Abstract
Police officers frequently work with people of different cultures and those who speak different languages, thus needing to learn cultures (Navarro, 2001). The purpose of this case is to examine the self-perceptions of African-Americans regarding their ability to distinguish deception in interpersonal communication. RQ1: How do African-Americans self-report their ability to detect interpersonal communication deception? RQ2: What behaviors do African-Americans believe are indicators of interpersonal communication deception? The method of study is survey research conducted through SurveyMonkey.com. Participants (n=57) discuss their perceptions of deception in their lives. The results suggest that respondents (80%) believe they are better than others at detecting deception. The literature findings also suggest that African-Americans believe themselves to be more effective at detecting deception within their own ethnic group compared to other ethnic groups. Commensurate with previous deception studies, the current study finds that an array of communication behaviors, believed to be indicative of deceit by other ethnic groups, are also used by African-American respondents.