Hide or Seek? Physiological Responses Reflect Both the Decision and the Attempt to Conceal Information

Nathalie klein Selle, Naama Agari, Gershon Ben-Shakhar

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13 Scopus citations

Abstract

The process of information concealment is more relevant than ever in this day and age. Using a modified concealed-information test (CIT), we aimed to unmask this process by investigating both the decision and the attempt to conceal information in 38 students. The attempt to conceal (vs. reveal) information induced a differential physiological response pattern within subjects—whereas skin conductance increased in both conditions, respiration and heart rate were suppressed only in the conceal condition—confirming the idea that these measures reflect different underlying mechanisms. The decision to conceal (vs. reveal) information induced enhanced anticipatory skin conductance responses. To our knowledge, this is the first study that observed such anticipatory responses in an information-concealment paradigm. Together, these findings imply that our physiological responses reflect, to some degree, both the decision and the attempt to conceal information. In addition to strengthening CIT theory, this knowledge sheds novel light on anticipatory responding in decision making.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1424-1433
Number of pages10
JournalPsychological Science
Volume30
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank Danna Waxman, Mayan Kurulkar, Eli Rosner, and Gal Samuel for their help with the data collection and Laure Scemama for creating the experimental card stimuli. This research was funded by Israel Science Foundation Grant No. 238/15 to G. Ben-Shakhar.

Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4406-376X klein Selle Nathalie Agari Naama Ben-Shakhar Gershon Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Nathalie klein Selle, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Department of Psychology, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel E-mail: nathalie.kleinselle1@mail.huji.ac.il 10 2019 30 10 1424 1433 4 10 2018 18 5 2019 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 Association for Psychological Science The process of information concealment is more relevant than ever in this day and age. Using a modified concealed-information test (CIT), we aimed to unmask this process by investigating both the decision and the attempt to conceal information in 38 students. The attempt to conceal (vs. reveal) information induced a differential physiological response pattern within subjects—whereas skin conductance increased in both conditions, respiration and heart rate were suppressed only in the conceal condition—confirming the idea that these measures reflect different underlying mechanisms. The decision to conceal (vs. reveal) information induced enhanced anticipatory skin conductance responses. To our knowledge, this is the first study that observed such anticipatory responses in an information-concealment paradigm. Together, these findings imply that our physiological responses reflect, to some degree, both the decision and the attempt to conceal information. In addition to strengthening CIT theory, this knowledge sheds novel light on anticipatory responding in decision making. concealed-information test orienting response arousal inhibition autonomic responses anticipatory responding open data open materials preregistered Israel Science Foundation https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003977 238/15 special-property open-data special-property open-materials special-property preregistration We thank Danna Waxman, Mayan Kurulkar, Eli Rosner, and Gal Samuel for their help with the data collection and Laure Scemama for creating the experimental card stimuli. Action Editor Erika E. Forbes served as action editor for this article. Author Contributions All the authors developed the study concept and contributed to the study design. N. klein Selle also helped to acquire the data, performed the statistical analyses, and wrote the manuscript. N. Agari and G. Ben-Shakhar provided critical feedback on the analyses as well as the manuscript. All the authors approved the final manuscript for submission. ORCID iD Nathalie klein Selle https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4406-376X Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared that there were no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship or the publication of this article. Funding This research was funded by Israel Science Foundation Grant No. 238/15 to G. Ben-Shakhar. Supplemental Material Additional supporting information can be found at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0956797619864598 Open Practices All data and materials have been made publicly available via the Open Science Framework and can be accessed at osf.io/mgbck . The design and analysis plans were preregistered at https://aspredicted.org/8vf8s.pdf . The complete Open Practices Disclosure for this article can be found at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0956797619864598 . This article has received the badges for Open Data, Open Materials, and Preregistration. More information about the Open Practices badges can be found at http://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/badges .

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.

Keywords

  • anticipatory responding
  • arousal inhibition
  • autonomic responses
  • concealed-information test
  • open data
  • open materials
  • orienting response
  • preregistered

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