“If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings
We examined the extent to which 262 adults, recruited from both a U.S. university sample and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, believed the identity of a 13-year-old boy or girl persona in an online chat room. Sixteen undergraduate confederates (aged 19-38) followed two basic biographical sketches (Amber or...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Psychological Society
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46917/ |
| _version_ | 1848797427284312064 |
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| author | Drouin, Michelle Egan, Vincent Yergens, Nicholas Hernandez, Elisa |
| author_facet | Drouin, Michelle Egan, Vincent Yergens, Nicholas Hernandez, Elisa |
| author_sort | Drouin, Michelle |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | We examined the extent to which 262 adults, recruited from both a U.S. university sample and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, believed the identity of a 13-year-old boy or girl persona in an online chat room. Sixteen undergraduate confederates (aged 19-38) followed two basic biographical sketches (Amber or James) and were instructed to “chat like a teenager” in one-to-one private chats. Confederates cycled through conditions where they provided no age or gender information (control), stated their age and gender, stated their age and gender and provided a picture (attractive or average), or stated their grade only. In all but the control condition, participants estimated the average age of their chat partner to be 13-14. Meanwhile, when confederates stated their age and gender, 83-88% of participants believed the confederate’s stated age, and 94-98% believed their gender. When asked about cues used to discern age and gender, most participants (98%) used multiple cues, including stated age and gender, content cues, style cues, and picture. Moreover, natural language analyses showed that the confederates used significantly fewer analytic words, fewer six-letter words, and displayed less clout than the adults with whom they chatted, and confederates who used more analytic words were perceived as older. Our findings contradict Lincoln and Coyle (2013) and suggest that even confederates who are not specially trained law enforcement agents are able to deceive others as to their age and gender in online chat rooms. These findings have important implications for those conducting undercover Internet stings and those who prosecute those cases. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:03:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-46917 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:03:42Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Psychological Society |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-469172020-05-08T09:45:11Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46917/ “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings Drouin, Michelle Egan, Vincent Yergens, Nicholas Hernandez, Elisa We examined the extent to which 262 adults, recruited from both a U.S. university sample and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, believed the identity of a 13-year-old boy or girl persona in an online chat room. Sixteen undergraduate confederates (aged 19-38) followed two basic biographical sketches (Amber or James) and were instructed to “chat like a teenager” in one-to-one private chats. Confederates cycled through conditions where they provided no age or gender information (control), stated their age and gender, stated their age and gender and provided a picture (attractive or average), or stated their grade only. In all but the control condition, participants estimated the average age of their chat partner to be 13-14. Meanwhile, when confederates stated their age and gender, 83-88% of participants believed the confederate’s stated age, and 94-98% believed their gender. When asked about cues used to discern age and gender, most participants (98%) used multiple cues, including stated age and gender, content cues, style cues, and picture. Moreover, natural language analyses showed that the confederates used significantly fewer analytic words, fewer six-letter words, and displayed less clout than the adults with whom they chatted, and confederates who used more analytic words were perceived as older. Our findings contradict Lincoln and Coyle (2013) and suggest that even confederates who are not specially trained law enforcement agents are able to deceive others as to their age and gender in online chat rooms. These findings have important implications for those conducting undercover Internet stings and those who prosecute those cases. American Psychological Society 2018-02-28 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46917/1/accepted%20druin%20and%20egan%20paper.pdf Drouin, Michelle, Egan, Vincent, Yergens, Nicholas and Hernandez, Elisa (2018) “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 24 (1). pp. 80-92. ISSN 1939-1528 online deception; Internet sting; undercover agents; sex offenders; prosecution http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-53598-001?doi=1 doi:10.1037/law0000149 doi:10.1037/law0000149 |
| spellingShingle | online deception; Internet sting; undercover agents; sex offenders; prosecution Drouin, Michelle Egan, Vincent Yergens, Nicholas Hernandez, Elisa “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings |
| title | “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings |
| title_full | “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings |
| title_fullStr | “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings |
| title_full_unstemmed | “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings |
| title_short | “If I tell you I’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings |
| title_sort | “if i tell you i’m 13 online, will you believe me?”: implications for undercover internet stings |
| topic | online deception; Internet sting; undercover agents; sex offenders; prosecution |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46917/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46917/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/46917/ |