Beyond Defining the Truth: Investigating How College Students Conceptualize Lies in Everyday Contexts (Poster 45)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Eleven
  In Poster Session: Cognitive and Motivational Processes: Poster Session Four

Abstract

A lie is often viewed as the antithesis of truth. Undergraduates serve as participants in much of research on lies and lying, but without explicitly prompting students to provide their own definitions of lies. Thus, we know little about how these students are conceptualizing lies when they respond to researchers’ questions or measures. In this study, undergraduate students were asked definitional questions about lies and were then presented with scenarios depicting some level of deception or omission of information. They were to decide whether lying occurred and why. Students’ definitions of lies bore some similarities to those in the literature and provided further insight into how undergraduates conceptualize lies in everyday contexts.

Authors

• Alina Maki, University of Maryland
  Presenting Author

• Patricia A. Alexander, University of Maryland
  Non-Presenting Author