IBSS: Societal, Economic, Technological, and Legal Implications of Personalized Face Composites

这个跨学科的研究项目将专注于利用个人信息进行有针对性的和隐蔽的说服，以及这种隐蔽的营销策略的技术、经济和社会影响。研究人员使用“内脏靶向”这个术语来指代这样一种技术，通过这种技术，个人的数据被收集起来，然后被用来秘密地影响个人的偏好、态度和选择，而个人并不知道自己已经明确同意了这些做法。可以进行本能定向的领域包括消费者的购买决策、公民的投票意向和社交网络用户的披露行为。该项目将集中于以个性化和有针对性的方式使用Face复合材料。通过从各种来源(如社交网站)收集个人面部的图像(或朋友或家人的图像)，然后将这些图像与第三方的面部图像进行数字组合，可以创建个性化的面部合成。结果是一个合成的面部图像，个人可能不再认识它，但它仍然可能引起强烈的情感和情感反应。这些技术可以用于隐含说服和有针对性的营销，以高度个性化且不太可能被发现的方式影响个人。例如，可能会向消费者展示一个包含个性化脸部合成的广告，该合成是使用消费者在网上公开提供的照片创建的，目的是影响消费者对某一产品的偏好。最近，由于计算机科学、统计学和数据挖掘的进步，以及现在在线社交网络和其他在线资源中可获得的个人信息量不断增加，这些营销技术成为可能。研究人员将使用一系列行为实验来调查这种内脏营销技术的技术可行性，他们将进行一系列补充研究，以检查这种做法的相关社会、经济和法律影响。像个性化脸部合成这样的内脏定位技术可能会吸引一些群体，如营销公司，但对其他群体，如隐私倡导者或普通公众来说，可能会令人担忧。该项目将评估这些技术的实际可行性及其对人们在各个领域的态度和行为的潜在影响，包括消费者行为、个人意见和披露行为。该项目将研究潜在的心理机制，这些机制可能解释这种内脏靶向技术的影响，以及这种技术的计算适用性。该项目将为广泛的学者和从业者提供新的视角、信息和真知灼见，包括销售主管、监管机构、政策制定者和整个社会。该项目通过NSF跨学科行为和社会科学研究(IBSS)竞赛得到支持。

This interdisciplinary research project will focus on the use of personal information for targeted and hidden persuasion as well as the technical, economic, and social implications of such covert marketing strategies. The researchers use the term "visceral targeting" to refer to techniques through which data about individuals is collected and then employed to covertly influence preferences, attitudes, and choices, without the individuals having knowledge of having given explicit consent for these practices. Realms within which visceral targeting may be practiced include purchasing decisions of consumers, voting intentions of citizens, and disclosure behaviors of social network users. This project will concentrate on the use of face composites in a personalized and targeted manner. Personalized face composites can be created by collecting images of an individual's face (or images of friends or family members) from a variety of sources (such as social networking sites) and then digitally combining those images with facial images of third parties. The result is a composite facial image which individuals may no longer recognize, but which may still evoke strong affective and emotional reactions. These techniques may be used for implicit persuasion and targeted marketing, to influence individuals in ways that are both highly individualized and unlikely to be detected. For example, a consumer might be shown an ad containing a personalized face composite, created using photos the consumer has made publicly available online, with the aim of influencing that consumer's preferences toward a product. These marketing techniques have recently been made possible by advancements in computer science, statistics, and data mining and by the increasing amount of individual information now available across online social networks and other online resources. The researchers will use a series of behavioral experiments to investigate the technological feasibility of such visceral marketing techniques, and they will conduct as set of complementary studies to examine related surrounding societal, economic, and legal implications of this practice.Visceral targeting techniques like personalized face composites may appeal to some groups, such as marketing companies, and be alarming to others, such as privacy advocates or members of the general public. This project will assess the actual feasibility of these techniques and their potential effect on people's attitudes and behaviors in various domains, including consumer behavior, personal opinions, and disclosure behavior. The project will examine the underlying psychological mechanisms that might explain the effects of such visceral targeting techniques as well as the computational applicability of such techniques. This project will provide new perspectives, information, and insights visceral targeting for a broad range of scholars and practitioners, including, sales executives, regulators, policy makers, and society at large. This project is supported through the NSF Interdisciplinary Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (IBSS) competition.