Abstract

The ample body of research in deception detection indicates that the average person cannot detect deception better than chance. By the same token, web contract issuers are introducing clauses that are compromising the privacy of web users and are, in some instances, legally binding. The purpose of this paper is bifold: first, to apply the body of research that exists in deception detection to web-based contracts, and second, to gain knowledge of how people can learn to identify deception on such contracts. In this experiment, users are primed of the possibility of deception by the means of a warning screen that is displayed right before the clauses of a contract are presented. The results show that priming users positively influence perceived cognitive effort and perceived ambiguity, this in turn have an effect on subjects to spend more time reviewing clauses which ultimately trigger a better detection rate of deceptive clauses.

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