Truthful Communication Research Articles

Money or friends: Social identity and deception in networks

Strategic communication occurs in virtually all committee decision environments. Theory suggests that small differences in monetary incentives between committee members can leave deception a strategically optimal decision (Crawford and Sobel, 1982; Galeotti et al., 2013). At the same time, in natural environments social incentives can also play an important role in determining the way people share or withhold truthful information. Unfortunately, little is known about how monetary and social incentives interact to determine truth-telling. We investigate this issue by first building a novel model and then testing its equilibrium predictions using laboratory data. In the absence of social identity, the model׳s predictions are supported: there is more truthful communication between those who share monetary incentives than those who do not. We find that the effect of identity is asymmetric: sharing the same identity does not promote truth-telling but holding different identities reduces truthfulness. Overall, as compared to environments lacking social identity, committees with both monetary and social incentives exhibit truthful communication substantially less frequently.

Perceptions and Experiences about Self-Disclosure of HIV Status among Adolescents with Perinatal Acquired HIV in Poor-Resourced Communities in South Africa.

Background. There is limited research on the disclosure experiences of adolescents with perinatal acquired HIV (PAH). The study explores how adolescents with PAH experience living with HIV and examined their perceptions and experiences regarding disclosure and onward self-disclosure to friends and sexual partners. Methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyze in-depth interviews conducted with 37 adolescents. Findings. Adolescents received disclosure about their status at mean age of 12 years. They perceived disclosure as necessary and appreciated the truthful communication they received. Adolescents have learned to accept and live with HIV, and they desired to be healthy and normal like other people. After receiving disclosure, they found their treatment meaningful, and they adhered to medication. However, they also expressed a strong message that their HIV status was truly their secret and that self-disclosure to others will take the feeling of being normal away from them because they will be treated differently. Conclusion. Adolescents maintained secrecy in order to be accepted by their peers but also to protect themselves from stigma and isolation. Given that adolescents want to be informed of their HIV status but desire controlling self-disclosure of their HIV status, these should form the basis for development of disclosure interventions.

Types of Conflict in Strategic Communication

We study communication in coordination games with either conflicting preferences or conflicting beliefs. We show these two ways of modeling conflict lead to drastically different conclusions. While for any type of conflict truthful communication is always beneficial from the ex-ante perspective, there is however a credibility issue at the interim stage, i.e., information transmission pattern crucially depends on the nature of disagreement. Under conflicting preferences information transmission exhibits a negative externality effect: greater information obtained by some agent discourages further information accumulation by harming the credibility of other agents. In contrast, under conflicting beliefs information transmission exhibits a positive externality effect: greater information obtained by some agent encourages further information accumulation by improving the credibility of other agents. By applying our findings to several frameworks, we show how strategic motives, depending on the types of conflict, crucially affect information aggregation in polls and policy outcomes, direction of information flow in communities, communication network formations, and segregations and aggregations in communications due to adding new information. Our result highlights the importance of taking into account the types of conflict between individuals in strategic communication models.

Cooperation between the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The Role of Competition and Domain Dissent in Communication and Decision Making

This paper focuses on the problem of information transmission between the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, with communication modeled as cheap talk. I posit that the Fund and the Bank have strategically relevant and diverse expertise whose proper combination might provide a richer consideration and resolution of strategic issues. Although transparent sharing of all available information is in the best interest of Fund's and Bank's shareholders, competitive pressures might hinder such process, introducing biases in the two institutions' preferences and distortions in communication. According to intuition, concerns for conformity of actions might mitigate the negative effects of competition. However, truthful communication will never be achieved and strategic uncertainty will persist as an important source of loss, even when both the institutions agree on the relevance of coordinating their actions.

Disclosure of Stress Test Results

Should regulatory bank examinations be made public? Regulators have argued that the confidentiality of the examination process promotes frank exchanges between bankers and examiners and that public disclosure of examination results could have a chilling effect. I examine the tradeoffs in a world in which examination results can be kept confidential, but regulatory interventions are observable by market participants, as they typically are for stress tests. Inducing banks to communicate truthfully requires regulators to engage in forbearance, which is priced into banks’ uninsured debt and raises the costs of inducing truthful communication. Regulators that disclose exam results bear higher monitoring costs and impose excessive capital requirements because interventions are not as sensitive to underlying risks. My model predicts that disclosure is optimal when the regulator’s model is relatively inaccurate.

Analyst Reputation, Communication, and Information Acquisition

ABSTRACTEarlier studies have shown that reputational concerns tend to reduce agents' opportunistic behavior. However, a recent study by Morris argued that analysts' (experts') reputational concerns may discourage truthful communication when they try to avoid being perceived as being misaligned with investors. In this paper, I examine the effect of reputational concerns on communication in a setting where analysts can choose their precision endogenously. Because both misaligned and aligned analysts want investors to trust their reports in the future, both will aim to build a reputation for being aligned. In equilibrium, aligned analysts will acquire more information than misaligned analysts. As a result, investors may favorably update their beliefs about the analysts' type when the report is proven to be accurate. Therefore, both types of analysts will have reputational incentives to communicate truthfully. The paper also derives conditions under which the analysts' reputational concerns have a nonmonotonic impact on aligned analysts' equilibrium precision choices and investors' welfare.

Analyst Reputation, Communication and Information Acquisition

Earlier studies have shown that reputational concerns tend to reduce agents' opportunistic behavior. However, a recent study by Morris argued that analysts' (experts') reputational concerns may discourage truthful communication when they try to avoid being perceived as being misaligned with investors. In this paper, I examine the effect of reputational concerns on communication in a setting where analysts can choose their precision endogenously. Because both misaligned and aligned analysts want investors to trust their reports in the future, both will aim to build a reputation for being aligned. In equilibrium, aligned analysts will acquire more information than misaligned analysts. As a result, investors may favorably update their beliefs about the analysts' type when the report is proven to be accurate. Therefore, both types of analysts will have reputational incentives to communicate truthfully. The paper also derives conditions under which the analysts' reputational concerns have a nonmonotonic impact on aligned analysts' equilibrium precision choices and investors' welfare.

Money or Friends: Social Identity and Deception in Networks

Strategic communication occurs in committee decision environments. Theory suggests that small differences in monetary incentives between committee members explains why deception may be strategically optimal (Crawford and Sobel, 1982; Galeotti et al, 2012). In natural environments, however, social incentives also play an important role in determining the way people share (or withhold) truthful information. Unfortunately, little is known about how monetary and social incentives interact to determine truth-telling. We design a laboratory experiment to address this question. We found that the effect of identity is asymmetric: sharing the same identity does not promote truth-telling but holding different identities reduces truthfulness. Moreover, we find that identity has an overall detrimental impact on truthful communication in committee decision making environments. These results have important implication for intra-organizational conflict management, suggesting that certain identity strengthening activities may produce a negative impact on information sharing.

Lying, Guilt, and Shame

An extensive literature documents that providing the right incentives can reduce deception. We hypothesize that truthful communication can be promoted by the threat of ex-post disclosure, even in the absence of financial consequences. Our experiment identifies the effect of ex-post disclosure using a sender-receiver game in which the receiver can detect a dishonest message in one condition, but not in another. The advantages of a laboratory experiment are that it rules out reputational concerns by providing full anonymity and holds constant information availability. We find that ex-post disclosure almost doubles the incidence of truth-telling. Interestingly, the effect of ex-post disclosure on truthful communication is present for males, but not for females.

Improving Performance of Neighbor Discovery in MANET by using Threshold Value and Time Out Parameter

In Mobile Ad Hoc network (MANET), various protocols and known location services that are used keeps growing, it is necessary for MANET mobile nodes to identify their neighbor’s position for effective and truthful communication. However, this MANET process is quite negotiable by attacking mobile node and retrieving their information of respective locations in MANET. Hence it is very essential to have proficient method of discovering neighbors to avoid such attacks for high level security. In recent days, various methods are presented for verifying neighbor positions, but those methods absorbs few limitations with respect to performance. In this paper, “Improving Performance of Neighbor discovery In MANET by Using Threshold value and Time out parameter” the protocol offers false positive and false negative rate improvement within the existence of various attacks for improving the performance of an existing method (NPV) parameters such as; threshold value and time out are introduced. This new protocol fundamentally deals with Mobile Ad Hoc network where a persistent infrastructure is unavailable and the location identification is necessarily learnt via. Node to node communication. Such scenario is highly noticeable because it has a loophole for oppositional nodes to abuse the location based services.

Communication in Federal Politics: Universalism, Policy Uniformity, and the Optimal Allocation of Fiscal Authority

The paper presents a positive model of policy formation in federal legislatures when delegates engage in the strategic exchange of policy-relevant information. Depending on the type of policy under consideration, communication between delegates generally suffers from a bias that makes truthful communication difficult and sometimes impossible. This generates inefficient federal policy choices that are often endogenously characterized by overspending, universalism, and uniformity. Building on these findings, I develop a theory of fiscal (de-)centralization, which revisits the work of Oates in a world of incomplete information and strategic communication. Empirical results from a cross section of US municipalities are consistent with the predicted pattern of spending.

Analiza wybranych aspektów planowania wizerunkowych działań strategicznych i operacyjnych w kontekście polskich firm

This article focuses on the presentation of selected aspects of the planning of activities commonly called public relations. Activities designed to build relationships, the image and communication of truth, must be included in the plan to what extent the essence of business communication can be achieved. Subjects were aspects such as strategy development process and the resulting operational plans. The paper also presents the results of research conducted in 2012 on a sample of 200 companies from across Poland, employing more than 50 employees.

The Single Individual in Kierkegaard: Religious or Secular? Part 1

The critical issue that I examine in my study, which is divided into two parts, is how we are to interpret, within what Kierkegaard regards as “the present age,” his concept of the single individual when viewed in light of the hermeneutical distinction that he makes between Christianity and Christendom. Since the distinction between Christianity and Christendom is not one between the religious and the secular or between faith and reason but one between what he calls indirect (i.e., truthful) communication and direct (i.e., idolatrous) communication, we find that the single individual of the present age of modernity is at once religious and secular.

Dynamics of Information Exchange in Endogenous Social Networks

We develop a model of information exchange through communication and investigate its implications for information aggregation in large societies. An underlying state determines payoffs from different actions. Agents decide which others to form a costly communication link with incurring the associated cost. After receiving a private signal correlated with the underlying state, they exchange information over the induced communication network until taking an (irreversible) action. We define asymptotic learning as the fraction of agents taking the correct action converging to one in probability as a society grows large. Under truthful communication, we show that asymptotic learning occurs if (and under some additional conditions, also only if) in the induced communication network most agents are a short distance away from “information hubs,” which receive and distribute a large amount of information. Asymptotic learning therefore requires information to be aggregated in the hands of a few agents. We also show that while truthful communication may not always be a best response, it is an equilibrium when the communication network induces asymptotic learning. Moreover, we contrast equilibrium behavior with a socially optimal strategy profile, i.e., a profile that maximizes aggregate welfare. We show that when the network induces asymptotic learning, equilibrium behavior leads to maximum aggregate welfare, but this may not be the case when asymptotic learning does not occur. We then provide a systematic investigation of what types of cost structures and associated social cliques (consisting of groups of individuals inked to each other at zero cost, such as friendship networks) ensure the emergence of communication networks that lead to asymptotic learning. Our result shows that societies with 599 many and sufficiently large social cliques do not induce asymptotic learning, because each social clique would have sufficient information by itself, making communication with others relatively unattractive. Asymptotic learning results if social cliques are neither too numerous nor too large, in which communication across cliques is encouraged.

Dynamics of information exchange in endogenous social networks

We develop a model of information exchange through communication and investigate its implications for information aggregation in large societies. An underlying state determines payoffs from different actions. Agents decide which other agents to form a costly communication link with, incurring the associated cost. After receiving a private signal correlated with the underlying state, the agents exchange information over the induced communication network until they take an (irreversible) action. We define asymptotic learning as the fraction of agents who take the correct action, converging to 1 as a society grows large. Under truthful communication, we show that asymptotic learning occurs if (and under some additional conditions, also only if ) in the induced communication network most agents are a short distance away from “information hubs,” which receive and distribute a large amount of information. Asymptotic learning therefore requires information to be aggregated in the hands of a few agents. We also show that while truthful communication may not always be a best response, it is an equilibrium when the communication network induces asymptotic learning. Moreover, we contrast equilibrium behavior with a socially optimal strategy profile, that is, a profile that maximizes aggregate welfare. We show that when the network induces asymptotic learning, equilibrium behavior leads to maximum aggregate welfare, but this may not be the case when asymptotic learning does not occur. We then provide a systematic investigation of what types of cost structures and associated social cliques (consisting of groups of individuals linked to each other at zero cost, such as friendship networks) ensure the emergence of communication networks that lead to asymptotic learning. Our result shows that societies with

Empoderamiento de las redes sociales en las crisis institucionales

En el presente artículo se pretende ahondar en el uso de las redes sociales como vehículo comunicativo veraz ante el vacío comunicativo institucional, concretamente en situaciones de riesgo para la sociedad civil. Desde la concepción de la existencia institucional se plantea como inherente el accionar estatal de protección de los ciudadanos y como consecuencia la difusión de aquellos mensajes que puedan contribuir a la seguridad de la ciudadanía. Cuando la emisión de mensajes en estas circunstancias no es proactivo o incluso es inexistente, los ciudadanos buscan organizarse como fuentes de información reactivas a la situación de riesgo en la que perciben vivir. Para la constatación de la existencia de estas fuentes de información paralelas y su uso ciudadano, se han estudiado tres regiones de México que actualmente atraviesan situaciones de inseguridad ciudadana, concretamente los estados de Nuevo León, Tamaulipas y Veracruz. La metodología aplicada ha sido la encuestación de un número significativo de ciudadanos divididos equitativamente entre las capitales de los tres estados citados anteriormente. Los resultados más relevantes apuntan hacia la falta de legitimación de las fuentes tradicionales de información en pos de las alternativas promovidas por los propios ciudadanos.

The Imperative of a Moral Compass-Driven Healthcare Organization

ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS, A branch of the broader healthcare ethics arena, is often seen as theoretical, with limited connection to what is deemed the real world of today's healthcare organizations. The feature articles by John J. Donnellan Jr., FACHE, and Ruth W. Brinkley, RN, FACHE, differ. Both authors live or have lived in that real world of executive leadership, where they addressed the many challenges in healthcare management and leadership. They focus on the importance of ethics and values in healthcare organizations from the perspective of healthcare executives. Donnellan is a recently retired director of large, multifacility, metropolitan Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals, and Brinkley is the CEO of a growing healthcare system. The authors come to an overlapping conclusion that ethics and values hold a central place in the life of an organization-that ethical behavior and practices are integral to delivering high-quality patient care and ensuring the healthcare organization's success.The content of the articles is significant, but so is the fact that they are both written from the viewpoint of leaders who guide complex organizations. For Brinkley and Donnellan, ethics and values are not thought of so much as window dressing or slogans as they are foundational to healthcare organizations; they set the direction for the organization's culture and approach to patient care and, ultimately, are key contributing factors to the success of the organization.THE IMPORTANCE OF INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT TO ETHICAL PRINCIPLESThe essential premise of both feature articles is that ethics principles and values form the foundation of healthcare organizations. The principles, expressed in the organization's mission and values statements, should be considered living documents for today's healthcare organizations.Basic ethical principles form healthcare's common morality, which ensures value for services rendered. These principles include (i) respecting patients through shared decision making, truthful communication, and the maintenance of confidentiality; (2) acting in the patient's best interest alone by providing only beneficial interventions and care; (3) avoiding harm, such as that from the use of nonbeneficial procedures and the lack of an efficient and safe system of care; and (4) treating patients in a fair and equitable manner.The organization's mission and values statements should be tied to those guiding principles. To strengthen the ties, the organization's values need to be integrated with its culture. That integration ensures that clinical and administrative practices consistently reflect back to the organization's values as demonstrated through an efficient and effective structure and delivery system. As Exhibit 1 indicates, the movement from the outer ring, representing common morality, ultimately influences the core, representing the quality of the clinician-patient encounter. Therefore, the core mission and organizational values are the moral compass guiding all clinical and administrative decisions and actions.This model reflects what organizational ethics are: the moral compass that Donnellan and Brinkley address in their articles- the alignment between the organization's stated mission and values and the actual day-in, day-out decisions and actions of staff on behalf of the organization and patient care (Gibson et al. 2008). The strength of the organization is contingent on how that mission and the stated values are consistently lived out in all the organization's activities.The importance of a values-based organization cannot be underestimated. This type of organization is needed for the following reasons:* To meet patients' expectations. Patients expect to receive care, directed toward their best interests, in a manner that reflects respect.* To ensure high-quality care. Organizational values reflect the Institute of Medicine's six quality aims: safe, effective, efficient, patientcentered, timely, and equitable care (Committee on Quality of Health Care in America 2001). …

Ethical Decisions in Palliative Care: How well are Palliative Care Teams prepared to make Them?

Making decisions related to health care issues is a demanding task. These decisions are influenced by many combined factors related to the patient, their relatives, and the professional as an individual and as a team member, beyond other factors considering the team as a whole. When these decisions are concerned to palliative and end-of-life care, ethical dilemmas or problems may occur (e.g: decisions related to place of care and death, decisions regarding therapeutic interventions for symptom control, decisions about withholding and/or withdrawing treatments, decisions considering truth disclosure and communication, decisions considering patients’ autonomy and self-determination, decisions related to the justice and resource distribution). Beside these problems, even though palliative care principles reject any interventions in order to postpone or hasten death, issues such as medical futility, euthanasia and physician assisted suicide need to be reflected and discussed.

Towards a pragmatic semantics

The purpose of this article is to justify how the philosophy of German Romanticism could still inform what is at stake in our conception of truth, representation and dialogue. Dialogue in Schlegel and Schleiermacher relies less on a supposed representation of truth, than on a conflict of representations in which truth is approximated. Dialogue concerns not only the communication of truth. It is the space in which truth is constructed. The semantics of German Romanticism does not refer to a defining relation between subject and object — as it is the case in the traditional concept of truth as adaequatio rei et intellectus. It depends on the dialogue between subjects. We are also led to a pragmatical conception of truth.

“Our best hope is a cure.” Hope in the context of advance care planning

Advance care planning (ACP) has the potential to enhance end-of-life care, yet often fails to live up to that potential. This qualitative interpretive study was designed to explore the process and outcomes of ACP using the patient-centered Advance Care Planning Interview (PC-ACP) developed by the Respecting Choices® program in Wisconsin. Patients diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and close family members were recruited. Nine family dyads participated in the PC-ACP interview, which was audio-recorded. Follow-up interviews took place 3 and 6 months after the PC-ACP interview and were also recorded. Thematic analysis was conducted on transcribed interviews using constant comparison. Analysis showed that hope was a significant theme in the ACP process and this article reports on that theme. Hope for a cure was one of many hopes that supported quality of life for the participant dyads. Three themes were identified: hope is multifaceted, hope for a cure is well considered, and hope is resilient and persistent. The seeming paradox of hoping for a cure of an incurable cancer did not interfere with the process of ACP. The dyads engaged in explicit discussions of end-of-life scenarios and preferences for care. ACP did not interfere with hope and hope for a cure did not interfere with ACP. Concerns about false hope are called into question. The principle of honoring hope is not necessarily in conflict with the principle of truthful communication. This is clinically significant, as the findings suggest we need not disrupt hope that we think of as "unrealistic" as long as it supports the family to live well. Further, ACP can be successful even in the context of hoping for a cure.