The Location of Maximum Emotion in Deceptive and Truthful Texts

Meta-analytic evidence suggests that verbal patterns of emotion betray deceit, but it is presently unclear whether the location of maximum emotion in lies and truths matters to reveal deception. We contribute to the deception literature by offering analyses at the sentence level to locate where emotion is most pronounced in deceptive versus truthful texts. Using two public data sets-news articles (Study 1) and hotel reviews (Study 2)-we found that maximum emotion occurs toward the beginning of deceptive texts while maximum emotion appears later for truthful texts. In addition to demonstrating the effect across diverse settings, we used two different measurements for emotion and separated the results by valence, replicating the maximum emotion effect each time. The predictive nature of maximum affect ranged from 54% to 56% across data sets, a rate consistent with most deception studies using 50-50 lie-truth base rates. Implications for future research and deception theory are discussed.

Automated summary

Evidence from meta-analysis suggests that the location of maximum emotion in texts is crucial in revealing deception, with deceitful texts showing peak emotion at the beginning and truthful texts showing it later. This pattern is consistent across different settings and measurements, with predictive accuracy ranging from 54% to 56% across datasets. Future research implications and deception theory are discussed based on these findings.