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Psychological Phenomena

Truth Bias

Social Biases and Group Effects

Truth bias, also called the truth-default state, is the tendency for people to presume that others are being honest with them, either because they do not think of deception as a real possibility during the conversation or because they do not see enough evidence that they are being deceived. It is a central idea of truth-default theory, a communication theory that predicts how people detect, or fail to detect, lies.

Facts
Core Claim
Truth bias is the tendency to presume that another person's communication is honest, because deception is not considered as a possibility or because there is not enough evidence of deception. 1
First Described Year
1984 1
Classification
Type of Phenomenon
Cognitive Phenomenon 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Truth-default Theory
Wikimedia Foundation
  • lead section
    This idea suggests that people presume others to be honest because they either do not think of deception as a possibility during communicating or because there is insufficient evidence that they are being deceived.
  • Background section
    The term "truth bias" was first coined in 1984 by deception researcher Steven McCornack and his mentor Malcolm "Mac" Parks
  • lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
    Truth-default theory (TDT) is a communication theory which predicts and explains the use of veracity and deception detection in humans.
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