In order to attempt this assignment, I needed to find a friend who didn't know the extent of my travels. After doing so, I decided to first tell a false travel tale over Instant Messenger after setting up a dinner date. Then, over dinner, I told my second, this time true, travel memory about a trip to Disney in Florida.
Initially, I decided to lie online because I thought that my facial and other physical cues would more likely give away the fact that I was making the memory up. For a similar reason, I thought that the physical cues I showed would confirm the fact that the memory I shared face to face with my partner was in fact a true memory.
There wasn't any specific way I tried to lie over instant messenger. I stayed consistent with how I normally would IM with this person (or any other friend, for that matter). I did, however, use additional online resources such as an image search on Google or Wikipedia articles to supplement my fake memories of my family trip to Chicago. I tried to insert as many obscure details as I could (like which hotels we stayed at, what restaurants we ate at, etc.), assuming that this would make the story seem more legitimate.
After dinner, I told my partner about this assignment and asked if he could tell which story was true and which was false. He thought for a while, and decided that the story about my trip to Chicago was false. When asked why, he said that I provided more uninteresting details about Chicago that most people would probably leave out, whereas with my true memory, I focused on stories involving my family's adventures in Disney (like how disappointed I was over a certain attraction being shut down, and my mom writing a letter of disapproval after our trip--it resulted in free admission tickets which we still haven't used).
Given the theories we've learned about thus far, I'd have to say that my experience best reflects Social Distance Theory simply because I did exactly as the theory predicts--I chose IM to lie because it is more socially distant than lying in person. However, one thing this theory doesn't cover is intent. It suggests that lying is uncomfortable, so we will pick a way to communicate to be more comfortable. I didn't choose IM to lie because I was uncomfortable to lie face to face, I chose IM to lie because I thought it would be easiest to disguise the falsehood of my story with fewer cues for my partner to use. In other words, I went into the communication knowing I was going to lie, so I chose the medium with which I thought would be easiest to deceive my partner (which kind of supports the notion of Media Richness Theory). It makes me wonder if any studies have been done on intentional lying as opposed to psychological lying (telling white lies, etc.)...
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Hey Maren!
Great post! You brought up great points regarding the Social Distance Theory. I also found it interesting that the aspects we learned about in class regarding deception detection really came into play in your encounter. One of the hypotheses says that lying in CMC is less detectable because the deceiver has a chance to carefully plan out and edit their responses. Because you lied in IM, you had the ability to look up information on different websites to make sure our lies are accurate and based on true facts. In this case, you used Google and Wikipedia to enrich your story (the trip to Chicago) and make it seem even more realistic. Even though it did not work perfectly, you would not have been able to do this had you been communicating face to face.
The way the person figured you were telling the truth about Disney World was also very interesting. They realized through your detailed stories that you were most likely telling the truth. Specific memories are hard to fake and your recollections of emotions and feelings added to the appearance of truth. I found your results and analysis very interesting!
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