Browsing by Subject "Deception"

In a democratic society, does the electorate approve of truth and disapprove of deception, do opinion patterns exclusively mimic partisan elite views, or do opinion patterns react exclusively to successful or failed outcomes? Do citizens hold leaders accountable for the perceived truthfulness of foreign policy claims or do they only evaluate whether or not the policies were successful? The existing literature on public opinion and foreign policy calls the accountability role for the public "audience costs," and specifies that concerns about audience costs constrain leaders. However, the literature is not clear on what role normative issues may play in generating audience costs. This gap in the literature is notable because so much of the debate surrounding significant policy issues, especially war-making and military action, is couched in retrospective, normative, moralizing language. These debates make no sense if the pragmatic, forward-looking dimensions of audience costs - reliability and success - are all that exist. Through a survey experiment and four historical case studies developed with primary and secondary historical sources, news articles, and polling data, I find that there is a complex dynamic at work between the public's desire for successful outcomes and the high value placed upon truth-telling and transparency within a democracy. Studying justifications for military action and war, I find that the public will be motivated to punish leaders perceived as deceptive, but that imposition of audience costs will be moderated by factors including partisanship, degree of elite unity, and the leader's damage control strategy in response to disapproval.

Making decisions is fundamental to everything we do, yet it can be impaired in various disorders and conditions. While research into the neural basis of decision-making has flourished in recent years, many questions remain about how decisions are instantiated in the brain. Here we explored how primates make abstract decisions and decisions in social contexts, as well as one way to non-invasively modulate the brain circuits underlying decision-making. We used rhesus macaques as our model organism. First we probed numerical decision-making, a form of abstract decision-making. We demonstrated that monkeys are able to compare discrete ratios, choosing an array with a greater ratio of positive to negative stimuli, even when this array does not have a greater absolute number of positive stimuli. Monkeys’ performance in this task adhered to Weber’s law, indicating that monkeys—like humans—treat proportions as analog magnitudes. Next we showed that monkeys’ ordinal decisions are influenced by spatial associations; when trained to select the fourth stimulus from the bottom in a vertical array, they subsequently selected the fourth stimulus from the left—and not from the right—in a horizontal array. In other words, they begin enumerating from one side of space and not the other, mirroring the human tendency to associate numbers with space. These and other studies confirmed that monkeys’ numerical decision-making follows similar patterns to that of humans, making them a good model for investigations of the neurobiological basis of numerical decision-making.

We sought to develop a system for exploring the neuronal basis of the cognitive and behavioral effects observed following transcranial magnetic stimulation, a relatively new, non-invasive method of brain stimulation that may be used to treat clinical disorders. We completed a set of pilot studies applying offline low-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to the macaque posterior parietal cortex, which has been implicated in numerical processing, while subjects performed a numerical comparison and control color comparison task, and while electrophysiological activity was recorded from the stimulated region of cortex. We found tentative evidence in one paradigm that stimulation did selectively impair performance in the number task, causally implicating the posterior parietal cortex in numerical decisions. In another paradigm, however, we manipulated the subject’s reaching behavior but not her number or color comparison performance. We also found that stimulation produced variable changes in neuronal firing and local field potentials. Together these findings lay the groundwork for detailed investigations into how different parameters of transcranial magnetic stimulation can interact with cortical architecture to produce various cognitive and behavioral changes.

Finally, we explored how monkeys decide how to behave in competitive social interactions. In a zero-sum computer game in which two monkeys played as a shooter or a goalie during a hockey-like “penalty shot” scenario, we found that shooters developed complex movement trajectories so as to conceal their intentions from the goalies. Additionally, we found that neurons in the dorsolateral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex played a role in generating this “deceptive” behavior. We conclude that these regions of prefrontal cortex form part of a circuit that guides decisions to make an individual less predictable to an opponent.

Several recent studies have sought to identify conditions under which deceptions are justified in the Old Testament. For criteria, these studies employ conceptual frameworks, including the deceiver’s gender, the deceiver’s intentions, and the relative power of the deceiver and the deceived. While these factors illuminate some trends in the Old Testament's portrayal of deception, they are not comprehensive. By attending to the genre of biblical narrative, this study shows how theological themes provide a more thorough framework for assessing the function of deception in a large unit of biblical narrative—the book of 1 Samuel.

This study uses 1 Samuel as a case study to demonstrate how theological themes elucidate the narrative function of deception. Through narrative analysis in character studies of Saul, Michal, Jonathan, Abigail, and David, this study shows that acts of deception instantiate the central theme of 1 Samuel: the Lord’s selection of David as Israel's next king and the Lord's rejection of King Saul.

Saul's deceptions give texture to his multifaceted portrait, and the complexity of his character reveals the space in which the Lord chooses a new king. The narrative uses Saul's deceptions to develop both his capabilities and his failures, illustrating the interplay between human and divine agency in his loss of the kingship. Saul couples deception with violence as he seeks to eliminate David, but his efforts fail to harm the rising king.

Saul’s children, Michal and Jonathan, utilize deception to transfer loyalty from their father to the newly anointed king, David, and this shift guides the reader from Saul’s reign to David’s. From Jonathan and Michal, David learns to use deception as an alternative to violence; this skill allows him to secure his kingship without murdering Saul, which manifests David’s election. Abigail's use of concealment to establish her allegiance to David echoes Michal's and Jonathan's earlier uses of deception to transfer their loyalty from Saul to David. As a result of her indirection, Abigail persuades David to refrain from violence, a key lesson for David as he moves toward the throne.

David's own deceptions continue to refine his skilled cunning and allow him to secure the kingship without harming Saul. David's deceptions also play a pivotal role in developing the contrast between Saul and David, particularly insofar as they display David's trust in the Lord to establish his reign and his ability to manipulate the Philistines.

By interpreting acts of deception in their literary context, this study synthesizes insights from previous studies focusing on the justification of deception in terms of conceptual frameworks such as the deceiver’s gender, the deceiver’s intentions, and the relative power of the deceiver and the deceived. This study thus provides a comprehensive account of deception in 1 Samuel that reveals the theological foundation of election therein. The Lord’s choice of David determines whether the narrative portrays acts of deception positively or negatively more reliably than the deceiver’s merits, gender, or motivations.