My Right I: Deception Detection and Hemispheric Differences in Self-awareness

Previous research has indicated a relationship between the ability to detect deceit and selfawareness. In this study, two experiments were conducted to further investigate this relationship. Thirty-two (28 females and 4 males) undergraduate students listened to 116 true and false statements with headphones in an attempt to determine which statements contained deception. The participants also completed a variety of self-awareness questionnaires including the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (Raine, 1991) and the Self-Consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975). An additional 11 participants were tested with the statements played in reverse to determine the role of information processing. It was found there was a correlation between self-awareness and deception detection. These data support the hypothesis that self-awareness is related to mental state attribution (Theory of Mind).