Question

The paper "Deception and Design: The Impact of Communication Technology on Lying Behavior"† describes an investigation into whether lying is less common in face-to-face communication than in other forms of communication such as phone conversations or e-mail. Participants in this study were 30 students in an upper-division communications course at Cornell University who received course credit for participation. Participants were asked to record all of their social interactions for a week, making note of any lies told. Based on data from these records, the authors of the paper concluded that students lie more often in phone conversations than in face-to-face conversations and more often in face-to-face conversations than in e-mail. Discuss the limitations of this study, commenting on the way the sample was selected and potential sources of bias. (Select all that apply.) Since the students were all from an upper-division communications course at Cornell, it is not reasonable to consider these students to be representative of all students. Students knew that they were surveying themselves as to the truthfulness of their interactions, which could have changed students behavior and distorted the results of the study. Students may not have admitted all the lies they told, which would distort the results of the study. Participants were asked to record all of their social interactions for a week, instead of a month. The study only asked 30 students, instead of the whole class.

Answer 1

• Since the students were all from an upper-division communications course at Cornell, it is not reasonable to consider these students to be representative of all students.
• Students knew that they were surveying themselves as to the truthfulness of their interactions, which could have changed students behavior and distorted the results of the study.
• Students may not have admitted all the lies they told, which would distort the results of the study.

Step-by-step explanation:

The conclusions of the experiment shown in the question above, may be presented incorrectly, because the way the experiment was established, promotes the existence of several biases, which will hinder the correct evaluation of the research.

First, the research wanted to raise an investigation to find out whether lying is less common in face-to-face communication than in other forms of communication, such as telephone conversations or e-mail.

The participants of this research, were 30 students of a communication course of the superior division of the University of Cornell. However, the authors concluded that the result of the research could be observed in all students at the university, with only students from one course being assessed.

Second, students knew what was being assessed. They were aware, that the veracity of the information they spoke was the main basis of the evaluation of this experiment. This could influence them not to lie, to appear as a more truthful person.

In addition, the students themselves who were responsible for measuring the lies they told. This could show wrong results, because students could hide some of the lies they will tell during the experiment.