Through the fusion of interpersonal communication research and media studies scholarship, this study draws connections between the influence and implications of lying on familial relationships and mediated representations of the American family. This research examines interpersonal communication through the representations of the American family on Disney-owned situation comedies. These representations are analyzed through past deception research and typologies on lying to determine the motivation for lying. Across the sample of 84 episodes, 589 lies were recorded, or an average of 7 lies per episode. After examining the motivation for verbal deception, nearly half of the lies told were for self-preservation motives. The findings of this study uncover two additional categories of the motivation for lying: self-serving lies and punishment by lying that warrant further investigation. This study revealed the necessity of ongoing research to develop a typology for the motivation for lying, particularly when analyzing the depictions of the family in mediated examples.
Key words: Lying; Deception; Family; Sitcoms; Typology
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