Pop Culture Assignment

Artifact 1- Box of Lies: The Tonight Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhJIA8moL5s&t=24s

The Interpersonal Deception Theory is focused on the interaction between a deceiver and

a receiver. In this game played between Jimmy Falon and Jennifer Lawrence they each get a turn

at deception. The game box of lies is played with two people sitting across from each other and a

barrier in between. However the barrier lets the people see only each other's faces. Then a box is

chosen with a random item inside. The deceiver can choose to tell the truth and convince the

other person that they are lying or then can lie and convince the other person they are telling the

truth. Regardless it’s a game of deceiving one another.

We can take an even deeper look into the game using the rules of the interpersonal

deception theory. At first we can look at the motive. Out of the three motive styles there is only

one that would work in this situation, which would be accomplishing a task. There is no

relationship to save or image to protect because they are just playing a fun game, between two

friends. Secondly we can look at which manipulation style they could be using. If they chose to

lie about the item they would have to make up a new story to tell, that would be considered

falsification. If they chose to tell the truth about the item, trying to convince the other that they

were lying, that would be closer to concealment. It’s interesting to see deception made into a

game for fun. With good intentions and lightheartedness. However it does bring up the question:

When there is a hyperfocus on the deception like there would be in a game, does it automatically

set the deceiver at a weaker standpoint?

Artifact 2- Mean Girls: Group Call

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVN7TJRRskQ

In this scene of Mean Girl, Cady is the ultimate deceiver. Using her skills of the

equivocation manipulation style. Equivocation is a hard one to describe which is why I love this

video so much. It’s essentially manipulation through avoidance of the issue. Cady uses this well

due to the fact that she barely even has to speak to manipulate the three other girls. She also

intentionally withholds the information that the other girl is listening to manipulate Regina into

opening up and sharing her feelings. What’s her motive? I guess we could say simply to

accomplish the task of making a mess of everyone else's lives.

Cady also does herself a favor by not speaking often and by doing everything via phone

call. She is pretty much able to completely remove herself from the message. This leads to

minimal leakage, whether it be verbal or non-verbal, because she is barely present at all. There

also seems to be no suspicion coming from any of the girls, maybe because they assumed they

were all friends. This adds a layer of truth bias as well because friends don’t lie. Or do they?
Artifact 3- House of Games: Poker Scene

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftNK4JPSoto

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTJcaJziQ1I

Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLmTfdkWZp4

House of Games is a fantastic movie about a con artist. Con artists themselves are living

breathing examples of the interpersonal deception theory. Their whole career is based on whether

or not they can successfully deceive another. Motive is keeping a job and manipulation style is

usually a complex combination of all three, concealment, falsification and equivocation. They

need to create stories, hide secrets, and avoid lots of subjects and information in order to

successfully achieve the task set in front of them.

The interesting thing about the scenes above is the physical explanation of leakage. Our

main guy explains something called a “tell” which is essentially the same thing as a non-verbal

cue that would give away if someone was trying to be deceiving or not. Of course if you watch

all three videos you get so see that it doesn’t work out quite the way we think the “tell” would

tell us. We also can look at how suspicion comes into play, because it’s a poker game there is

constant suspicion and truth bias. Everyone is on their toes, just like the box of lies game except

this time it’s not fun and lighthearted. This time there's money and lives on the line.