2. Lying
  3. Detecting Deception
  4. How People Uncover Deception

How Do People Typically Discover Deception by a Husband or Wife, Boyfriend or Girlfriend?

Deception between romantic partners rarely comes to light.

And when it does, it is not because people are good at detecting deception (see catching lovers lying).

Rather most deception gets discovered because someone makes a mistake that is too hard to explain away (see Park, Levine, McCornack, Morrison, and Ferrara).

Deception is typically discovered because:

  • a third party reveals the information (accidentally or not—see this humorous example – parrot talks)
  • people stumble across information by accident (e.g., read an e-mail by mistake, make a surprise visit, etc.).
  • gross inconsistencies come to light (e.g., caller id doesn’t match where partner claims to be, parking tickets contradict partner’s whereabouts, etc.).
  • people take active steps to discover the truth

Have you caught your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend in a lie?

Or have you been caught lying?

How did it happen?

Related Information:

Truth About Deception – back to our home page.