Attended a special lunch for Prof. Jeff Hancock and his talk entitled, “Digital Deception: When Where and Why People Lie Online.” Prof. Hancock from the department of Information Science and Communication at Cornell University was the recipient of a $680,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to pursue "The Dynamics of Digital Deception in Computer Mediated Environments." His groundbreaking work has been covered widely in mainstream and academic press alike. Prof. Jeremy Bailenson gave a sparkling introduction noting that Prof. Hancock is admired because of his meticulous approach. “Jeff applies a rigorous background in experimental psychology to media,” he said.
Prof. Hancock began with a nod to ancient Greece citing the pervasiveness of lying with the myth of Diogenes and his lantern---searching Greece in vain for one honest man. Fast forward to today where ubiquitous technology facilitates deception and disclosure. Prof. Hancock’s slides and provocative research were directed to an attentive audience of distinguished Faculty, graduate students, and guests.
I liked his comments on linguistic footprints in messages online and the collaborative nature of language. He shared a single value decomposition model to show the distribution of lies in Enron emails. The talk concluded with a preview of his latest project, building a monumental body of information, the “Deceptive Message Corpus, or as he called it, the LIE-brary!|||3702325433862963841|||Dr. Jeff Hancock, Director, Computer-Mediated Communication Research Laboratory on "Digital Deception"