Edited by Timothy R. Levine, PhD, Professor of Communication and Media at South Korea’s Korean University, “[…] Encyclopedia of Deception examines lying from multiple perspectives drawn from the disciplines of social psychology, sociology, history, business, political science, cultural anthropology, moral philosophy, theology, law, family studies, evolutionary biology, philosophy, and more […]” (About This Encyclopedia). More information about Levine is available in the About the Editor section of the Front Matter main category.
The online version of the encyclopedia, as here reviewed, contains the same content available in the two volume print version. The online content is arranged into four main tabs across the top of the website: Entries A-Z, Subject Index, Reader’s Guide, and Front/Back Matter.
The bulk of the content is contained in the 365 A-Z entries, which really only run through W, as there are no entries for X-Z. Each entry is signed by the author(s) name and institution and range from discussions of individuals (e.g. individually named US presidents, Santa Claus, etc.) and topics (e.g. Jackalope, primates, etc.), to events (e.g. Civil War, World War II, etc.) and entities (e.g. Children’s Sports Teams, Federal Trade Commission, etc.). The content for each entry is divided into subheadings and some entries include photographs and/or other graphical materials. Each entry has been assigned its own DOI and includes hyperlinked see references to other related entries. There is also a further readings section for each entry consisting of books, articles and/or websites, with the type of materials varying by entry. Corresponding print book pages are also provided.
Navigation to the next and previous entries is available with each entry along with searching within the entry. To go back to the A-Z listing requires clicking on the Encyclopedia Info Page link, located at the top right-hand side of the web page and easily missed.
The Subject Index is also arranged in A-Z order and hyperlinks to the entry’s print page number. The Reader’s Guide is divided into 12 main categories:
Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations;
Animals and Nature;
Communication;
Deception and Different Cultures;
Entertainment, Media, and Sports;
Ethics, Morality and Religion;
Law, Business and Academia;
Military;
Politics and Government;
Psychology: Clinical and Developmental;
Psychology: Social, Legal and Forensic; and
Social History: Lies in History, Famous Liars and Hoaxes.
Each of these main categories opens up to hyperlinked A-Z entries relevant to that topic.
The Front Matter is further subdivided into Copyright, List of Articles (another version of the hyperlinked A-Z entries listing), List of Contributors (alphabetically arranged), introduction authored by the editor and chronology of events (3 BCE-2013). Back Matter includes a glossary of terms, a Resource Guide (six pages of books, journals, websites, etc.), and Photo Credits. There is also an Appendix consisting of a reprint of a January 2010 article entitled “The Prevalence of Lying in America: Three Studies of Self-Reported Lies” authored by Kim B. Serota, Timothy R. Levine and Franklin J. Boster, when all three were in the Department of Communications at Michigan State University. This article was originally published in Human Communication Research Journal of the International Communication Association and includes data and references.
At the top of each entry is a menu featuring options to print, share via a variety of social media, e-mail, change text size and add to my lists. The Export Citation function provides previewing in APA, Harvard, MLA and Chicago citation styles, with exporting to EndNote, Reference Manager, ProCite, RefWorks, BibTeX, Zotero and Medlars. As is the case in using any online citation generator, citations should be double-checked for accuracy.
Although no information is given regarding the criteria for inclusion, the encyclopedia provides content on a wide range of topics pertaining to historical and current examples of deception. As deception is an often discussed topic in today’s society, the Encyclopedia of Deception is a timely addition to the conversation.
