Speaking of Information Manipulation: a Critical Rejoinder

This essay critically examines two articles addressing deceptive messages. We take exception with the Jacobs, Dawson, and Brashers claim that IMT is inconsistent with Grice, and compare their arguments to those of Grice. The Jacobs et al. data are reanalyzed and shown to be inconsistent with their premise that deception derives solely from erroneous Qyality implicatures. Burgoon, Buller, Guerrero, Ajifi, and Feldman 1­ article describing information management also is addressed. Although the scope of their endeavor is impressive, we believe that their conceptual definitions lack precision and that their proposed set of information dimensions ojfors little practical utility as a means of deception detection. We also believe that their findings do not significantly contribute to our knowledge ofdeception.