Linguistic Behavior and Deceptive Strategies in Mafia Game in the Iranian Context

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Literature and Humanities, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

2 Associate professor of Linguistics, Department of Foreign Language Teaching, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

3 Professor of Linguistics, Department of Foreign Language Teaching, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

Abstract

This study explores linguistic patterns in social deception within the mafia game among the Iranian community. It adopts interpersonal deception theory (IDT) as its theoretical foundation, which posits that language use in deceptive contexts differs from normal language patterns, and investigates the validity of this theory in the context of mafia games. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were done on 70 professional mafia players, homogeneous in age and social group. The result revealed significant correlations between linguistic features and deceptive and non-deceptive roles, such as the number of verbs used by players and different verb forms, such as the subjunctive form, past continuous, and negative commands. Other strategies employed by mafia players are introduced as avoiding leadership roles, shifting the blame, the Serial Position Effect, and gaslighting. These findings contribute to understanding deception and language in social interactions, facilitating further research on the linguistic manifestations of deception in social deduction games.

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Main Subjects

References

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Linguistic Studies: Theory and Practice

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 24 September 2025

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  • Receive Date: 29 May 2025
  • Revise Date: 23 September 2025
  • Accept Date: 24 September 2025

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