Evaluation of prosocial deception from the observer’s perspective

Comparing fabrication and concealment

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of deception strategy (fabrication and concealment), seriousness of situations (not serious versus serious), and relational closeness (friend versus acquaintance) on evaluations of prosocial deception from the observer’s perspective. The participants (N = 154) read scenarios about situations in which telling the truth was harmful, and evaluated the morality and acceptability of the statements (i.e., fabrication, concealment, and truth). Results indicated that fabrications were evaluated to be more moral than concealments and truth. Furthermore, fabrications were evaluated to be more acceptable than concealments. These results suggest that people generally perceive prosocial fabrications, albeit deception, to be favorable for interpersonal relationships.