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

这个跨学科的研究项目将集中在使用个人信息进行有针对性的和隐藏的说服，以及这种隐蔽的营销策略的技术，经济和社会影响。 研究人员使用术语“本能目标”来指收集个人数据的技术，然后使用这些技术来秘密影响偏好，态度和选择，而个人不知道这些做法的明确同意。 可以实践本能目标的领域包括消费者的购买决定、公民的投票意图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面部复合材料。 个性化的面部合成可以通过从各种来源（例如社交网站）收集个人面部的图像（或朋友或家庭成员的图像），然后将这些图像与第三方的面部图像进行数字组合来创建。 其结果是一个合成的面部图像，个人可能不再认识，但仍然可能引起强烈的情感和情绪反应。 这些技术可以用于隐性说服和有针对性的营销，以高度个性化和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面部合成的广告，该广告使用消费者在网上公开的照片创建，目的是影响消费者对产品的偏好。 这些营销技术最近已经成为可能的进步，在计算机科学，统计学和数据挖掘，并通过越来越多的个人信息，现在可通过在线社交网络和其他在线资源。 研究人员将使用一系列行为实验来调查这种本能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，经济和法律的影响。像个性化面部合成物这样的本能定位技术可能会吸引一些团体，如营销公司，并对其他人发出警告，例如隐私倡导者或普通公众。本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，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，信息和见解，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）竞赛获得支持。

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.