Everybody else is doing it: exploring social transmission of lying behavior

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Behavioral Science
• Network Analysis

Background:

• Lying is prevalent in social interactions.
• Previous research primarily focused on personality traits as predictors of deception.
• The role of social networks in transmitting lying tendencies remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if lying tendencies are transmitted through social networks.
• To examine moderators of the relationship between individuals' lying tendencies.
• To determine if social connections predict deceptive behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an international sample of 1,687 socially connected pairs.
• Participants reported their likelihood to engage in specific lies (commission vs. omission; antisocial vs. prosocial).
• Friends or relatives independently responded to the same lying scenarios.

Main Results:

• Antisocial commission, antisocial omission, and prosocial commission lying tendencies were related in connected pairs.
• Relationships were significant even in non-biologically related pairs.
• Antisocial commission lies showed the strongest relationship, moderated by time spent together.
• Country-level norms influenced antisocial commission lying tendencies in randomly paired individuals.

Conclusions:

• Lying tendencies are influenced by the deceptive behaviors of friends and family.
• Social networks play a significant role in shaping an individual's propensity to lie.
• Understanding social dynamics is crucial for predicting deceptive behaviors.