ABSTRACT
Scholarly books, chapters, and articles on the topic of deceptive communication often begin with the assertion that deception is frequent, ubiquitous, and commonplace. For example, readers of the deception literature encounter claims such as “communicators frequently decide that honesty is not the best policy” and “deception and suspected deception arise in at least one quarter of all conversation” (Buller & Burgoon, 1996, p. 203). Careful consideration of the probable prevalence of deception, however, requires considering the question of relative frequency in comparison to some standard.
