Differential Closeness: The Moderating Role of Social Distance in Interpersonal Deception

Based on Construal Level Theory, the present research systematically examines the influence of social distance on interpersonal deception and its variations across different contexts. In Study 1a, a coin-guessing task was employed, revealing that participants lied significantly more to friends than to strangers, particularly in self-harming other-benefiting deception scenarios. To enhance ecological validity, Study 1b adopted a scenario-based storytelling approach for further verification. Results indicated that in both self-harming other-benefiting and mutual-benefit win–win contexts, deception tendency toward friends was significantly higher than toward strangers; conversely, in other-harming self-benefiting contexts, deception tendency toward strangers was significantly higher than toward friends. Utilizing virtual reality technology, Study 2 compared real-world and online settings within a unified platform. Findings demonstrated that online environments generally elevated deception levels, with the highest degree of deception directed toward AI in online contexts, revealing a significant “context × target” interaction effect.