Behind Bars and Lies: Dark and Bright Personality Traits and Deception Production or Detection in Prisoners and Community Members

This study investigates the relationship between deception production and detection abilities in incarcerated individuals and the general population. Using a modified version of the Deceptive Interactive Task (DeceIT; Wright et al., 2012), 80 prisoners and 60 civilians matched for age and education took on two roles: Sender, where they attempted to convince others of true or false opinions, and Receiver, where they evaluated the truthfulness of others' statements. Study Hypotheses: H1: Based on the study of Wright et al., (2012) we hypothesized that civilians would present a “deception-general” ability, reflected by the moderate correlation between deception production and detection abilities, as well as a pronounced truth bias (Confirmatory Hypothesis 1a). Similar to the study of Semrad et al. (2022) on federal police recruits, we had no grounds to expect a similar association between lie production and lie detection abilities in prisoners, yet we aimed to explore their potentially higher lie bias due to increased prison-specific suspiciousness (Exploratory Hypothesis 1b). On the contrary, we hypothesized that civilians would exhibit a truth bias (Confirmatory Hypothesis 1c), and given the mixed findings in previous studies, we sought to explore the presence of a potential truth bias in prisoners as well (Exploratory Hypothesis 1d). H2: Next, we investigated the relationship between dark personality tendencies and the ability to produce and detect deception in both prisoners and civilians, testing two contrasting possibilities. Based on the findings of both Wright et al. (2015) and Semrad & Scott-Parker (2020) concerning the Dark Triad traits, we expected no consistent association between the Dark Factor and the ability to lie and detect lies, neither in prisoners nor in civilians (Exploratory Hypothesis 2a). Conversely, based on Hurezan et al., (2024) showing higher levels of the Dark Factor and especially of self-reported Deceitfulness in prisoners, we expected a significant positive association between the Dark factor, its themes, and the ability to lie convincingly and to detect the lies produced by others (Exploratory Hypothesis 2b). H3: Regarding the additional individual differences in dark and bright tendencies that we measured in the prison sample, we expected that dark tendencies, such as Psychopathy, Aggression, and Alexithymia would negatively influence the ability to detect lies (Exploratory Hypothesis 3a). Finally, we explored whether protective, bright traits such as low Neuroticism, high Openness to experience, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness, would facilitate or hinder lie production and detection (Exploratory Hypothesis 3b). Results analyzed using Signal Detection Theory revealed a moderate correlation in civilians between the ability to produce convincing lies and truths (d' Sender) and the ability to detect deception (d' Receiver), suggesting a general deception ability. This effect, however, was absent in the incarcerated group. Both groups displayed a notable truth-bias, favoring truthful interpretations over deceptive ones. Additionally, personality traits influenced deception detection. Higher levels of traits such as the Dark Factor (including Deceitfulness), Psychopathy (Interpersonal Manipulation), Physical Aggression, Alexithymia, and favorable attitudes toward lying were associated with lower accuracy in detecting deception. These findings provide new insights into the psychological and behavioral dynamics of deception in different populations.