Individual Deep Fake Recognition Skills are Affected by Viewers’ Political Orientation, Agreement with Content and Device Used

AI-generated “deep fakes” are becoming increasingly professional and can be expected to become an essential tool for cybercriminals conducting targeted and tailored social engineering attacks, as well as for others aiming for influencing public opinion in a more general sense. While the technological arms race is resulting in increasingly efficient forensic detection tools, these are unlikely to be in place and applied by common users on an everyday basis any time soon, especially if social engineering attacks are camouflaged as unsuspicious conversations. To date, most cybercriminals do not yet have the necessary resources, competencies or the required raw material featuring the target to produce perfect impersonifications. To raise awareness and efficiently train individuals in recognizing the most widespread deep fakes, the understanding of what may cause individual differences in the ability to recognize them can be central. Previous research suggested a close relationship between political attitudes and top-down perceptual and subsequent cognitive processing styles. In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of political attitudes and agreement with the political message content on the individual’s deep fake recognition skills.In this study, 163 adults (72 females = 44.2%) judged a series of video clips with politicians’ statements across the political spectrum regarding their authenticity and their agreement with the message that was transported. Half of the presented videos were fabricated via lip-sync technology. In addition to the particular agreement to each statement made, more global political attitudes towards social and economic topics were assessed via the Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS).Data analysis revealed robust negative associations between participants’ general and in particular social conservatism and their ability to recognize fabricated videos. This effect was pronounced where there was a specific agreement with the message content. Deep fakes watched on mobile phones and tablets were considerably less likely to be recognized as such compared to when watched on stationary computers.To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate and establish the association between political attitudes and interindividual differences in deep fake recognition. The study further supports very recently published research suggesting relationships between conservatism and perceived credibility of conspiracy theories and fake news in general. Implications for further research on psychological mechanisms underlying this effect are discussed.

Towards and understanding of the immigrant experience: Social-cognitive processes of identity development during cultural transition

<p>In a highly globalized world, where more than 200 million people are living as international migrants (OECD, 2013), continuously confronting and negotiating the demands of at least two different cultures, there is a growing need to understand how cultural transition affects the identity of immigrants and explore the factors that can potentially contribute to the development of a positive, coherent, and consolidated immigrant identity. The current research programme integrates aspects of developmental and cross-cultural theory to gain a deeper insight in to the dynamics of identity formation and the processes involved in identity reconstruction during cultural transition from the very early stages of acculturation. Drawing from previous work on identity styles by Berzonsky (1989, 2011), chapter two introduces a new version of the Identity Style Inventory assessing social-cognitive information processing strategies during cultural transition (ISI-CT). The ISI-CT incorporates five distinct identity styles (analytical informational, exploratory informational, normative to the country of origin, normative to the host society, and diffuse-avoidant) and a measure of identity commitment. Three studies are presented reporting the construction of the ISI-CT and the examination of its factorial structure (study 1 and study 2), the convergent and discriminant validity of the assessment tool (study 1), and longitudinal relationships among subscales (study 3). Chapter three extends Berzonsky’s theorizing to acculturation research and tests a model of identity development with a diverse sample of newly arrived immigrants (N = 218). Results indicate that social-cognitive identity processing styles facilitate both positive and negative pathways to immigrant identity outcomes and highlight the central role of identity commitment during acculturation identity crises. In chapter four is presented a six-month longitudinal study that investigates the appraisal (threat or challenge) of identity stress in immigrants, the capacity of identity processing styles in reducing the negative effects of acculturative identity stress, and the prediction of psychological adjustment over time. Longitudinal interaction effects revealed that the analytical and exploratory informational styles enhanced the positive effects of challenge appraisal on psychological adjustment over time. In contrast, styles involving avoidance and normative orientation to one’s country of origin dampened the positive effects of challenge appraisal on psychological adjustment six months later. In sum, the series of studies reported in the present thesis draw attention to the central role of social-cognitive identity styles in terms of identity development, acculturative stress management, and long-term psychological adaptation of recent immigrants. The findings of the research programme have important implications for acculturation theory and research by highlighting the benefits of the developmental approach in the understanding of the immigrant experience. In addition, potential avenues for applications and future research are discussed.</p>

Towards and understanding of the immigrant experience: Social-cognitive processes of identity development during cultural transition

<p>In a highly globalized world, where more than 200 million people are living as international migrants (OECD, 2013), continuously confronting and negotiating the demands of at least two different cultures, there is a growing need to understand how cultural transition affects the identity of immigrants and explore the factors that can potentially contribute to the development of a positive, coherent, and consolidated immigrant identity. The current research programme integrates aspects of developmental and cross-cultural theory to gain a deeper insight in to the dynamics of identity formation and the processes involved in identity reconstruction during cultural transition from the very early stages of acculturation. Drawing from previous work on identity styles by Berzonsky (1989, 2011), chapter two introduces a new version of the Identity Style Inventory assessing social-cognitive information processing strategies during cultural transition (ISI-CT). The ISI-CT incorporates five distinct identity styles (analytical informational, exploratory informational, normative to the country of origin, normative to the host society, and diffuse-avoidant) and a measure of identity commitment. Three studies are presented reporting the construction of the ISI-CT and the examination of its factorial structure (study 1 and study 2), the convergent and discriminant validity of the assessment tool (study 1), and longitudinal relationships among subscales (study 3). Chapter three extends Berzonsky’s theorizing to acculturation research and tests a model of identity development with a diverse sample of newly arrived immigrants (N = 218). Results indicate that social-cognitive identity processing styles facilitate both positive and negative pathways to immigrant identity outcomes and highlight the central role of identity commitment during acculturation identity crises. In chapter four is presented a six-month longitudinal study that investigates the appraisal (threat or challenge) of identity stress in immigrants, the capacity of identity processing styles in reducing the negative effects of acculturative identity stress, and the prediction of psychological adjustment over time. Longitudinal interaction effects revealed that the analytical and exploratory informational styles enhanced the positive effects of challenge appraisal on psychological adjustment over time. In contrast, styles involving avoidance and normative orientation to one’s country of origin dampened the positive effects of challenge appraisal on psychological adjustment six months later. In sum, the series of studies reported in the present thesis draw attention to the central role of social-cognitive identity styles in terms of identity development, acculturative stress management, and long-term psychological adaptation of recent immigrants. The findings of the research programme have important implications for acculturation theory and research by highlighting the benefits of the developmental approach in the understanding of the immigrant experience. In addition, potential avenues for applications and future research are discussed.</p>

The role of individual factors in L2 vocabulary learning with cognitive-linguistics-based static and dynamic visual aids

The present study aims to verify the impact of dynamic aids on learning L2 prepositions in relation to individual learner variables. Situated within the cognitive linguistics (CL) framework and differing from previous research, the present study hypothesizes that dynamic (animated) aids are not equally effective for all learners; rather, their effectiveness differs according to learners’ first languages (L1s) (Chinese or Japanese) and information-processing styles (verbalizers or imagers). To verify this hypothesis, we utilized learning materials comprised of static and dynamic images for three English spatial prepositions (above, on, over). After conducting a Style of Processing questionnaire, we administered three cloze tests (pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest) of target words to Taiwanese and Japanese participants (N = 109), whose L1s differed in terms of their linguistic proximity to English. Although no significant differences were found between the treatment groups in tests for all participants, the results were differentiated by individual factors. In results of a two-way ANOVA, Taiwanese participants showed significantly greater improvement from the pretest to posttest than Japanese participants when the participants used dynamic images, whereas the Japanese group made more learning gains from the posttest to the delayed posttest test. Moreover, imagers obtained more benefits from the visual aids, whether static or dynamic, than verbalizers. Our findings indicate that CL-based visual aids are beneficial and that individual factors, especially learners’ L1, may produce different learning effects, especially in multimedia environments.

The inverse relation between risks and benefits: The impact of individual differences in information processing style

Existing research shows that evaluations of the risks and benefits of various hazards (i.e., technologies and activities) are inversely related. The affect heuristic explains the negative relation between risks and benefits, as based on the strength of positive or negative affect associated with a hazard. Research on the affect heuristic previously investigated under which conditions people judge risk and benefits independently, focusing on expertise as a factor that might exempt from inversely related judgements of risk and benefits. Measurements within Dual Process Theories have been found to be associated with rational, analytical decision making and accurate judgments. In this paper we investigated the extent to which rational information processing styles can predict the risk-benefit relation of technologies in a medical and food applications and whether the attitudes influence the strength or direction of the relationship. Using the Need for Cognition Scale (NFC), a psychometric-based risk scale and an explicit measure of attitude, in a representative sample of 3228 Swedes, we found that the high NFC group judged the risks and benefits of technologies to be inversely related. In contrast, the low NFC group judged the risks and benefits to be positively related. These results were confirmed across all studied technologies by applying moderation analysis. We discuss the results in light of recent research on cognitive processing and polarization over technologies’ risks.

Examining the Longitudinal Associations Between Repeated Narration of Recent Transgressions Within Individuals’ Romantic Relationships and Character Growth in Empathy, Humility, and Compassion

This prospective longitudinal study examined whether repeated written narration of relational transgressions was associated with increases in empathy, humility, and compassion over 1 year. Although engagement in reflective and meaning-making processing styles has been theorized to facilitate adversarial growth existing research has been limited by methodological issues and has yet to examine whether this mechanism is associated with character trait changes over time. Participants provided ratings of trait empathy, humility, and compassion in 5 waves at 3-month intervals. In Wave 2, participants provided a written narrative describing a recent relational transgression against their romantic partner. Participants then engaged in repeated narration of recent romantic transgressions in Waves 3 through 5. The narratives were coded for redemption, positive self-event connections, and degree of personal responsibility taken. Linear growth curve models were used to examine the extent to which these narrative themes were associated with character growth. Overall, there was little consistent and robust evidence across models that narration was associated with changes in empathy, humility, and compassion. The implications for research into adversarial growth are discussed in reference to the appropriateness of operationalizing adversarial growth as character growth and the extent to which relational transgressions can facilitate adversarial growth.

Four Flavours of Customers: A dual-system perspective on self-service technology use

Self-service technologies (SSTs) increasingly permeate retail spaces. To make their SST investments worthwhile, retailers need to turn enough customers into SST users. Previous research has uncovered the significance of habitual behaviour stemming from prior experience and situational factors from the environment on SST use. However, consumers are likely to vary regarding the extent they are driven by either habit or situational factors, suggesting that different types of consumers might exist in this regard. In this paper, we probe these consumer types in a real-life choice situation by studying the choice of selecting a checkout option (either staffed or self-checkout). We conduct a field study employing mixed qualitative methods by observing and interviewing customers checking out from retail stores. We discover four distinct customer types regarding the extent of reflexive (automatic) and reflective (deliberate) processing they use in their checkout selection: habitual traditional checkout users, habitual SCO users, situational users, and drifting users. We discuss the implications of our findings by linking the cognitive processing styles to the different stages of technology acceptance. Our main contribution lies in the development of a typology of consumers based on their selection between SST and human-delivered service.

Examining the Longitudinal Associations between Repeated Narration of Recent Transgressions Within Individuals’ Romantic Relationships and Character Growth in Empathy, Humility and Compassion

This prospective longitudinal study examined whether repeated written narration of relational transgressions was associated with increases in empathy, humility and compassion over one year. Although engagement in reflective and meaning-making processing styles has been theorized to facilitate adversarial growth after adversity, existing research has been limited by methodological issues and has yet to examine whether this mechanism is associated with character trait changes over time. Participants provided ratings of trait empathy, humility and compassion in 5 waves at 3-month intervals. In wave 2, participants provided a written narrative describing a recent relational transgression against their romantic partner. Participants then engaged in repeated narration of recent romantic transgressions in waves 3 through 5. The narratives were coded for redemption, positive self-event connections and degree of personal responsibility taken. Linear growth curve models were used to examine the extent to which these narrative themes were associated with character growth. Overall, there was little consistent and robust evidence across models that narration was associated with changes in empathy, humility and compassion. The implications for research into adversarial growth are discussed in reference to the appropriateness of operationalizing adversarial growth as character growth and the extent to which relational transgressions can facilitate adversarial growth.

Alexithymia and Sensory Processing Sensitivity: Areas of Overlap and Links to Sensory Processing Styles

Alexithymia is a dimensional trait characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings and an externally oriented thinking (EOT) style. Here, we explored interrelationships between alexithymia and measures assessing how individuals process and regulate their responses to environmental and body-based cues. Young adults (N = 201) completed self-report questionnaires assessing alexithymia, sensory processing sensitivity (SPS), interoceptive accuracy (IA), sensory processing styles, and current levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Whereas EOT was related to low orienting sensitivity, problems with emotional appraisal (difficulties identifying feelings/difficulties describing feelings) were related to heightened sensory sensitivity. In addition, features of SPS improved the prediction of alexithymia above and beyond that accounted for by IA. We suggest that EOT is linked to problems maintaining a representation of one’s emotions in working memory and that low IA and problems with emotional appraisal are linked to atypicalities in sensory processing that may impact embodiment. A latent profile analysis revealed five classes of individuals distinguished by the relative strength of different alexithymic traits and by differences in IA and sensory processing styles. The classes identified included two lexithymic, one modal, and two alexithymic groups, showing different susceptibilities to SPS. Overall, our findings lend support to the view that alexithymia is associated with atypicalities in both bottom–up and top–down processes that impact emotion processing and regulation. They also raise the possibility that individuals with different alexithymia subtypes may differ with regard to a range of factors, including not only SPS but also early life experiences, mental health outcomes, and susceptibility to various personality disorders.