Intentional Deception Research Articles

Balance Sheet Outlier Detection Using a Graph Similarity Algorithm

Graph similarity measurement has been used in many applications, such as computational biology, text mining, pattern recognition, and computer vision. In this paper, we apply similarity measurement on graphs to measure structural differences in financial statements. Unconventional financial statement structures may potentially reveal deceptive intention of hiding certain information while making technically correct financial statements. Furthermore, unconventional financial statements may also lead to investment opportunities if legitimacy is not questioned. We construct an algorithm based on the metric of string edit distance as an approximation of graph similarity, and apply the Levenshtein algorithm with modified string edit costs to measure string edit distance. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this algorithm in capturing the sensitive changes of balance sheet structures by applying the algorithm in two experiments. The first experiment shows the algorithm is sensitive to all three basic edits (namely deletion, insertion and substitution) on a particular balance sheet, and the second experiment shows more than 90% clustering accuracy on real balance sheets.

Vision of the unseen

Digital images are everywhere—from our cell phones to the pages of our online news sites. How we choose to use digital image processing raises a surprising host of legal and ethical questions that we must address. What are the ramifications of hiding data within an innocent image? Is this an intentional security practice when used legitimately, or intentional deception? Is tampering with an image appropriate in cases where the image might affect public behavior? Does an image represent a crime, or is it simply a representation of a scene that has never existed? Before action can even be taken on the basis of a questionable image, we must detect something about the image itself. Investigators from a diverse set of fields require the best possible tools to tackle the challenges presented by the malicious use of today's digital image processing techniques. In this survey, we introduce the emerging field of digital image forensics, including the main topic areas of source camera identification, forgery detection, and steganalysis. In source camera identification, we seek to identify the particular model of a camera, or the exact camera, that produced an image. Forgery detection's goal is to establish the authenticity of an image, or to expose any potential tampering the image might have undergone. With steganalysis, the detection of hidden data within an image is performed, with a possible attempt to recover any detected data. Each of these components of digital image forensics is described in detail, along with a critical analysis of the state of the art, and recommendations for the direction of future research.

From Reaction to Preemption: Psychophysiological and Behavioral Detection of Deceptive Intention

PsychophysiologyVolume 48, Issue s1 p. S9-S10 From Reaction to Preemption: Psychophysiological and Behavioral Detection of Deceptive Intention First published: 27 September 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01246.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume48, Issues1Special Issue: Society for Psychophysiological Research Abstracts for the Fifty-First Annual Meeting Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel, Boston Massachusetts September 14–18, 2011September 2011Pages S9-S10 RelatedInformation

“I know you can hear me”: Neural correlates of feigned hearing loss

In the assessment of human hearing, it is often important to determine whether hearing loss is organic or nonorganic in nature. Nonorganic, or functional, hearing loss is often associated with deceptive intention on the part of the listener. Over the past decade, functional neuroimaging has been used to study the neural correlates of deception, and studies have consistently highlighted the contribution of the prefrontal cortex in such behaviors. Can patterns of brain activity be similarly used to detect when an individual is feigning a hearing loss? To answer this question, 15 adult participants were requested to respond to pure tones and simple words correctly, incorrectly, randomly, or with the intent to feign a hearing loss. As predicted, more activity was observed in the prefrontal cortices (as measured by functional magnetic resonance imaging), and delayed behavioral reaction times were noted, when the participants feigned a hearing loss or responded randomly versus when they responded correctly or incorrectly. The results suggest that cortical imaging techniques could play a role in identifying individuals who are feigning hearing loss.

A comparison between lying about intentions and past activities: Verbal cues and detection accuracy

In the present two experiments, we compared lying about intentions and past activities. In Experiment 1, truth tellers and liars left a building to collect a package from a specified location and deliver it somewhere else. They were interviewed about their intentions before leaving the building and about their activities after having completed the mission. Based on the concepts ‘cognitive load’, ‘episodic future thought’ (EFT), ‘avoidance strategies’ and ‘impression management’ we expected the recall of truthful intentions and past activities to be more plausible and detailed than descriptions of deceptive intentions and past activities. Participants in Experiment 2 read transcripts of these interviews. Although Experiment 1 revealed more cues to deceit in the past activities interviews (plausibility and detail) than in the intentions interviews (plausibility), participants in Experiment 2 were best at distinguishing between true and false intent.

It’s All on Sale: Marketing Ethics and the Perpetually Fooled

Discussion of marketing deception has mostly focused on two main areas: first are cases that involve the intentional deception of people who tend to have compromised intelligence, such as children or the elderly, and second are cases that involve intentional falsehoods or the withholding of vital information, such as Madoff’s exploits. This article will differ from most in the field by examining marketing practices that are generally truthful, but deceive almost everyone. These practices do not fool just small select groups, but are fooling those usually assumed to be rational. For example, we love “free” merchandise so much that we are willing to irrationally settle for less to get the free product. Behavioral economists and psychologists are proving that, as Dan Ariely puts it, most all of us are “Predictably Irrational.” Is it wrong for marketers to take advantage of the mass’s foibles as it is wrong to take advantage of children? The article will look at some of the behavioral economists’ data, how that data affects the rational and ignorant person standards of marketing, and suggest the reflective rational person standard as a way to morally evaluate marketing techniques given this new data.

The evolution and psychology of self-deception

In this article we argue that self-deception evolved to facilitate interpersonal deception by allowing people to avoid the cues to conscious deception that might reveal deceptive intent. Self-deception has two additional advantages: It eliminates the costly cognitive load that is typically associated with deceiving, and it can minimize retribution if the deception is discovered. Beyond its role in specific acts of deception, self-deceptive self-enhancement also allows people to display more confidence than is warranted, which has a host of social advantages. The question then arises of how the self can be both deceiver and deceived. We propose that this is achieved through dissociations of mental processes, including conscious versus unconscious memories, conscious versus unconscious attitudes, and automatic versus controlled processes. Given the variety of methods for deceiving others, it should come as no surprise that self-deception manifests itself in a number of different psychological processes, and we discuss various types of self-deception. We then discuss the interpersonal versus intrapersonal nature of self-deception before considering the levels of consciousness at which the self can be deceived. Finally, we contrast our evolutionary approach to self-deception with current theories and debates in psychology and consider some of the costs associated with self-deception.

A hierarchical Naïve Bayes model for approximate identity matching

Organizations often manage identity information for their customers, vendors, and employees. Identity management is critical to various organizational practices ranging from customer relationship management to crime investigation. The task of searching for a specific identity is difficult because disparate identity information may exist due to the issues related to unintentional errors and intentional deception. In this paper we propose a hierarchical Naïve Bayes model that improves existing identity matching techniques in terms of searching effectiveness. Experiments show that our proposed model performs significantly better than the exact-match based matching technique. With 50% training instances labeled, the proposed semi-supervised learning achieves a performance comparable to the fully supervised record comparison algorithm. The semi-supervised learning greatly reduces the efforts of manually labeling training instances without significant performance degradation.

Persistence of Belief Change in the Face of Deception: The Effect of Factual Stories Revealed to Be False

Readers typically respond with anger and derogation when they discover that an author has engaged in intentional deception (representing a false story as true). Does this negative response to the author also cause individuals to correct beliefs that may have been changed by the discredited story? In this experiment (N = 160), the alleged truth status of a narrative was manipulated. In one condition, the narrative was presented as fictional (a socially accepted form of untruth). The remaining three conditions initially presented the story as factual. Participants in two of these conditions were informed after reading the story that it was inaccurate due to a) accidental error or b) intentional deception. The story changed attitudes from a no-story control in all conditions. Although readers derogated a deceptive author, they did not correct their attitudes even in the intentional and accidental error conditions. A measure of the parts of the story that the participants rejected (false note circling), suggests that participants were motivated to correct for inaccuracies, but were not able to do so effectively.

The Importance of Validating the Duration of Fishing Trips: Are Harvest Rates from On‐Site Recreational Fishing Surveys Unbiased?

AbstractHarvest rates are often used as indicators of fishing quality and in the estimation of total harvest in some on‐site survey designs. The unbiased estimation of harvest and fishing effort is critical for calculating accurate harvest rates. On‐site survey designs allow survey clerks to validate harvest data directly. This harvest validation assumes that the level of intentional deception by fishers is relatively small. Therefore, validating angler‐generated estimates of trip duration is important because this can provide evidence that harvest rates and other variables derived from effort data are also unbiased. Also, one can partition effort and harvest within trips to calculate directed harvest rates for different target species or species groups, knowing that the angler‐generated estimates of total trip length are not contributing systematically to any bias in the directed harvest rates. We examined the accuracy of trip duration estimates reported by trailer boat fishers in the marine waters of New South Wales, Australia. Comparing these angler‐generated estimates with observed records of actual trip duration demonstrated that the angler‐generated estimates were empirically unbiased both for estimates in terms of party‐hours and those in terms of angler‐hours. These findings have several implications for the interpretation and analysis of survey results. We therefore recommend that angler‐generated estimates of trip duration be validated for different recreational fisheries; moreover, reliable reference points should be incorporated into all interview protocols because they can minimize the bias in self‐reported estimates of fishing effort. The validation of trip duration and harvest rate data are vital for convincing fisheries managers and stakeholders that surveys can provide reliable information about a fishery.

Decreased respiratory sinus arrhythmia in individuals with deceptive intent

In detecting deception, the Cognitive Load hypothesis states that lying requires more cognitive resources compared to truth telling. Further, increases in cognitive load are predicted to decrease respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). We evaluated the impact of cognitive tasks and the intent to deceive on RSA in 40 male, native Arabic-speaking participants quasi-randomized into truthful (n=14) or deceptive (n=26) groups. Participants donned an ambulatory physiologic recording device and completed cognitive testing after receiving translated instructions about their role in an impending mock crime. The results show that a decrease in RSA recorded during the cognitive testing was greater in individuals who were about to commit a deceptive act.

Retraction

RETRACTIONRetractionN. E. Brooks, M. D. Schuenke, and R. S. HikidaN. E. Brooks, M. D. Schuenke, and R. S. HikidaPublished Online:01 Dec 2009https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00131.2009-retr.2009Retracted articleMoreSectionsPDF (63 KB)Download PDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesGet permissionsTrack citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInEmail Brooks NE, Schuenke MD, Hikida RS. Aging attenuates muscle responsiveness to creatine supplementation, but not overload, in rat plantaris muscles. J Appl Physiol (First published May 14, 2009). doi: 10.1152/japplphysiol.00131.2009—It is with sincere regret that Brooks et al. report the retraction of this manuscript. Some data were inaccurately duplicated control animal data from a previous manuscript. In the first manuscript, data were reported exactly as they were collected for CSA and myonuclear domain size. In the latter manuscript, statistical outliers were removed, resulting in data disagreement between the manuscripts. We inadvertently neglected to mention the outlier removal. Upon being questioned on this issue by APS, we returned the outlying data to the manuscript. At that point, some of our conclusions were no longer supported. In addition, reporting of a subset of data (young and old controls) for body weight, muscle weight, muscle-to-body weight ratio, and fiber type distribution in the Journal of Applied Physiology was not fully acknowledged. At the request of APS, we are dutifully retracting the paper.We apologize to the American Physiological Society for the inconvenience. We hold the Journal of Applied Physiology in high regard and assure you these errors were not intentional or of deceptive intent. We further apologize to our colleagues for any difficulties caused by the publication of this paper.This article has no references to display. Previous Back to Top Next FiguresReferencesRelatedInformationRelated articlesRetraction 01 Dec 2009Journal of Applied Physiology More from this issue > Volume 107Issue 6December 2009Pages 1989-1989 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2009 the American Physiological Societyhttps://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.00131.2009-retr.2009PubMed19443749History Published online 1 December 2009 Published in print 1 December 2009 Metrics Downloaded 60 times

An examination of motor and perceptual contributions to the recognition of deception from others’ actions

Most empirical studies thus far have confounded motor and perceptual experience when examining their contributions to the recognition of deceptive and non-deceptive intentions from another person’s movements. In the present study, we manipulated viewing perspective as an additional demarcation to examine the involvement of motor and perceptual experience in detecting deceptive intentions. Expert handball players ( N = 26), expert handball goalkeepers ( N = 19), and a group of novices ( N = 20) were required to indicate whether a penalty-taker produced a true or a fake shot. The clips were shown from a front view (i.e., a goalkeeper’s customary viewing perspective) and a (more neutral) side view, and ended one frame before the ball would be released from the hand. Results indicated that expert players and goalkeepers outperformed novices in detecting deceptive intentions, but there were no differences between field players and goalkeepers. Recognition of deceptive actions was more accurate from the goalkeeper’s front view than from the side view. We conclude that neither the degree of motor experience nor the degree of perceptual experience can, in themselves, account for explaining successful recognition of deceptive actions.

A truth that’s told with bad intent: An ERP study of deception

Human social cognition critically relies on the ability to deceive others. However, the cognitive and neural underpinnings of deception are still poorly understood. Why does lying place increased demands on cognitive control? The present study investigated whether cognitive control processes during deception are recruited due to the need to inhibit a tendency to state the truth, or reflect deceptive intent more generally. We engaged participants in a face-to-face interaction game and examined event-related brain potentials (ERPs) while participants lied and told the truth with or without deceptive intention. The same medial frontal negative deflection (N450) occurred when participants lied and when they told the truth with deceptive intent. This suggests that the main challenge of lying is not to inhibit a tendency to state the truth. Rather, the challenge is to handle the cognitive conflict resulting from the need to keep others’ mental states in mind while deceiving them.

Tackling Diving: The Perception of Deceptive Intentions in Association Football (Soccer)

The three studies reported examine judgment about the attempts of footballers (soccer players) to deceptively exaggerate the effect of a tackle. Study one reveals that non-professional participants agree about which players were attempting deception and those that were not; there was also agreement about the tackles in which the intentions were ambiguous. Study two demonstrates that the intentions of tackled players match the judgment of their intentions by observers. Study three provides a taxonomy of behaviors that are associated with deceptive and non deceptive intentions. We conclude that deceptive intentions in this context are to a degree manifest in behavior and are observable.

The Neurocircuitry of Impaired Insight in Drug Addiction

More than 80% of addicted individuals fail to seek treatment, which might reflect impairments in recognition of severity of disorder. Considered by some as intentional deception, such 'denial' might instead reflect dysfunction of brain networks subserving insight and self-awareness. Here we review the scant literature on insight in addiction and integrate this perspective with the role of: (i) the insula in interoception, self-awareness and drug craving; (ii) the anterior cingulate in behavioral monitoring and response selection (relevant to disadvantageous choices in addiction); (iii) the dorsal striatum in automatic habit formation; and (iv) drug-related stimuli that predict emotional behavior in addicted individuals, even without conscious awareness. We discuss implications for clinical treatment including the design of interventions to improve insight into illness severity in addiction.

To What End: Resilience, Tradeoffs, and the Lessons of Katrina

To What End: Resilience, Tradeoffs, and the Lessons of Katrina

Detecting deception in a bluffing body: The role of expertise

Studies of deception detection traditionally have focused on verbal communication. Nevertheless, people commonly deceive others through nonverbal cues. Previous research has shown that intentions can be inferred from the ways in which people move their bodies. Furthermore, motor expertise within a given domain has been shown to increase visual sensitivity to other people's movements within that domain. Does expertise also enhance deception detection from bodily movement? In two psychophysical studies, experienced basketball players and novices attempted to distinguish deceptive intentions (fake passes) and veridical intentions (true passes) from an observed individual's actions. Whereas experts and novices performed similarly with postural cues, only experts could detect deception from kinematics alone. These results demonstrate a link between action expertise and the detection of nonverbal deception.

The antidepressant debate and the balanced placebo trial design: An ethical analysis

There is ongoing debate about whether randomized, placebo-controlled trials under a double-blind have reliably established the pharmacological efficacy of antidepressants. Numerous meta-analyses of antidepressant efficacy trials, e.g., Kirsch et al. [Kirsch, I., Moore, T. J., Scoboria, A., & Nicholls, S. (2002). The emperor's new drugs: An analysis of antidepressant medication data submitted to the U.S. food and drug administration. Prevention and Treatment, 5, Article 23. (Retrieved July 19, 2007 from http://journals.apa.org/prevention/volume5)], have shown a modest drug-placebo difference but methodological problems with standard trial design preclude a definitive conclusion that this difference results from specific biological effects of antidepressants or the nonspecific factors that have not been adequately excluded. Standard trial design assumes the additivity thesis of pharmacological efficacy, being the assumption that the specific or “true” magnitude of the pharmacological effect is limited to the difference between the drug and placebo responses in a standard trial. If the drug effects are as small as these meta-analyses suggest, then their clinical effectiveness is questionable. If the drug effects are actually larger but masked by placebo effects, then the additivity thesis is not valid and we risk false negative results with standard trial design. Kirsch et al. propose an alternative, four arm balanced placebo trial design (BPTD) that can accurately test the additivity thesis. The BPTD uses antidepressants, active placebos and the intentional deception of research subjects. My focal question is whether the BPTD is ethically defensible. I will explore two objections that can be raised against it: 1) lying to BPTD research subjects violates their autonomy and exploits their illness and 2) the BPTD may not enable us to test the additivity thesis with accuracy, i.e., it may contribute to the masking of drug effects that it aims to avoid. I argue that these objections support the conclusion that the BPTD is ethically indefensible.

No Escape by Deception: Calvin's Exegesis of Lies and Liars in the Old Testament

The frequency with which Old Testament figures use mendacious means to achieve good and even holy ends presents a challenge to John Calvin's exegesis of the Hebrew Scriptures. Following Augustine, Calvin takes a hard line against all forms of intentional deception. He rejects the solution offered by some in the Christian tradition that there are situations that call for a ‘dutiful lie’ (mendacium officiosum). This necessitates some exegetical acrobatics on Calvin's part when he interprets texts in which liars are blessed, rewarded, and praised for their actions. Calvin does not, however, reject all forms of dissimulation, which is all the more surprising given his opposition to the half-truths employed by the Nicodemites. While Calvin strives for a consistent ethic of veracity in his exegesis, however, there remains the question of how consistently truthful Calvin was in his own practices, particularly in his use of Renaissance flattery and pseudonyms.