[EN]Meta-analyses reveal that behavioral differences between liars and truth tellers are small. To facilitate lie detection,
researchers are currently developing interviewing approaches to increase these differences. Some of these
approaches assume that lying is cognitively more difficult than truth telling; however, they are not based on specific
cognitive theories of lie production, which are rare. Here we examined one existing theory,Walczyk et al.'s
(2014) Activation-Decision-Construction-Action Theory (ADCAT). Wetested the Decision component. According to
ADCAT, people decidewhether to lie or tell the truth as if they were using a specificmathematical formula to calculate
the motivation to lie from (a) the probability of a number of outcomes derived from lying vs. telling the
truth, and (b) the costs/benefits associated with each outcome. In this study, participants read several hypothetical
scenarios and indicatedwhether theywould lie or tell the truth in each scenario (Questionnaire 1).Next, they
answered several questions about the consequences of lying vs. telling the truth in each scenario, and rated the
probability and valence of each consequence (Questionnaire 2). Significant associations were found between the
participants' dichotomous decision to lie/tell the truth in Questionnaire 1 and their motivation to lie scores calculated
fromthe Questionnaire 2 data. However, interestingly,whereas the expected consequences of truth telling
were associated with the decision to lie vs. tell the truth, the expected consequences of lying were not.
Suggestions are made to refine ADCAT,which can be a useful theoretical framework to guide deception research.
