ABSTRACT
Deceptive communication is an everyday, lifelong and complex process. It can occur in a range of different settings, in relationships between strangers, friends, partners and family members and can be perpetrated by all age groups. We can think, for example, of the ®ve year old pretending that she has not eaten a chocolate cake (despite the evidence of the chocolate around the side of her mouth), the father who tells his toddler to be good ``or there will be no visit from Father Christmas'' and the teenager who claims to be ``studying'' at a friend's house while really getting dressed up to go to the pub. We can also think of the banker being investigated for irregular trading, the pensioner who has been arrested for suspected shoplifting and the teenager who is being interviewed after being caught driving too fast in a stolen car. Given that there is such a range of potential deception situations, each based on a different relationship between the deceiver and target and each driven by a different outcome or motive, how can we make sense of these different types of deception?
