conference paper

Cognitive schemas and disinformation effects on decision making in lay populations1

Canan M.; Warren R.

Publication year: 2018
Source / journal: proceedings of the 13th international conference on cyber warfare and security iccws 2018
Country of origin: USA
Language: English
Authors’ affiliations: Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, United States
Import source: Scopus export

Abstract

Decision making, including voting, buying, and other behaviors, is constrained by available information. State and non-state actors use information operations to try to exploit information constraints to influence, manipulate, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp key influencers’, mass audience’s and lay population’s ability to make decisions. One way of achieving these aims is to disseminate disinformation by using information-related capabilities such as cyber operations. Disinformation can either increase the uncertainty of the available information or can entirely deceive a person. Hence, depending on the decision-making level, there can be severe consequences. At the mass audience and lay population levels (as opposed to the level of key influencers), disinformation can be disseminated very rapidly. The populations at these two levels are more susceptible to disinformation because they use social media, and mass communication media to access information. However, it is difficult to monitor and identify disinformation in this open access environment. As a result, people who are exposed to disinformation may develop cognitive schemas which, in turn, may constrain their future information seeking. Information seeking is a cognitive exercise that is applied when people are confronted with uncertainty. But a cognitive schema influenced by disinformation can result in organizational dysfunction or can deceive lay decision makers in daily activities, such as voting, toward the desire of an adversary. This paper investigates the lay-population disinformation vulnerability problem in three ways: First, from the perspective of cyber warfare in which social media can be a major battle field to mobilize vulnerable populations towards the desired end. Second, an analysis of conceptual modeling problems and issues. Third, a proposed preliminary mathematical model of the cognitive schema to further illuminate the impact of disinformation. © 2018 Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Author keywords

cyber operations, decision making, disinformation, information operations, psychological operations