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People high in trust are more accurate at detecting the liars according to a study in the current Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The research was done by having participants watch taped job interviews of MBA students. Half of the interviewees were honest and the other half told lies to appear attractive for the job.

Several days before the participants watched the tapes, they answered a questionnaire which measures their trust in other people. Then they watched the videos and rated the truthfulness of the interviewees.

The result showed that the more people showed trust in others, the more able they were to distinguish a lie from the truth. The lower the trust they have for other people, the more they are likely to hire liars and they were also less likely to be aware that they were liars.

“Although people seem to believe that low trusters are better lie detectors and less gullible than high trusters, these results suggest that the reverse is true,” write co-authors Nancy Carter and Mark Weber of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. “High trusters were better lie detectors than were low trusters; they also formed more appropriate impressions and hiring intentions.