ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with lying and people’s ability to detect deceit. I will use the words lying and deceit interchangeably. After defining deception, I will describe which types of lie exist, the reasons why people lie, and estimates of how often they lie. This section will demonstrate that the role of lying in social communication is two-pronged: often it serves as a social lubricant, but sometimes it is harmful to the ones who are lied to. The next section, about people’s ability to detect deceit, reveals that detecting lies is a difficult task, not only for laypersons but also for so-called professional lie catchers such as polygraph examiners and police detectives. There are many reasons why people have difficulties with detecting deceit and some of the main reasons will be discussed. The two-pronged nature of deception implies that it is debatable whether it is really desirable to become a better lie detector. We are perhaps often better off believing many of the lies told to us than knowing the truth. However, improving accuracy in detecting some lies, particularly those that harm the individuals who are lied to or the wider community, may nevertheless be beneficial. The final section deals with improving people’s ability to catch liars.
