The effects of truth–lie base-rates on deception detection accuracy in Korea

Abstract

Two experiments provided the first tests of the Park-Levine Probability Model in an intercultural context. The Park-Levine Model predicts a linear relationship between truth–lie base-rates in messages judged and the proportion of correct truth-lie judgments. Korean students watched and judged videotapes of American students denying that they cheated on a task. The proportion of honest and deceptive denials was experimentally varied to be predominantly honest, equally honest and deceptive, or predominantly deceptive. A second experiment clarified the results of the first experiment by providing a stronger base-rate manipulation. The data were consistent with the prediction that as proportion of judged messages is increasingly honest, there is a corresponding linear increase in accurate truth–lie discrimination. These results add to a growing number of findings showing the cross- and intercultural applicability of Truth-Default Theory.