Virtual Lies and Digital Truths: A Review of Research on Deception in Online Communication

Virtual Lies and Digital Truths: A Review of Research on Deception in Online Communication reviews previous research that lies at the intersection of deception and computer-mediated communication and examines future directions that this research may be attuned to. As new varieties of online deception attract new researchers to the research effort, particularly within the field of management information systems, reviewing where the research stream originated and where it appears to be heading could be enlightening to those who hope to engage further with the topic. This monograph is organized as follows. Following discussion defining and contextualizing deception within the field of information systems research, the authors review some of the prominent theories that have helped inform studies on the topic. These include seminal theories developed in the fields of communication, IS theory and other relevant disciplines that have helped explain deceptive communication and its detection across computer-based modalities. Key findings and implications from across research disciplines are reviewed. Then, the incidence of deceptive communication across generations of media and technology platforms is discussed. Finally, the monograph concludes with an overview of potentially important research gaps and a call for interested researchers to continue investigating deception in computer-mediated communication.