Trusting people make better lie detectors

Trust is a big word in economic development... African societies are often said to be low in trust, and this explains their slow economic development.  Low trust may have been a consequence of slave raiding.  I'd love to replicate this paper in African village settings.... and I'd love to see whether reading lots of fiction makes you more trusting.

People high in trust were more accurate at detecting the liars -- the more people showed trust in others, the more able they were to distinguish a lie from the truth. The more faith in their fellow humans they had, the more they wanted to hire the honest interviewees and to avoid the lying ones. Contrary to the stereotype, people who were low in trust were more willing to hire liars and they were also less likely to be aware that they were liars. "Although people seem to believe that low trusters are better lie detectors and less gullible than high trusters, these results suggest that the reverse is true," write co-authors Nancy Carter and Mark Weber of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. "High trusters were better lie detectors than were low trusters; they also formed more appropriate impressions and hiring intentions. "People who trust others are not pie-in-the-sky Pollyannas, their interpersonal accuracy may make them particularly good at hiring, recruitment, and identifying good friends and worthy business partners."

N. L. Carter, J. Mark Weber. Not Pollyannas: Higher Generalized Trust Predicts Lie Detection Ability. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 2010; 1 (3): 274 DOI: 10.1177/1948550609360261