Sadder and Less Gullible?—Investigating Depressive Realism Effects in Judgments of Veracity

Abstract

Introduction: Depressive realism literature suggests that depressed individuals’ negative self-view is correlated with less self-serving positivity bias. Also, research suggests some social cognitive advantages for individuals with subclinical levels of depression (dysphoria), especially in identifying negative emotions. This study tested the hypothesis that individuals with dysphoric symptoms show less of a truth bias and are more accurate at detecting deception. Moreover, this effect was expected to be stronger in positive statements (I like) than in negative (I dislike) statements. Finally, a lower judgment confidence and a more accurate assessment of their lie detection ability were expected to be found in individuals with dysphoric symptoms. Methods: Two hundred-sixty-nine participants judged the veracity of 24 video statements. Analyses tested the hypotheses with three different measures of depression: the IPIP-240 Depression Subscale, the PHQ-9, and the DESC-I. Results: In contrast to the assumptions, results found no evidence that individuals with dysphoric symptoms were better at identifying false and true messages in general. While higher scores of the DESC-I were negatively correlated with accuracy in lie detection, the IPIP-240 and the PHQ-9 were found to be not significantly correlated with lie detection accuracy. While for like statements individuals with dysphoric symptoms and individuals without (measured with the DESC-I) were not different in accuracy, individuals with dysphoric symptoms had lower accuracy scores in dislike statements than individuals without. Moreover, the PHQ-9 found lower measures of judgment confidence in individuals with dysphoric symptoms compared to individuals without, while the other depression measurements showed no significant differences. Furthermore, no evidence for a more accurate assessment of lie detection ability in individuals with dysphoric symptoms was found. Discussion: Results and directions for future research are discussed.