Sociological analysis of Conditions and Contexts of Deception in Social Interactions

Social cognition provides the ability to read the intentions of others and enables joint action and healthy interaction with others, but sometimes this social cognition is distorted by the use of deception techniques and tricks. Social deception occurs when one of the interaction parties suffers due to a cognitive error and trust in the other parts, and the other people have an unfair advantage. The phenomenon of social deception threatens healthy social interactions at various levels and issues by undermining interpersonal trust due to the dimensions of individual and the effects of social deception.

This study explores the conditions and contexts of deception in social interactions using a qualitative approach. According to the purpose of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 men and women aged 25 years and older in Tehran who had experienced deception live. These individuals were selected through purposive sampling, taking into account the widest possible diversity in terms of age, education, employment status, economic status, marital status, and different regions and themes of deception. Data from this study were analyzed using the thematic analysis method.  

The analysis of the life experience of individuals affected by deception identified the contexts of deception in three categories related to the victim (communication, cognition, and personality) and the conditions and cultural context related to the deceiver. Attention to these conditions can be used to prevent the development of deception in society.

The lived experience analysis identified the subjects of deception, the contexts and reasons of deception in social interactions in three contextual categories focusing on the victim of deception, including communicative, cognitive, and personality, and the cultural reasons and conditions related to the deceiver. The rationalization of deception, the social prescription of deception, the catalysts of deception, the subculture of deception, and the powerlessness of the law are the contexts and reasons that lead some people to use deception in different social interactions and in different subjects to achieve their advantage. The results of this study suggest that deception in society has a continuum that engulfs the victims of deception, and participation in one deception can lead to another deception. Moreover, at the social level, the continuum of deception leads to the reproduction of deception in society. Circumstances that make a social life possible without deception out of the minds of these deceivers and the beneficiaries of deception. A In a society where deception is considered as a part of the social order of that society with all possible justifications, deceivers abuse others as a means to achieve their goals and use any means to achieve their goals. In a society where deception is multiplied and reproduced, members of society who want to move against the tide of success toward deception will undoubtedly either encounter many obstacles or fall prey to the deception of others. The common experience of some degree of deception in everyday life can permeate all stages of life and relationships, and exert deception on others to spread the epidemic of deception.