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Questions and deception: How to ask better questions and elicit the truth
1University of Utah, USA.
Current Opinion in Psychology
|July 2, 2022
Summary
Strategic questioning enhances truthful disclosure by managing social signals. Asking neutral, knowledgeable, and trust-signaling questions encourages honesty and avoids deception.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Communication Studies
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Questions are key for information gathering but can be used deceptively.
- The phrasing of questions carries social implications beyond information retrieval.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore how question phrasing influences the truthfulness of disclosures.
- To identify strategies for asking questions that promote honest responses.
Main Methods:
- Literature review on deception, conversation, and impression management.
- Analysis of signals embedded in question phrasing.
Main Results:
- Questions signal expected answers, asker's knowledge, and relationship dynamics.
- Neutrality, topic knowledge, and trust-signaling increase truthful disclosure.
Conclusions:
- Effective questioning requires awareness of informational and relational signals.
- Strategic question design can mitigate deception and enhance honesty.
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