ABOUT US

Research interests

 

Personality: Dark Triad and Dark Tetrad

The Dark Triad refers to three overlapping but distinct personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The addition of everyday sadism creates the Dark Tetrad ​

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Key Findings​

• To date, we have found that Machiavellianism is the most misunderstood trait.

• These misunderstandings stem from the strategic nature of Machiavellianism. 

• They adapt to their environment to maximize their personal gain. ​

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Current Research

• We are currently examining systematically and meta-analytically how D3 traits interact with situational forces.

• We are starting a meta-analysis on the validity of different short measures of D3 traits.

• We are examining the validity of all Machiavellianism instruments in the peer reviewed literature. 

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Deception: Mimicry Deception Theory (MDT)

​Mimicry Deception Theory (MDT) posits that there are four elements of long-term deception: Increased complexity, increased host or community integration, sustainable resource extraction, low detectability. ​

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Key Findings

• Long-term deception as defined by MDT predicts increased financial losses in fraud cases.

• Long-term deceivers maintain secrecy more effectively.

• Long-term deceivers "hack" systems in a more stealthy manner.

• The patterns observed in MDT can be used to profile child sex offenders. 

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Current Research

• We are currently examining experimental conditions that shift long- vs. short-term deception strategies

• We are developing a refinement of the Mimicry Deception Scale, and creating a short- and long-term deception version.

• We are examining peer-report versions of the Mimicry Deception Scale. 

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Relationships: Emophilia

Emophilia is the tendency to fall in love fast, easily, and often. For example, have you ever known someone who falls in love after a first date? Or, do you tend to feel emotional connections with partners right away?​

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Key Findings​

• Those high in emophilia have a lower threshold for falling in love.

• Those high in emophilia are disproportionately drawn to manipulative partners. 

• Emophilia is associated with a high risk of infidelity

• Emophilia can lead to sexual risk-taking among women.​

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Current Research

• We are examining the impact of emophilia on newly formed vs. long-term relationships

• We are doing a comprehensive study on emophilia, related traits, and infidelity motivations.

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Cybersecurity: Patterns of attack, phishing, defense

Along with our collaborators, we study  cyber-attacker personality and tactics. We also study solutions to preventing phishing attacks from being effective.

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​Key Findings

• Dark Triad traits are associated with different patterns of cyberattacks. 

• Those lacking either intellectual humility or confidence struggle with identifying phishing emails.

• Psychological "inoculation" is a key solution to preventing phishing attacks.​

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Current Research

• We are currently examining how to reduce overconfidence in end-users to increase training efficacy.

• We are refining the cybersecurity overclaiming assessment to expand on different dimensions of knowledge.​

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