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Chapter 3THEORETIC~L GROC"iDI"iG FOR DECEPTl\'E C(nI~ICNIC\no"iINTRODucnONIn this chapter I will explain that conceptual blending accounts for a person's cognitive capacityto intenelate and blend concepts extracted ftmn his v""t conceptual network of Imow\erlge. I will showthat deception is considered as a mainly vocal and strategic communicative act, an emblematic exampleof adapting behaviour in the management of intetpersonal relationships. I will focus on theories ofdeception and persuasion. I will illusttate that we can apply Interpersonal Deception Theory to exploreaspects of deception in hmnan-eomputer interaction and computer-mediated communication. In thischapter I show that interpersonal deceptive communication is such a complex ""ent it cannot beanalysed by the phenomenological model and therefore needs an Intetpretivist modelPHENOMENOLOGlCAL AND INTERPRETIVIST THEORIESHuman behaviour is extremely complex and not susceptible to the formulation of predictiverules that one can use in the natural sciences. Klopper (1999b) poinrs out that theories of knowledgecan broadly be classified into phenomenologicaI theories and intetprerivist theories. "\ccording toKIopper phenomen01ogical theories are based on the assumption that one primarily has to make adetailed observation of phenomena and systematically describe one's observations in order to gi"e agood account of how things arc and interrelate in nature. Interpretivlst theories assert that humanexistence and the activities, in which humans engage, are more complex than might be initially seem thecase. An intetpretivlst worldview considers all knowledge to be socially constructed from subjecti\'eexperience and inference. Knowledge is given value by individuals or groups of people when it meetstheir needs for a particular situation therefore its meaning and significance can only be understood fromwithin their sociaI context In this chapter I take an interpretivist point of departure to ~'e an accountofcurrent theories ofhow people use deception in their communication with each other.CONSTRUCTIVISM AND INTERPRETIVISM(;ass and Setter (2003: 114-115) state that people attempt to make sense oftheir world by usingconstrucrs. Constructs are perceptual categories (e.g., fat/thin, popular/ unpopular, strong/weak) that weuse when ""aluating everything from professors to textbooks, to music to arguments. Constructs can be34