Detecting deception: The accuracy of the good judge

Recent research has demonstrated that the good judge, the individual who tends form accurate impressions of others, are skilled in the detection and utilization of social cues (Rogers & Biesanz, in press) though this skill is only evident when interacting with a good target, the individual who tends to be understood by others. Given this ability to detect and use cues, this study sought to determine whether good judges of personality are also skilled at detecting deception, as individuals typically are inaccurate in their judgements of deception due to focusing on irrelevant cues (Vrij, Granhag, & Porter, 2010). A sample of college students (N = 262) viewed videos of 10 individuals answering basic getting to know you questions and rated their personality after each video. They then viewed videos of 14 individuals that participated in a study that included a math task. These individuals were accused of cheating on the task and were interviewed afterward in which individuals were either telling the truth or lying that they did not cheat on the task. Results indicated that people were accurate in rating the personality of others and their accuracy of judging lies was significantly higher than chance levels. However, that accuracy was not related to how accurate they were in judging whether individuals were telling the truth or lying. These results indicate that the skills associated with being a good judge of personality are not the skills required to accurately judge lies