Who Told You That? Uncovering the Source of Believed Cues to Deception

Many beliefs about deceptive communication – like liars avoid eye contact – are popular but inaccurate. Tobetter understand the transmission of both accurate and false cues to deception, we examined the perceivedsource of deception beliefs. Two exploratory studies revealed six categories of belief sources such as observedbehavior, mass media, and social networks, derived from 19 categories of deception beliefs. Reported beliefsloaded onto three primary factors suggesting a simpler schema for detecting deception. Both studies revealedthat most people recalled learning about cues to deception from observing others’ behavior, however, inaccuratebeliefs were more likely to be perpetuated by credible sources.Â