News & Social Media Assignment

Artifact 1- Vanity Fair Lie Detector Tests

https://youtu.be/5LoBGoQPUNc

Watching Vanity Fair’s lie detector tests, you can see lots of examples of the interpersonal
deception theory. However in this case it is unique because most of the time, the participants are
attempting to tell the truth. Lie detectors are known for making people nervous. Because of this,
those who take them attempt to play it cool, calm, and collected. In doing so they have already
begun a form of manipulation. In this case, the manipulation style would be concealment.
Concealment is attempting to hide the truth or keep a secret. We have to consider that in a real lie
detector test, used by the police or investigators, the manipulation would be a lot more extreme
and noticeable. In this example, it’s a fun web series with no serious questions and small
reactions.
This does not make it a bad example though. You still get to see many forms of
behavioral leakage that is discussed in the interpersonal deception theory. Such as heavy
blinking, pupil dilation, nervousness, hand movements. You also see some of the four messaging
characteristics of interpersonal communication. Uncertainty and vagueness, withdrawal,
dissociation, and image/relationship protecting behaviors. It’s almost humorous in this case due
to the fact that because the participants are so nervous they are hyperaware of the leakage they
let off and sometimes draw attention to it. These examples can remind us that even when we
have no intention of being manipulative or deceitful in our communication, sometimes we have
no control of it. It can be done lightheartedly and by accident.
Artifact 2- Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy
https://youtu.be/gqJlucqMIrA

In the case of Michelle Carter and Conrad Roy, Michelle I won’t be focusing on the
deception Michelle used on Conrad but the deception she used on the entire world. After the
death of Conrad Roy investigators felt sick to their stomachs about his so-called “girlfriend”
Michelle Carter. Michelle was an extremely manipulative and deceiving person. So much to the
point that she convinced family, friends and investigators just for a moment that she was an
innocent bystander to her boyfriend's suicide and a loving, grieving girlfriend to Conrad himself.
In the terms of the interpersonal deception theory, Michelle attempted all three styles of
manipulation, falsification, concealment, and equivocation. She also pretty much had all three
motive styles, accomplishing a task, establishing/saving a relationship, and protecting an image.
Michelle right off the bat was trying to establish a relationship between Conrad's grieving
family members, and I guess you could say she was trying to re-establish the relationship she had
with her old friends and she tried to guilt them into being in her life again. She was trying to
accomplish the task of keeping herself out of trouble and out of jail and of course this would
include protecting her own image and keeping her name clear. Over time the stress and
overstimulation that many deceivers eventually come to, was too much for her. Leakage came
out left and right. The more evidence the police found the more prepared she had to be with her
lies and the more strategic questions they asked the more she would slip up. When it comes to
truth bias and suspicion, no one really knew Michelle. Not Conrad's family, not the investigators,
and not even her own friends and family. This is a clear example of what happens when a
deceiver's mental state is overwhelmed and they can’t keep up with their own stories and guilt.
Artifact 3- The McMartin Preschool
https://youtu.be/2R21tWs-qCw

So we covered those who don’t mean to lie and deceive and those who do it so much they
fail. But what about someone who lies because they think they are told to. That they are told so
much, eventually they believe it themselves. During the Satanic Panic of the 1980’s many
accusations of satanic ritualism and molestation came to be. One of the largest being at the
McMartin Preschool. The video explains in more detail how this came to be and how it was
discovered to be false. But how do you explain the thousands of kids coming forward with these
accusations? Can we blame these kids for their part in this deception that spread across the
United States? If we really want to pin down where the interpersonal deception theory comes
into play in this situation we have to look at the investigators or the Children’s Institute
International, and we also have to look at where it all started; with the parents.
The term suggestive question doesn’t necessarily come up in the interpersonal deception
theory, however strategic questioning does. So what’s the difference? When someone is
strategically questioning another, it’s to retrieve important and specific information and truths.
Suggestive questioning isn’t much different as you are still questioning for important and
specific information, except instead of looking for the truth you’re looking for the answer that
you want to find. Each question pushes more and more towards that final answer. When a
concerned parent is questioning their children with these uncomfortable and scary questions all
the child wants is for the situation to be over and they know that if they give the answer their
parents are suggesting, they’ll be done. The same things happen with investigators, the kids don’t
want to be grilled by the cops so they just tell them what they think the cops want to hear, they
don’t know any better.
So who is really the deceiver, the kids or the investigators and parents? Overall the
situation can’t really pin a bad guy. Each participant is just trying to do what they think is right.
But using a falsification manipulation style on the children to accomplish the task of
“discovering the truth” or “saving their child” seems to point out that the adults are not only
deceiving their children and others around them but they are ultimately deceiving themselves.
There is also no suspicion or truth bias because over and over again during this time therapists
and law enforcement say to always believe your children. Maybe this is an example of how
much effect deception can really have on the world, that we can really trick others and even
ourselves into believing anything.