The present dissertation takes the multi-faceted phenomenon of deception as its point of departure. The aim is to make a case for deception as a social phenomenon, and to frame theoretically and define the skills and abilities that make deception possible. A theoretical model based on a number of ideal types is constructed. The purpose of the model is to differentiate particular aspects of deception, and the model is illustrated with examples of actions of more or less well-known impostors. The examples were collected from a variety of sources, such as autobiographies and television programs. As a first step, the legal definition of deception, i.e. fraud, and statistics on crimes of deception in Sweden are presented. Different theoretical approaches are also discussed; deception as a personality trait, and deception as communication and interaction. In order to illuminate the social dimensions, it is emphasized that deception constitutes a particular type of relationship between deceiver and deceivee. This particular form of interaction exploits elementary forms, and it is also asymmetrical in terms of the intentions of the parties involved. The concept of social competence is used to describe the skills and abilities required for successful acts of deception. It is argued that the social competence of deceivers consists of three types: strategic, normative, and dramaturgic competencies. The strategic competency involves being goal-rational and strategic, for example, the ability to predict the actions of the potential addressee. In the normative competency, norms and reference to norms are used strategically. The dramaturgic competency represents an operationalization and enactment of the two other competencies, and resembles the preparation and performance of an actor. The different contexts in which deception can occur are also discussed. A preliminary typology is presented, with the aim of demonstrating the difficulties in drawing clear lines between various types of deception. The extended approach to deception also means that it can be viewed as a part of everyday social interaction. Finally, some thoughts on deception in the light of societal changes are presented. It is argued that the increasing demands on people to promote themselves in various ways in today’s society can be perceived as an invitation to deception and fabrication. These demands can generate feelings of inferiority and a fear of eventually being unmasked as an impostor, or a phony.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka om det sker en social desirability effekt vid självskatting av egenskaper som beskriver manliga och kvinnliga stereotyper när dessa egenskaper framhävs positivt. Studien ämnade ytterligare undersöka om män och kvinnor skiljer sig åt i social desirability. Ett experiment utfördes där försökspersonerna slumpvis fördelades över en kontrollbetingelse och två experimentbetingelser. Den ena experimentbetingelsen tilldelades en kvinnlig manipulation där kvinnliga stereotyper framhävdes positivt medan den andra experimentbetingelsen tilldelades en manlig manipulation där manliga stereotyper framhävdes positivt. Kontrollbetingelsen tilldelades ingen manipulation. Därefter fick försökspersonerna skatta sig själva på påståenden i en enkät som beskrev de könstereotyperna som angivits i de båda manipulationerna. Ingen social desirability effekt uppvisades i resultatet.

In our pilot study investigating Texas Hold ‘em poker, we found that players bluffing (with a losing hand) elicits a similar physiological arousal response (as measured by skin conductance levels) to those in a position of strength and poised to win. Since arousal has been suggested to be a reinforcing factor in problematic gambling behaviour, we sought to replicate the findings of our pilot study in the current investigation. We aimed to extend our previous findings further by: isolating truthful betting (strong betting) to disambiguate deception when players are in positions of strength (i.e. trapping), measuring subjective excitement levels and risk assessments, investigating the physiological arousal responses following wins versus losses, and finally, exploring group differences (i.e. problem gambling status, experience levels). 71 participants played 20 naturalistic rounds of Texas Hold ‘em poker for monetary rewards. We were able to replicate our previous findings that bluffing triggers a physiological arousal (as measured by skin conductance responses) similar to truthful strong betting. Trapping was also found to elicit a skin conductance response similar to both bluffing and strong betting. Measures of subjective excitement revealed a pattern that converged with physiological data. Furthermore, wins were found to be more arousing than losses. Finally, our exploratory analysis of group differences (i.e. problem gambling status, experience) proved to be an insignificant factor with all measures. We conclude that the effect of bluffing on physiological arousal is so powerful that it pervades all participants; which is problematic due to its risky nature and potential to be self-triggered. With its ever increasing popularity and availability, more research on Texas Hold ‘em poker is warranted for treatment implications.

Large scale networks face daily thousands of network attacks. No matter the strength of the existing security defending mechanisms, these networks remain vulnerable, as new tools and techniques are being constantly developed by hackers. A new promising technology that lures the attackers in order to monitor their malicious activities and divulge their intentions is emerging with Virtual Honeypots. In the present thesis, we examine an extensive security mechanism based on three different open source low interaction honeypots. We implement this mechanism at our university campus network in an attempt to identify the potential threats and methods used against our network. The data gathered by our honeypots reveal valuable information regarding the types of attacks, the vulnerable network services within the network and the malicious activities launched by attackers.

Taiwan has a great frequent interaction with China. Because of individual political policy and without judicial cooperation, many problems such as transnational crimes are aroused. In order to prevent the cross boarder crime and effectively proceed criminal suit in cross- strait, the third Jiang-Chang conference officially signed the contract ¡§Cross- strait cooperation for eliminating crime and agreement of judicial cooperation¡¨in Nanjing on 4/26 in 2009. The agreement made effect on 6/25 in the same year and turned a new leaf for the across- strait cooperation to reduce the crime. According to the agreement, the Cross-strait agrees to support in civil affairs and criminal domain, taking the measure to strike the crime in tune with the emphasis on kidnapping, firearms, drugs, population business and significant cross-strait criminal organization. Deception crime is part of the economic crimes and cross-strait deception crime has run wild in recent years. Hence the topic for the research is cross- strait deception crime. The research is aimed at signing the cross-strait agreement afterward and chooses three single cases on cross-strait cooperation to strike organization of telecommunication deception. On the other hand, supported by the questionnaire from similar cases that Taiwan police investigated, the research can point out the dilemma in eliminating guilt that both sides are faced with. At last, cross-strait police can propose feasible mode of investigating cooperation for striking cross-strait guilt by trying to erect the communication, exchange the information, investigate the crime evidence, repatriate the crime, and wipe out the crime together and the data can be provided for coherent units and follow up research. For the cross-strait cooperation for eliminating crime had made effect, the cross-strait deception organization had escaped from cross- strait to Southeast Asia. In the future, it is possible that the organization will expand to other countries and deceive people in cross-strait, and such situation makes police from cross- strait should inevitably be faced with the challenge of cross- strait and else in 21 century. In other words, except for highly intensive cross- strait cooperation, we must need to cooperate with the third country. Under the globalized structure, the research exerts the viewpoints and characteristics of Global Government and puts emphasis on ¡§Low politic, high function¡¨ cooperation to establish and integrate a cross- strait cooperation platform. The research proposes the strategy of cross- strait cooperation for reducing the crime and then hopes to positively come up with the solution for cross- strait deception crime to defend the safety of people from cross- strait.

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering and M.S. in Information Technology Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Daniel Boger, Steve Iatrou. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-71). Also available online.

My thesis is a contemporary realistic novel using alternating perspectives. Footwork explores the modern day-to-day struggles and temptations that face monogamous relationships. How do we negotiate truth within society and expectations that others have of us? What are the deals we make with ourselves and each other in order to live within society? Footwork examines how truth and pain interact. Does truth always have to come forward at the cost of pain? There are three books that represent the contemporary cannon where Footwork could be situated. Infidelity by Stacey May Fowles encompasses alternate perspectives and deals with an affair as the central theme. Love and the Mess We’re In by Stephen Marche focuses on two perspectives of an affair and much of the book uses dialogue with the characters’ inner thoughts also written. Roddy Doyle’s The Snapper concentrates on a dysfunctional family, infidelity and is primarily dialogue. All three novels explore realistic portrayals of truth and infidelity. Footwork goes further by examining the intricacies of how people deal with deception and also forces the reader to have an emotional reaction. One of the ways this emotional reaction is achieved is by Footwork primarily being written in dialogue form. The dialogue encourages the reader to become emotionally invested in the characters’ struggles. The novel does not employ flashbacks, but instead focuses on the immediacy of the characters’ lives to create a story authentic to contemporary relationships. Footwork also uses alternating perspectives as a device to make the reader question which character he/she should be fighting for or against. All the characters have motives for why and how they deceive. The reader understands one character’s perspective only to be challenged by another character’s perspective. All three main characters at the end of Footwork find and/or speak their truth despite the pain that is inflicted.

Background and Aims Sexual deception is a species-specific pollination strategy commonly found in Orchidaceae. Sexually deceptive orchids lure male insect pollinators by mimicking the sex pheromones and/or appearance of female insects, which elicit copulatory behaviour with the flower by the male insects. This specialised pollination strategy has recently been found in a Pterostylis species in Australia. Pterostylis orchids also occur in New Zealand, although very few studies have been done on this genus, and no such specialised insect pollination strategy has been documented in New Zealand. Methods I investigated the breeding system and pollinators of three Pterostylis spp. to determine whether sexual deception may be operating in P. oliveri, P. irsoniana and P. venosa growing in native beech forests in Arthur's Pass. We also investigated the floral headspace volatiles of P. oliveri to determine which compounds are present, and which may be responsible for pollinator attraction. Key Results Breeding system experiments suggest that P. oliveri and P. irsoniana are self compatible, but exclusively dependent on insects for pollination. Only male fungus gnats (Diptera: Mycetophilidae) were found carrying pollinia attached to their thoraxes in traps set up over the flowers. Insect identification and ITS DNA analysis of the pollinia showed that each orchid species was pollinated by a specific fungus gnat species; Mycetophila latifascia males found with pollen of P. oliveri; Morganiella fusca males found with pollen of P. irsoniana; and Tetragoneura sp. males found with pollen of P. venosa. Field tests of an unidentified compound found in headspace volatiles of P. oliveri did not attract any Mycetophila latifascia males. Conclusions These results indicate that pollination via sexual deception may be operating in these three Pterostylis spp. However, further floral volatile analyses are required to confirm whether the flowers emit volatile compounds that resemble the sex pheromones of the specific pollinators.

Nations are becoming increasingly sensitive about securing their borders, leading border security organizations to investigate systems designed to detect deception through linguistic analysis. As research about linguistic deception still has resulted in competing hypotheses, this dissertation uses a design science, information systems approach to build a system that synthesizes research on the linguistics of deception. It also performs a systematic review and meta-analysis to provide information about linguistics of deception to border security organizations. This dissertation outlines features that should be included in collaborative meta-analysis tools: process restriction, task organization, information sharing, task coordination, terminology definition, and simple interfaces. These features are discussed and implemented in a new system www.OrionShoulders.com. Through a systematic review and a behavioral experiment on linguistic of deception using the new system, this dissertation identified seven behavioral and cognitive constructs that could be measured through linguistics during deception: cognitive load, event recollection, guilt, credibility portrayal, distancing, dominant behavior, and hedging. This dissertation contributes a theoretical model that explains these seven constructs and how they are measured. The results of the systematic review and the behavioral experiment showed that hedging terms, first-person pronouns, negative emotion, generalizing terms, and the quantity of words were significantly correlated with deception.

The analyses in this dissertation were designed to identify 1) whether there is an age effect among three-, four-, and five-year-old preschool children for false-belief understanding, deceptive ability, and deception detection ability, 2) whether there is a gender effect among preschool children for false-belief understanding, deceptive ability, and deception detection ability, 3) whether there is a relationship between false-belief understanding, deceptive ability, and deception detection ability in preschool children, and 4) whether there is a relationship between peer acceptance and false-belief understanding, deceptive ability, and deception detection ability among preschool children. Participants were 78 (34 male, 44 female) preschool children of mixed ethnicity who were between three to five years of age. All subjects completed four tasks that assessed false-belief understanding, deceptive ability, deception detection ability, and peer acceptance. Results from the four-way repeated measures mixed-model analysis of variance (2 Gender x 3 Age x 2 False-Belief Understanding x 2 Deception) suggest that there is a task effect, age effect, gender effect, and false-belief understanding effect for deception among preschool children. Children received significantly higher scores on the deception detection ability task than they did on the deceptive ability task. This indicates that young children find deception detection to be easier than deceptive ability. In addition, this also provides evidence that deceptive ability and that deception detection are two separate constructs. This is further supported by the principal components analysis, which extracted two separate components for deception intelligence. In addition, three-year-old children perform significantly lower than four- and five-year-old children on deception tasks. However, there is not a significant difference between the performances of four- and five-year-old children on deception tasks. This supports previous research that four years of age appears to be the critical age for the emergence of Machiavellian Intelligence (Peskin, 1992; Peterson, 2003). Moreover, males perform significantly better on deception tasks than females. Furthermore, there is a significant positive correlation between deception detection ability and peer acceptance. Children who obtain higher deception detection ability scores are ranked as being more liked by their peers.