Turst: Post #6--Trust or Not

To Trust or Not to Trust: We detect deception at about a 54% level—a bit better than flipping a coin. Despite previous research to the contrary, there’s no “golden cue” to detect deception—not smirks, shifty eyes, or sneers—especially in isolation. However, context does matter—configural and situational context. Configural context means that we have to see an array of gestures to properly interpret veracity. Situational context deals with circumstances or with people expressing the gesture. For example, a smile by someone similar to us (gender, race, class) will be considered support, whereas a similar smile by someone in a different social category may not be.