Manipulation in group argument evaluation.

Given an argumentation framework and a group of agents, the individuals may have divergent opinions on the status of the arguments. If the group needs to reach a common po- sition on the argumentation framework, the question is how the individual evaluations can be mapped into a collective one. This problem has been recently investigated in [1]. In this paper, we study under which conditions these operators are Pareto optimal and whether they are manipulable.Collective decision making; Argumentation; Judgment aggregation; Social choice theory;

Manipulation in Group Argument Evaluation.

Given an argumentation framework and a group of agents, the individuals may have divergent opinions on the status of the arguments. If the group needsto reach a common position on the argumentation framework, the question is how the individual evaluations can be mapped into a collective one. Thisproblem has been recently investigated by Caminada and Pigozzi. In this paper, we investigate the behaviour of two of such operators from a socialchoice-theoretic point of view. In particular, we study under which conditions these operators are Pareto optimal and whether they are manipulable.Social choice theory; Judgment aggregation; Argumentation; Collective decision making;

Pareto Optimality and Strategy Proofness in Group Argument Evaluation (Extended Version)

An inconsistent knowledge base can be abstracted as a set of arguments and a defeat relation among them. There can be more than one consistent way to evaluate such an argumentation graph. Collective argument evaluation is the problem of aggregating the opinions of multiple agents on how a given set of arguments should be evaluated. It is crucial not only to ensure that the outcome is logically consistent, but also satisfies measures of social optimality and immunity to strategic manipulation. This is because agents have their individual preferences about what the outcome ought to be. In the current paper, we analyze three previously introduced argument-based aggregation operators with respect to Pareto optimality and strategy proofness under different general classes of agent preferences. We highlight fundamental trade-offs between strategic manipulability and social optimality on one hand, and classical logical criteria on the other. Our results motivate further investigation into the relationship between social choice and argumentation theory. The results are also relevant for choosing an appropriate aggregation operator given the criteria that are considered more important, as well as the nature of agents' preferences

Inducing Natural Group Identity: A RDP Analysis

A relevance, distinctiveness and plausibility (RDP) analysis is a conceptual framework that can be used to identify when potential confounds are a problem for interpreting experimental results. We illustrate this analysis using the creation or enhancement of natural group identity by the means of priming manipulations as employed in the experiments of five target papers. Such priming manipulations may lead to experimenter demand effects and may spuriously induce behavior change. Using a RDP analysis, we show how these potential confounds are likely to be problematic for all but one of the target papers

Semi-Automated SVG Programming via Direct Manipulation

Direct manipulation interfaces provide intuitive and interactive features to a broad range of users, but they often exhibit two limitations: the built-in features cannot possibly cover all use cases, and the internal representation of the content is not readily exposed. We believe that if direct manipulation interfaces were to (a) use general-purpose programs as the representation format, and (b) expose those programs to the user, then experts could customize these systems in powerful new ways and non-experts could enjoy some of the benefits of programmable systems. In recent work, we presented a prototype SVG editor called Sketch-n-Sketch that offered a step towards this vision. In that system, the user wrote a program in a general-purpose lambda-calculus to generate a graphic design and could then directly manipulate the output to indirectly change design parameters (i.e. constant literals) in the program in real-time during the manipulation. Unfortunately, the burden of programming the desired relationships rested entirely on the user. In this paper, we design and implement new features for Sketch-n-Sketch that assist in the programming process itself. Like typical direct manipulation systems, our extended Sketch-n-Sketch now provides GUI-based tools for drawing shapes, relating shapes to each other, and grouping shapes together. Unlike typical systems, however, each tool carries out the user's intention by transforming their general-purpose program. This novel, semi-automated programming workflow allows the user to rapidly create high-level, reusable abstractions in the program while at the same time retaining direct manipulation capabilities. In future work, our approach may be extended with more graphic design features or realized for other application domains.Comment: In 29th ACM User Interface Software and Technology Symposium (UIST 2016

The Politics of HPV Vaccination Advocacy: Effects of Source Expertise on Effectiveness of a Pro-Vaccine Message

The Politics of HPV Vaccination Advocacy: Effects of Source Expertise on Effectiveness of a Pro-Vaccine Message Persistent public resistance to an apparently safe, effective and life-saving public health practice such as HPV vaccination illustrates a significant issue in the communication of behavioral recommendations based on evidence-based scientific data and consensus views of scientific and medical experts. This study examines the influence of source expertise on pro-HPV-vaccine advocacy messaging effectiveness among audiences of differing political ideologies. The findings support prior research indicating greater resistance to HPV vaccination among political conservatives. Subjects who self-identified politically as Centrists and Conservatives were significantly less likely to think deeply about a pro-HPV advocacy message delivered by an expert spokesperson than were politically self-identified Progressives. Conservatives who viewed a pro-HPV vaccination message delivered by a non-expert spokesperson had significantly more positive attitudes toward HPV vaccination than Conservatives who received no advocacy message (the control condition). By contrast, attitudes of Conservatives who viewed a pro-HPV vaccination message delivered by an expert spokesperson were not significantly different from those who received no advocacy message. The findings suggest an over-reliance on expert spokespeople for delivering science-based behavioral recommendations

Manipulative techniques in political election campaign advertising: experience of Ukraine (Маніпулятивні прийоми у політичній передвиборчій рекламі: досвід України)

The article embraces the scope of the techniques used in manipulation of public opinion by candidates in the election process of Ukraine during the period of 2004-2012. The main focus is on the political election campaign advertising, revealing its meaning as communicative activity and as a process that mostly always is accompanied by the use of manipulative techniques. Based on the author's analysis of election campaigns and works of Ukrainian scholars, there were also determined manipulative methods and techniques that were most actively used during the last election cycles (У статті розкрито особливості використання прийомів маніпуляції суспільною свідомістю суб’єктами виборчих процесів в Україні у 2004-2012 рр. Основна увагу зосереджено на політичній передвиборчій рекламі; розкривається її зміст як комунікативної діяльності та процесу, який фактично завжди супроводжується використанням маніпулятивних технологій. На основі авторського аналізу виборчих кампаній та праць українських вчених, визначено маніпулятивні методики та прийоми, які найактивніше використовувалися під час останніх виборчих циклів

Evaluative conditioning: recent developments and future directions

CONTINGENCY AWARENESS; ATTITUDE-CHANGE; EFFECTS DEPEND; IMPLICIT; ASSOCIATION; DISLIKES; VALENCE; LIKES; US; MISATTRIBUTION; Automaticity; Evaluative conditioning; Functional definition; Mental process theorie