Half-Day Workshop on Lies and Deception
Held as part of the Workshop on Argumentation, Rationality and Decision
Lies and deception play an increasingly important role in many aspects of modern life, across many disciplines. Clinical medical trials, for instance, require patients and even clinicians and experiment adminstrators to be deceived as to which drugs are treatments and which placebos, so as to validly test the impact of treatments. Effective negotiations, such as those in political or commercial domains, may require participants to deceive their opponents regarding their true valuations, objectives, and/or budget constraints. And effective public policy in areas as diverse as public health, fuel supplies, and financial sector regulation, for instance, may require Governments and state agencies to mislead the public about current situations and regulatory intentions, in order to avoid mass panics (such as bank runs or fuel shortages) caused by self-fulfilling or self-denying prophecies.
This half-day workshop aims to explore these issues of lies and deception across several different research and policy domains, with the aim of sharing experiences, and raising interesting questions and distinctions for further exploration. The workshop will comprise several informal talks, from people in different academic and policy disciplines, presenting case studies and experiences, with lots of time for discussion and reflection. Links to the main themes of argument, rationality, and decision-making will be drawn explicitly, particularly for public policy decision-making.
Invited Speakers:
- Marcus Bazley, Cyphers Theatre Company: The art of deception.
- Matthew Harries, Department of War Studies, King’s College London: Deception in military deterrence.
- Dominic Oliver, Ipsos-MORI, London: Deception in politics.
- Catrin Plumpton, Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation, University of Bangor, Wales: Homeopathic medicine.
- Gareth Tyson, School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary, University of London: Internet deception.
Provisional Program:
- 09.00 Start and Welcome
- 09.00 – 09.30: Gareth Tyson
- 09.30 – 10.00: Catrin Plumpton
- 10.00 – 10.30: Matthew Harries
- 10.30 – 11.00: Coffee
- 11.00 – 11.30: Dominic Oliver
- 11.30 – 12.00: Marcus Bazley
- 12.00 – 12.30: General Discussion.
- 12.30: Close.
Location: Department of Computing, Imperial College, London.
Huxley Building
180 Queen’s Gate
South Kensington Campus
Imperial College London
London SW7 2AZ
Participation: The workshop is open to researchers, Ph.D. students and anyone interested in these topics, in any field. There is no fee for participation, but there are limited places available. Please register here.
Organizers: Peter McBurney, Department of Informatics, and William P. Nash, Department of Physics, King’s College London. We are grateful for financial support from the Sintelnet Project.