4 Facebook deception interview

Facebook profiles offer a variety of different signals which can be used for deception. Assessment signals on facebook include the organization you are associated with (i.e. the university you attend or the company you work for) and perhaps your popularity (it is harder to fill up your wall if nobody wants to talk to you). Nearly everything else on your profile can be classified as conventional signals. Your interests, contact information, major, and activities may all be tweaked by the profile owner to create a certain impression. Even your name, age, gender, and pictures could be faked.

I interviewed an individual about the accuracy of various elements of her facebook profile. When asked to rate on a scale of 1 (completely inaccurate) to 5 (completely accurate), she responded with either 4 or 5 for every part of her profile. She told me that everything she would have lied about, she instead just omits from her profile. The only reason why some of her profile elements received a 4 instead of 5 was because she had not updated her profile in a long time, and some of her preferences have since changed. My own observations (based on what I know about her) have confirmed that her facebook profile information is very accurate.

Facebook is a relatively lean medium, and lying is an equivocal task. Thus, media richness theory predicts that lying does not happen all that often on facebook. But since facebook has the ability to connect people who are geographically distant, social distance theory suggests that lying is easier. Feature-based theory says that lying is unlikely on facebook. Facebook is largely an asynchronous medium, and most lies are constructed on-the-spot. Additionally, facebook is largely recordless, so lies can be removed at any time. As mentioned earlier, facebook is also distributed, meaning it is easier to lie to someone you aren’t geographically close to. But two of the three features necessary for extensive lying aren’t present on facebook, so the feature-based theory makes the same prediction as media richness theory. My interview results rejected social distance theory in favor of media richness theory and feature-based analysis.

These results oppose Catalina’s findings regarding online dating sites. One reason for this could be the type of audience expected. On facebook, your profile is subject to a wider audience. Therefore, close friends will tend to point out inaccuracies in your profile, making it less likely for you to lie in general. This portion of the audience is non-existent on dating sites, so it’s easier to lie – especially since you can cater your impression for one type of interpersonal relation.

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