Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 448
Suspicion changes the behavior it judges
Interpersonal Deception Theory treats deception as an adaptive exchange in which sender strategy, receiver suspicion, relationship, and feedback alter the behavior being judged
Premise
Deception in conversation is not a fixed package of behavioral cues waiting to be decoded. Interpersonal Deception Theory (IDT) treats it as an adaptive interaction. A sender manages information and credibility while monitoring the receiver; the receiver evaluates the account, displays belief or suspicion, asks questions, and thereby changes what the sender does next.
For executives, investigators, and compliance leaders, the implication is procedural. A pause, gaze shift, qualified phrase, or change in detail cannot be interpreted independently of the exchange that produced it. Suspicion itself can change behavior. The useful question is not “Which tell proves deception?” but “What claim now requires verification?”
What the model is: Interpersonal Deception Theory in Knowledge →
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What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.
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