Does willingness affect the N2-P3 effect of deceptive and honest responses?

Abstract

The present investigation examined the effect of willingness on honest and deceptive responses. Event-related potentials were recorded while participants made deceptive and honest response that were either self-determined or forced. Results showed that the reaction time was faster in response to old words compared to new words and honest responses were faster than deceptive responses. In addition, the P300 of honest responses was significantly more positive than deceptive responses and a significant main effect of willingness indicated that the P300 amplitude, elicited by self-determined responses, was more positive than forced responses. Moreover, the conflict detection N2 component was significantly more negative-going in the lying versus honest responses at Cz. The main effect of willingness also revealed that the forced response evoked a more negative N2 than the self-determined response. These results suggested that deception may involve conflict detection and that there are significant differences in neurological processing between forced deception and self-determined deception. © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.