Data from: Culture moderates changes in linguistic self-presentation and detail provision when deceiving others

Change in our language when deceiving is attributable to differences in the affective and cognitive experience of lying compared to truth telling, yet these experiences are also subject to substantial individual differences. On the basis of previous evidence of cultural differences in self-construal and remembering, we predicted and found evidence for cultural differences in the extent to which truths and lies contained self (versus other) references and perceptual (versus social) details. Participants (N = 320) of Black African, South Asian, White European and White British ethnicity completed a catch-the-liar task in which they provided genuine and fabricated statements about either their past experiences or an opinion and counter-opinion. Across the four groups we observed a trend for using more/fewer first-person pronouns and fewer/more third-person pronouns when lying, and a trend for including more/fewer perceptual details and fewer/more social details when lying. Contrary to predicted cultural differences in emotion expression, all participants showed more positive affect and less negative affect when lying. Our findings show that liars deceive in ways that are congruent with their cultural values and norms, and that this may result in opposing changes in behaviour.

个体在欺骗时的语言变化，源于说谎与实话陈述时情感与认知体验的差异，而此类体验同样存在显著的个体差异。基于此前关于自我构念（self-construal）与记忆方面存在文化差异的研究证据，我们提出假设并验证了：在真话与谎言中，自我（而非他人）指代以及知觉（而非社交）细节的占比程度上，存在文化差异。本研究招募了320名参与者，分别为黑非洲裔、南亚裔、欧洲白种裔与英国白种裔，他们完成了抓谎任务（catch-the-liar task），需提供关于自身过往经历的真实与虚构陈述，或是针对某一观点及其对立面的真实与杜撰表述。四组参与者均呈现出如下趋势：说谎时会更多/更少使用第一人称代词，且更少/更多使用第三人称代词；同时说谎时会更多/更少加入知觉细节，且更少/更多加入社交细节。与此前关于情绪表达存在文化差异的预测相悖，所有参与者在说谎时均呈现出更积极的情感体验与更少的负面情感体验。本研究结果表明，说谎者的欺骗行为契合其自身的文化价值观与社会规范，而这一现象或会导致行为层面出现反向变化。