Lying While Texting

Our computers, cell phones, and other electronic devices have made communication with family and friends much more readily available and, in some cases, perpetual.  While certain emotions, sarcasm, jokes, and the like may be more difficult to convey because they do not always come across the way you intend in a text or email, there is one type of communication that could be slightly easier to do when you are not face-to-face or even speaking out loud: lying.  If there are no cues to pick up on, it is pretty difficult to distinguish the truth from a lie.  But now, researchers have discovered that even email gives clues. There is some evidence that those who lie while sending a digital message tend to respond more slowly.

The study, which was conducted at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, found that people corresponding electronically take longer pauses when answering if they are not being truthful, as well as editing their words more carefully and generally responding with shorter replies.¹ “People Who Lie While Texting Take Longer to Respond.” Science Daily. 5 September 2013. Accessed 9 September 2013. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130905113654.htm   YGTBKM!² “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The subjects were more than 100 students enrolled at either a large university in either the Southeastern or Southwestern United States.  They were asked to participate in an online conversation and answer 30 questions.  Unbeknownst to them, they were using a computer program developed by the scientists that kept track of the timing of and changes within the students’ responses.

Instructed to lie in their replies to approximately half of the survey questions, the volunteers were found to take 10 percent longer to respond when crafting untruthful replies than when telling the truth.  The extra time may have been caused by the stress and anxiety that led senders to revise the message’s content, as the program showed that lies were more heavily edited by their writers than were truthful statements.

That said, you probably shouldn’t take these findings too much to heart the next time you are busy texting a friend and are left with an uncomfortable pause after asking a question.  Many factors can come into play that would cause a delayed reaction.  But it is one more thing to consider, not only when engaging in conversations with friends and family, but when dealing with strangers on electronic media as well.  Many chat rooms, dating sites, and popular forms of social media are designed to promote communication between those on the sites.  However, we truly have no idea who we may be “talking” to in these situations or whether they are lying to us. Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t make it true.³ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_CgPsGY5Mw

And people have a hard enough time telling the truth from a lie when they are directly in contact with the other person.  A 2003 study by researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and the University of Missouri–Columbia, analyzed 158 theoretical cues to deceptions but determined that the majority of behaviors were not associated with or only slightly associated with actually lying.⁴ DePaulo, Bella M.; et al. “Cues to Deception.” Psychological Bulletin. 2003. Accessed 10 September 2013. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199704/the-truth-about-lying   With our personal radar unable to catch lies most of the time, a lot of us are probably more prone to believing others are truthful (or at least more truthful than they really are).  Which, when you think about it, may be somewhat of a positive thing.  After all, most of the lies we are told on a day-to-day basis are likely more of the harmless, little white variety meant to spare feelings, reduce stress and anxiety, or avoid conflict than truly deceitful fabrications.  A 1996 study at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville showed that in the average week’s time, a person lies in approximately 30 percent of their interactions,⁵ Kornet, Allison. “The Truth About Lying.” Psychology Today. 3 January 2012. Accessed 10 September 2013. http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/199704/the-truth-about-lying so we truly have to hope that most of these are rather minor.

Ultimately, we may have to simply trust our instincts about the kinds of people we want to be surrounding ourselves with and whether they are truthful overall. And it is just as important to pass along virtues such as honesty to our children.  It would seem that the current generation of youth is struggling with this concept according to a 2010 ethics survey of high school students by the Josephson Institute of Ethics.  They found that 80 percent of the kids surveyed admitted lying to their parents about something important, and 40 percent said they lied to save money.⁶ “The Ethics of American Youth: 2010.” Josephson Institute. 10 February 2011. Accessed 11 September 2013. http://charactercounts.org/programs/reportcard/2010/installment02_report-card_honesty-integrity.html   Now, after reading this blog, you’ll probably be extra concerned every time your teenager pauses when exchanging texts with you.