Wojciechowski, J. , Dryll, E. & Rudzińska-Wojciechowska, J.
Faculty of Psychology University of Warsaw
Lying is a fact of everyday life - people deceive strangers as well as their relatives and friends. However, not everyone lies with the same frequency and for the same reason. To address the issue the first non-self-descriptive Polish test measuring a tendency to lie was created. It considers various types of lies: from altruistic to manipulative or destructive ones. The test consists of descriptions of various social interactions and three reactions to them: telling the truth, lying or avoidance. The subjects are asked to indicate the probability of each reaction on a 1 to 4 scale. The poster depicts stages of the test construction. Firstly, over 50 items were created and examined by the judges. According to their evaluation 25 scenes were chosen. Then the test was administered to the sample of 90 undergraduates. The analyses indicated high reliability of the test scales (Cronbach’s α equaled 0.87 for the lie scale, 0.829 for the truth, and 0.77 for the avoidance). After the factor analysis the number of the items was further reduced. Ongoing research aims at assessing a personal tendency to lie and personality inventory scores and at validating the test in real-life situations.