Book review: Inka Salovaara-Moring (ed.), Manufacturing Europe: Spaces of Democracy, Diversity and Communication (original) (raw)

Discourse & Communication, 2012

Abstract

notions of vanity and self-deception, Martin argues that despite the perceived value of truthfulness, those who are seemingly the most sincere may also be the most selfdeceived and, therefore, the most hypocritical. In ‘Accounts as Social Loopholes: Reconciling Contradictions between Culture and Conduct’ (Ch. 8), Shulman examines accounts people tell to legitimize their inappropriate behaviors and identifies four social loopholes: fading into commonality (e.g. deviance is expected), loss of personal control (e.g. deviance is biological), protection (e.g. lying protects others), and no alternative (e.g. acting under duress). Shulman argues that loopholes allow actors to ignore negative consequences of unacceptable behaviors. Similarly, in ‘“I Read Playboy for the Articles”: Justifying and Rationalizing Questionable Preferences’ (Ch. 9), Chance and Norton investigate strategies for coping with questionable behavior, finding that people justify their actions, remain unaware of the reasons for their own behavior, forget they decided to partake in questionable activities, or stay away from the behavior altogether. These strategies help an actor avoid feeling like an ‘unethical or immoral individual’ (p. 145), but the consequences may sacrifice truth for personal happiness. In ‘Lying for Love in the Modern Age: Deception in Online Dating’ (Ch. 10), Toma and Hancock examine the belief that online dating is rife with deception. In their revealing study, they find that daters are least likely to lie about ‘relationship deal-breakers’ (e.g. marital status) (p. 162); however, men are more likely to falsify their height, education, and occupation, and women are more likely to falsify their weight – features that are supposedly attractive to the opposite sex. Finally, Sternglanz’s ‘Exoneration of Serious Wrongdoing via Confession to a Lesser Offense’ (Ch. 11) presents three interesting studies on appearances of guilt and innocence. Sternglanz finds that when retelling an accusation of wrongdoing, friends appear less guilty than strangers, men appear more innocent when offering no defense against the accusation, and women lessen their appearance of guilt by admitting to a non-related lesser offense. Admitting to a related lesser offense lowers all participants’ levels of apparent guilt – a finding that should be further researched to aid criminal justice professionals. Overall, this is an excellent volume, but one note about generalizability must be made: the studies were frequently conducted in inauthentic settings and/or included low participant numbers. Thus, results must be interpreted within these constraints. However, the goal of presenting truth and deception as non-dichotomous constructs is highly successful; as such, scholars across disciplines will find valuable research upon which to build in this original compilation.

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