The present work documents our investigation of proximal (i.e., immediate) effects of existential threat on the process of lie detection. Specifically, we hypothesized that lie detection accuracy will be higher in a mortality salience (MS) condition compared with the control condition. In two lab-based studies (N = 120; N = 109) and one internet study (N = 1294), we did not find any evidence for this hypothesis, that is, MS effects on lie detection accuracy were constantly not significant. However, these null findings should not be overstated. Instead, the present contribution aims to reveal the theoretical and methodological challenges in properly testing proximal MS effects on lie detection accuracy. First, we make transparent that our theoretical assumptions regarding the underlying mechanisms changed during the research process from MS-induced vigilance (Studies 1 and 2) to MS-induced negative affect (Study 3) and remain speculative. Moreover, we show how and why we adapted the operationalization from study to study to optimize adequate testing of the idea. In sum, this work aims to be informative for conducting future research rather than to provide conclusive evidence against or in favor of the investigated idea.

目前的工作记录了我们对存在威胁对测谎过程的近端（即直接）影响的调查。具体来说，我们假设与控制条件相比，死亡率显着性 (MS) 条件下的测谎精度会更高。在两项基于实验室的研究（N  = 120；N  = 109）和一项互联网研究（N = 1294），我们没有找到任何证据证明这一假设，即 MS 对测谎精度的影响始终不显着。然而，这些无效的发现不应被夸大。相反，目前的贡献旨在揭示正确测试近端 MS 对测谎准确性的影响的理论和方法挑战。首先，我们清楚地表明，我们关于潜在机制的理论假设在研究过程中从 MS 引起的警惕（研究 1 和 2）到 MS 引起的负面影响（研究 3）发生了变化，并且仍然是推测性的。此外，我们展示了我们如何以及为什么调整不同研究的操作化以优化对该想法的充分测试。总共，