A social network based analysis of deceptive communication in online chat

Abstract

The digital information era has allowed increasing online deception opportunities. In addition, the performance of detecting deception has been no better than chance in face-to-face communication, and is reported to be even worse in computer-mediated communication (CMC). Thus, there is a great need to uncover effective cues to deception in CMC. Online interaction weaves an implicit social network. However, Deception in CMC has not been examined from the social network perspective. To fill this gap, this research explores interaction patterns of deceivers in online chat. Based on an analysis of social networks created from online chat messages, this study provides preliminary evidence for the efficacy of social network based metrics in discriminating deceivers from truth-tellers. The findings of this study have significant implications for deception research in social media. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.