Individual determinants of deception detection performance: Need for closure, attributional complexity and absorption

Abstract

An explorative study examined the extent to which individual differences on three personality dimensions can predict performance on a deception detection task. Preliminary research findings (P. Ekman, personal communication, October, 1999) suggest that good liedetectors are characterized by flexible decision criteria, high attentional involvement in the judgment task, and reluctance to impressional primacy effects. In the present study, measures of attributional complexity, absorption, and need for closure served as indicators of these characteristics, and their relation to participants’ accuracy in a deception detection task was assessed. However, the results of regression analyses failed to show the predicted relationships; participants across levels of the personality dimensions performed only slightly above chance levels. In addition, none of the personality variables moderated the typically low relationship between accuracy and confidence in judgments. Explanations for the absence of the predicted effects are discussed, both in terms of limitations of the present study and in relation to theoretical concerns.