound and gesture is endlessly fascinating. Drawing upon research into the detection of deception, nonverbal communication, and sex differences, the present study specifically examines the nonverbal cues in the detection of deception among women and men by exploring certain questions which had arisen from the results of the research by Harrison, Hwalek, Raney, and Fritz (1976, 1978) and by Krauss, Geller, and Olson (1976). Specifically, the present study sought to disentangle the effects of sex of communicator and sex of detector on the encoding and decoding of deceptive communications. The present research has yielded results which generally confirm and extend earlier findings. Both Harrison et al. and Krauss et al. had found female detectors to be more skilled than were male detectors. The present results confirm that finding. However, because both Harrison et al. and Krauss et al. had used same gender dyads only, neither study could determine whether this gender difference was due to women being better detectors or poorer liars. By having mixed as well as same sex dyads in this study, the results extend those of the two earlier studies and--women were, indeed, better detectors for both male and female communicators. Also, the subject-detectors were better able to detect deception communicated by the female than by the male stimulus-communicator; thus, for the communicators in this study, the female was a poorer deceiver than the male. This study showed no effects due to the interaction between the gender of communicator and gender of detector. However, research which examined the relationship between sex role orientation and the display of stereotypically "feminine" and "masculine" nonverbal behaviors suggests a possible extension of this study to include the use of the Bem Sex Role Inventory as a pretest of all communicators and detectors. Then the results can be analyzed in terms of the sex role orientation of the subjects as well as in terms of the physical gender of the subjects.