(Salle F08)
Franklin, Amy
Duncan, Susan
University of Chicago, Chicago
Collaborating to deceive : the role of interaction
in the creation of a lie
This paper reports on research investigating the ways in which
speech and gesture function in dyadic interactions when one partner
is deceiving the other. In conversation, interlocutors collaborate
to establish mutually acceptable referring expressions, which represent
entities in a model of the discourse (Clark & Wilkes-Gibbs1986).
However, under deceptive conditions, speakers must manage multiple
discourse models (truth & lie content, and, crucially, what information
is part of shared knowledge). Furthermore, addressees play
a key role in the construction of the deceptive discourse : whether
or not the deceiver can continue (thus succeeding in her deception)
depends on the addressee’s willingness to assert acceptance (ibid.),
and in addition, addressees infl uence structure the lie itself, by suggesting
referent descriptions in both speech and gesture.
Participants, who were friends of long standing, selected one member
of the dyad as storyteller. The storyteller watched a cartoon separately
from the listener. Prior to rejoining the listener and describing
the cartoon, storytellers were given four false details to substitute
for previously viewed cartoon content. During the narration, listeners
contributed to the deception by correcting problems with antecedent
reference, using gesture to sort spatial relations, and by requesting
necessary contextual details omitted by the mentally-taxed deceivers.
This work provides insight into both the maintenance and the
breakdown of discourse coherence when assumptions of cooperation
are violated.
