The Cyberspace Deceivers

I chose the article, “Deception in Cyberspace: a comparison of text-only vs. avatar-supported medium."

Have you ever wondered if the person you are communicating with online is being honest or deceitful? This article studies the common tendencies of online liars, scam artists, and predators. It is not focused on the common email virus and phishing scams, but is centralized around a less expected form of deceptive cyberspace behavior. It focuses on the differences between their actions using text-only based communication, like a chat room or instant messenger, as well as avatar based communication, like a multiplayer game or an online world, such as Linden Labs’ Second Life (www.secondlife.com). An avatar is an online representation of a person, such as a character in a video game (3D avatar) or a graphical representation in an instant messenger (2D avatar). Since the internet is becoming a haven for scam artists and sexual predators, being able to spot these modern day deceivers could be very beneficial for the average cyberspace user.

The author conducts an experiment with a large group of undergraduates to determine several differences between deceptive personas and truthful personas across different online mediums. The results of the study conclude that a deceiving person will experience much higher anxiety levels when communicating via text-only platforms, and are extremely less anxious when communicating through an avatar. This proves that a deceptive person is much more comfortable deceiving someone from behind “a mask” and is also more likely to choose or design an avatar that looks less like them. The average user seems to be more likely to trust someone that is portrayed by a three-dimensional avatar such as in an online game, but their level of trust did not change between someone using no avatar, or using a two-dimensional avatar in an instant messenger. A common tactic used by a deceiving male would be to create a female avatar, which for many people can seem more trustworthy.

This article has brought several things into question. How can someone ever really trust a stranger online? Is the comfort level of a deceitful person using a three-dimensional avatar, such as those found in online video games, dangerous for our children? How can you tell the difference between someone that is being truthful and helpful, from someone that is being deceitful and attempting to scam you? I guess these are just some of the sacrifices we have to make to be able to have such personal freedom in cyberspace.

Galanxhi, H. & Fui-Hoon Nah, F. (2007). Deception in cyberspace: A comparison of text-only vs. avatar-supported medium. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 65, 9, 770-783.

-Christopher