The Effects of Computer-Mediation, Training, and Warning on False Alarms in an Interview Setting

Deception in applicant résumés is a major business problem. With the rapid growth of Internet job websites and computer-mediated communication, organizations are more at risk than ever before. Researchers have tried to improve individuals\u27 deception detection accuracy to minimize the impact of deception, including warning individuals about deception and training individuals to detect deception. However, evidence was found that trained and warned individuals might make more incorrect judgments about true information, which are known as false alarms. Further, few previous studies focused on the computer-mediated settings that are now a central part of business communication. After conducting an experiment to understand these and other causes of false alarms in computer-mediated interview settings, we found that individuals performing interviews over an audio-based communication channel incorrectly judged interviewees as being deceptive more often than did individuals performing interviews via e-mail. We found that while the number of lies detected was low for both types of communication, individuals communicating over an audio-based channel had more false alarms. We also found that the combination of in-advance training and a just-in-time warning did not affect receivers\u27 judgments about deception in our computer-mediated interview setting

Deception detection under varying electronic media and warning conditions

With an increasing amount of business-related tasks and decisions being supported by communication technology, it is important to understand and explore the vulnerabilities that may result from its use. One of these weaknesses is the transmission of deceptive information. Very little research investigating mediated deception and its detection exists, however. This paper reports the results of one such investigation. An experiment was conducted involving an interactive interview of deceitful applicants for a fictitious scholarship, using one of three different computer-based media. Results showed that people were extremely successful at deceiving others no matter what medium was used, and the only recipients of lies that had a realistic chance at uncovering lies were those who were warned beforehand. There were no differences in the number of false alarms issued by warned and unwarned receivers. Warned receivers also rated their electronic medium poorly. Possible implications of this study are offered