Lying and (final) CMS 344K Spring 2017 TTh 12:30-1:45; BMC 2.106

Dr. Joe Cutbirth Ofc. CMA 7.124 [email protected] T 1:45-2:45 & by appt.

Max Baryshevtsev Ofc. CMA 5.160 [email protected] By appointment

Hana Masri Ofc. CMA 7th Floor [email protected] W 1:30-2:30 & by appt.

Katie Bradford Ofc. CMA 7th Floor [email protected] T 11-12 & by appt.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -- Voltaire

A keeps growing and growing until it's as plain as the nose on your face. -- Pinocchio

Lying and deception are widespread phenomena that occur in human communication and in communication behavior in other species. This course explores that activity through a variety of deceptive communication practices, their causes, and their consequences. It focuses on a range of contexts that includes , art, interspecies contact, family and romantic relations, journalism, , and politics. It also considers strategies to detect the occurrence of lying and deception, such as behavioral cues, , and polygraphs.

CMS 344K carries the university’s Ethics and Leadership Flag. Ethics and Leadership courses are designed to equip you with skills that are necessary for making ethical decisions in your adult and professional lives. Therefore, you should expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments involving ethical issues and the process of applying ethical reasoning to real-life situations.

We will meet for lectures that build on readings from a seminal textbook and a supplemental reader that apply communication research to social circumstances that allow lying to persist in a society that claims to value truth as a moral imperative. Regular quizzes will be an incentive for you to attend class and keep up with the scholarly material, which you will use in your own research outside of the class.

Together we will examine ways people attempt to deceive themselves and others. You will learn about communicative processes such as , equivocation, , mimicry and , and you will finish the course better able to think independently, systematically and skeptically after conducting your own projects in this area. Class Environment. We meet for an hour and fifteen minutes each Tuesday and Thursday. Most sessions will be interactive lectures that feature dialog between the instructor and students. We also will have some guest speakers. Class time will be spent on discussions that complement (not summarize or review) materials listed for that date on the Course Calendar. A student who misses three classes for any reason should make an appointment with the professor to discuss his/ her standing in the course as soon as he/ she returns from the third absence.

You will have readings, films and an occasional website to review before class. The instructor will use slides to focus and direct our discussions. Slides and other materials will be available on Canvas before the lecture. There will be a quiz most weeks to encourage you to come prepared for our discussions. The quizzes are not difficult if you review the assigned material beforehand and engage the material during class. If you miss a quiz for any reason, you receive a zero for it. You can't take it earlier or later in the day or week. There are no make-ups for quizzes, and there are no incompletes for this course.

Students with Special Circumstances. We will make accommodations for testing and other course activities for students with special circumstances who have official documentation on file with the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office. If you have that documentation, you should inform the professor as soon as possible, so you can discuss the arrangements prior to the quiz or assignment. To determine whether you are eligible, examine the information provided on the SSD website (http://ddce.utexas.edu/disability/accommodations-and-services/). You will be required to participate in tests and other course activities under normal conditions until we receive notice from SSD to make accommodations.

Academic Standard. Work you submit for this course must be your own original effort. You should not share your written work with fellow students prior to submitting it for your grade. Ideas included in your interview reports that are not your own should be properly attributed. If you are unclear about how to credit a source, see one of the TAs before you submit your work. There are no second chances for intellectual dishonesty. The penalty for fabrication, plagiarism, collusion and other breaches of intellectual integrity will be a course grade of F. The matter will be referred to the Dean of Students, who may impose further penalties including suspension or expulsion from the university.

Credit/No Credit (CR/NC) Grading Option. Students who have selected the CR/NC grading option for this course must achieve a score of six or better on seven quizzes, the midterm and the final AND receive at least a D on all three interview assignments to earn credit for the course. If your combined quiz total is less than 54 OR your fail to earn at least three Ds on the interview assignments, you will not earn credit for this course.

Assignments: Weekly Quizzes 7 of 9 @ 10 ea. = 70 points Midterm and Final Quizzes 2 @ 10 ea. = 20 points Interview Reports 3 @ 20 ea. = 60 points Total = 150 points

Grades: A = 140 (93) - 150 A - = 135 (90) - 139 B + = 130 (87) - 134 B = 125 (83) - 129 B – = 120 (80) - 124 C+ = 115 (77) - 119 C = 110 (73) - 114 C- = 105 (70) - 109 D+ = 100 (67) - 104 D = 95 (63) - 99 D- = 90 (60) - 94 F = 93 or below

Quizzes are an incentive for students to attend class prepared to engage the material. They lay the groundwork for more interactive and interesting dialog. There will be a quiz most Thursdays (nine overall) on material for that week. Material for quizzes will be taken from the readings or other materials listed on the syllabus for those class periods or from information given during the lectures. We will record your score on the best seven weekly quizzes plus the scores for the midterm and final quizzes. There are no makeup quizzes. You may not take them earlier in the day or proctored by a third party. If you miss the midterm or final quiz, you will receive a zero for it. Those scores cannot be dropped. If you miss a midterm or final due to documented emergency, the professor should be notified by email within 48 hours. He will decide based on the circumstances of the documented emergency whether to allow you to make it up with a 10-15-page research paper. All quizzes (weekly quizzes, the midterm and the final quiz) are worth 10 points each. Together, the quizzes are worth 90 points toward the final grade.

Students who know they are going to have a quiz conflict due to university business need to provide the professor with a schedule signed by an administrator, coach or dean that lists the conflicts at least a week before the conflict occurs. The student may want to use one of the two opportunities to drop a weekly quiz, or the professor may assign a paper due on the day the quiz is given. This generally applies to scholarship students who are required to participate in a university-sanctioned event as a condition of a student’s scholarship or enrollment. Most extracurriculiur events (dormitory meetings, intramural sports, Greek-life events, student media assignments, brown bag lunches, etc…) are not considered university business for this situation.

Interview Reports are the individual work students do outside of class. These reports give students an opportunity to apply the scholarly theories and intellectual ideas from the readings and our discussions to real life situations. The assignments are designed to give you experience in social science research through the method of interviewing. You will receive a detailed handout with instructions to guide you through the process for each interview. Interviews must be done in person. You may not conduct them by phone or other mediated communication. You many not email the questions and ask for written responses. You will receive a zero for the assignment if we learn you did either. The deadlines for the three reports are listed on the syllabus calendar. Reports must be posted on Canvas. They will not be accepted in class or by email. We will use Turnitin to ensure that all work is original, not plagiarized. Reports will be penalized 20 percent (4 points) for every 24-hour period they are late. TAs Hana Masri and Katie Bradford will evaluate and grade the Interview Reports. You should follow the handout for academic citation style for footnotes and bibliographical entries in the References section. The reports should be returned to you within two weeks of submission. If you want to discuss your grade with the TA who evaluated your work, we have what’s called a 24/7 rule. You should wait 24 hours then you have up to a week to contact the TA and to meet during her office hours or to make an appointment. Each interview report is worth 20 points. Together the reports are worth 60 points toward your semester grade.

Extra Credit To earn extra credit in this course, you may participate in IRB-approved research studies conducted by faculty and students in the Department of Communication Studies. Participation in studies conducted in any other department – psychology, advertising, human ecology, etc. - will NOT earn you extra credit in this course. You will receive one point of extra credit for every hour of participation and may earn a maximum of three points. Most studies in CMS require less than an hour of participation, and so the credit you earn for these studies will be prorated accordingly (e.g., a 30-minute study will earn you ½ point of extra credit).

The SONA system can be found at https://utexascomm.sona-systems.com/default.aspx If you have not used the CMS Research Participation System and need to register go to: http://commstudies.utexas.edu/sites/commstudies.utexas.edu/files/attachments/Student s-UsingResearchParticipationSystem-2014-6-11.pdf

You will only receive extra credit if documentation of your participation is delivered to TA Max Baryshevtsev by the researcher conducting the study. You should keep track of how many extra credit points you have accrued and make sure the complete information has been forwarded to us. We will not have this information until the very end of the semester and cannot tell you what your total is before then.

Textbooks: Knapp, Mark, et al. (2016). Lying and Deception in Human Interaction, 2nd ed. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt.

McGlone, Matthew and Mark Knapp (2010). The Interplay of Truth and Deception. New York: Routledge.

Films, Videos and Websites:

Reitnam, Jason. (2005). Thank You for Smoking, Room 9 Entertainment.

Smith, Martin and Marcella Gavirina (2009). "The Madoff Affair," Frontline.

Spielberg, S. (2002). Catch Me If You Can, DreamWorks Pictures.

COURSE CALENDAR

Week 1. Jan. 17 Introduction Jan. 19 , Politics and Popular Culture (See Canvas)

Week 2. Jan. 24. Ch. 1. Perspectives on Lying and Deception Jan. 26. McGlone and Knapp, Ch. 1, “Finding the Weasel Word in ‘Literally True” (Jackson). Quiz 1

Week 3. Jan. 31. Ch. 2. Perspectives on Truth Feb. 2. McGlone & Knapp, Ch. 5. “Truth Telling as a Journalistic Imperative” (Lee). Quiz 2

Week 4. Feb. 7 Ch. 3. Ethical Perspectives Feb. 9. Film: Thank You for Smoking. Quiz 3

Week 5. Feb. 14. Ch. 4. Nonhuman Behavior Feb. 16. Ledford, H. (2007). "The Flower of ," Nature, 445, 816-7.

Feb. 17. Interview 1 due at 5 p.m.

Week 6. Feb. 21. Ch. 5. Children as Liars and Targets of Feb. 23. Film: Catch Me if You Can. Quiz 4

Week 7. Feb. 28. Ch. 6. Self Deception March 3. McGlone and Knapp, Ch. 9, "I Read Playboy for the Articles" (Chance & Norton). Quiz 5

Week 8. March 7. Review March 9. Speaker: The Chive / Midterm Quiz

SPRING BREAK

Week 9 March 21. Ch. 7. Performing Lies and Deceit March 23. McGlone and Knapp, Ch. 10, "Lying for Love in the Modern Age” (Toma and Hancock).

March 24. Interview 2 Due at 5 p.m.

Week 10 March 28. Ch. 8. Specialists in Lying and Deception March 30. Frontline (2009). The Madoff Affair (Marcela Giviria & Martin Smith). Quiz 6

Week 11 April 4. Ch. 9. Unassisted Lie Detection April 6. Ch. 10. Assisted Lie Detection. Quiz 7

Week 12 April 11. Ch. 11. Speaking to the Public: Lies and Political Leadership April 13. Guest: Gardner Selby, Politifact. Quiz 8

Week 13 April 18. Ch. 12. Deceptive Writing in the Public Arena April 20. Dabiq (ISIS Magazine)

April 21. Interview 3 Due at 5 p.m.

Week 14 April 25. Ch. 13. Visual Deception in the Public Sphere April 27. McGlone & Knapp, Ch. 6, "The Sin in Sincere," (Lester). Quiz 9

Week 15 May 2. Speaker/ Review May 4. Final Quiz