Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Acting Deceptively: Providing Robots with the Capacity for Deception

  • Published:
International Journal of Social Robotics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Deception is utilized by a variety of intelligent systems ranging from insects to human beings. It has been argued that the use of deception is an indicator of theory of mind (Cheney and Seyfarth in Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind, 2008) and of social intelligence (Hauser in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 89:12137–12139, 1992). We use interdependence theory and game theory to explore the phenomena of deception from the perspective of robotics, and to develop an algorithm which allows an artificially intelligent system to determine if deception is warranted in a social situation. Using techniques introduced in Wagner (Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI 2009), 2009), we present an algorithm that bases a robot’s deceptive action selection on its model of the individual it’s attempting to deceive. Simulation and robot experiments using these algorithms which investigate the nature of deception itself are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Akerlof GA (1970) The market for ‘lemons’. Quality uncertainty and the market mechanism. Q J Econ 84(3):488–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Arkin RC (1999) Behavior-based robotics, 2 edn. In: Arkin RC (ed) Intelligent robots and autonomous agents. MIT Press, Cambridge, p 491

    Google Scholar 

  3. Arkin RC (2009) Governing lethal behavior in autonomous robots. Chapman Hall/CRC, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  4. Axelrod R (1984) The evolution of cooperation. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  5. Bond CF, Robinson M (1988) The evolution of deception. J Nonverbal Behav 12(4):295–307

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM (2008) Baboon metaphysics: the evolution of a social mind. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  7. Ettinger D, Jehiel P (2009) Towards a theory of deception. ELSE Working Papers (181). ESRC Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution, London, UK

  8. Floreano D et al (2007) Evolutionary conditions for the emergence of communication in robots. Curr Biol 17(6):514–519

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gerwehr S, Glenn RW (2000) The art of darkness: deception and urban operations. Rand Corporation, Santa Monica

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gibbons R (1992) Game theory for applied economists. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hauser MD (1992) Costs of deception: cheaters are punished in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Proc Nat Acad Sci 89:12137–12139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Jordan M et al (1998) An introduction to variational methods for graphical models. In: Jordan M (ed) Learning in Graphical models. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  13. Kelley HH, Thibaut JW (1978) Interpersonal relations: a theory of interdependence. Wiley, New York, p 341

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kelley HH et al (2003) An atlas of interpersonal situations. Cambridge University Press, New York, p 506

    Google Scholar 

  15. MacKenzie DC, Arkin RC, Cameron JM (1997) Multiagent mission specification and execution. Auton Robot 4:29–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. McCleskey E (1991) Applying deception to special operations direct action missions. Defense Intelligence College, Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Norman D (1983) Some observations on mental models. In: Gentner D, Stevens A (eds) Mental models. Erlbaum, Hillsdale

    Google Scholar 

  18. Osborne MJ, Rubinstein A (1994) A course in game theory. MIT Press, Cambridge

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  19. Powers A, Kiesler S (2006) The advisor robot: tracing people’s mental model from a robot’s physical attributes. In: 1st ACM SIGCHI/SIGART conference on human-robot interaction, 2006, Salt Lake City, UT, USA

  20. Rusbult CE, Van Lange PAM (2003) Interdependence, interaction and relationship. Ann Rev Psychol 54:351–375

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Sears DO, Peplau LA, Taylor SE (1991) Social psychology. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, p 634

    Google Scholar 

  22. Spence M (1973) Job market signaling. Q J Econ 87(3):355–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Stoytchev A (2005) Behavior-grounded representation of tool affordances. In: EEE international conference on robotics and automation (ICRA). Barcelona, Spain

  24. Trafton JG et al (2006) Children and robots learning to play hide and seek. In: 1st ACM conference on human-robot interaction. ACM, Salt Lake City

    Google Scholar 

  25. Wagner AR (2009) Creating and using matrix representations of social interaction. In: Proceedings of the 4th international conference on human-robot interaction (HRI 2009). San Diego, CA, USA

  26. Wagner AR (2009) The role of trust and relationships in human-robot social interaction. In: School of interactive computing. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

    Google Scholar 

  27. Wagner AR, Arkin RC (2008) Analyzing social situations for human-robot interaction. Interact Stud 10(2):277–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Wagner AR, Arkin RC (2009) Robot deception: recognizing when a robot should deceive. In: IEEE international symposium on computational intelligence in robotics and automation. Daejeon, Korea

  29. Whaley B (1982) Towards a general theory of deception. J Strateg Stud 5(1):178–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Yamagishi T (2001) Trust as a form of social intelligence. In: Cook KS (ed) Trust in society. Russell Sage Foundation, New York, pp 121–147

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology, 85 5th Street, Room S27, NW, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA

    Alan R. Wagner & Ronald C. Arkin

  2. Georgia Tech Research Institute, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA

    Alan R. Wagner

Authors
  1. Alan R. Wagner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ronald C. Arkin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alan R. Wagner.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wagner, A.R., Arkin, R.C. Acting Deceptively: Providing Robots with the Capacity for Deception. Int J of Soc Robotics 3, 5–26 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-010-0073-8

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-010-0073-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation