Making it Hard to Lie: Cultural Determinants of Media Choice for Deception

In today's business environment, deception is commonplace. In hiring situations, successful deception by job candidates can lead to a poor fit between the candidate's abilities and the requirements of the job, and this can lead to poor performance. This study seeks to inhibit successful deception by job candidates by suggesting that managers limit communication with job applicants to the media that the applicant is least comfortable using for deception. In today's multicultural business environment, job applicants can come from a variety of cultural backgrounds. Taking this into account, the current study seeks to predict media choice for deception based on a subject's espoused national culture. A scenario-based media choice task was given to subjects in the United States and China, and the results indicate that espoused collectivism, power distance and masculinity influence media choice. Implications for research and practitioners are discussed.