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Category: Project

Description: Previous studies have shown that the hand-over-heart gesture is related to being more honest (e.g., Parzuchowski & Wojciszke, 2014; Parzuchowski, Szymkow, Baryla, & Wojciszke, 2014, Parzuchowski, Białobrzeska, Osowiecka, Frankowska, & Szymków, in press). Self-centred lies are substantially different to other-oriented (white) lies (e.g., Cantarero & Van Tilburg, 2014). The latter are perceived as more ethical than rough truthtelling (Levine & Schweitzer, 2014). Our aim is to test whether the hand-over-heart gesture will promote being more honest to posing a control gesture (hand over shoulder) when in a situation where one can use a white lie. We hypothesize that though other-oriented lies are different to self-centred lies, people should still behave in a more honest way while posing the hand-over-heart gesture when in a situation where they can tell a white lie or a rough truth. We think that the hand-over-heart gesture promotes honesty and that its’ influence on behavior should be expressed also in case of other-oriented white lies. Our study will be preceded with a pilot study, where we will independently of the main study ask different participants to evaluate a set of 30 artworks (photos). We will choose four photos for the main study. We want to choose two photos equally assessed as the least attractive and two photos that will be significantly more attractive than the two least attractive. The photos will be used in the main study where participants will be confronted with a situation where they are asked to evaluate an unattractive photo face-to-face to the alleged author of that photo, adapting Bell and DePaulo (1996) procedure.