Hedge funds are the rock stars of today's financial world. These slightly regulated pools of equity, which are open only to rich players, are managed through secretive and sophisticated investment strategies. Although the risks are high, so are the potential benefits. Despite the risks, many colleges and universities have chosen to invest heavily…

Acknowledging the pain and loss senior citizens experience due to fraud, the Denver District Attorney's Office launched a campaign--"Clergy Against Senior Exploitation (CASE)"--to reduce fraud perpetrated on older persons. The thrust of this project was preventing fraud by educating older adults through their religious affiliations in…

This experiment examined children's and undergraduates' verbal and nonverbal deceptive behavior, and the extent to which their truths and lies could be correctly classified by paying attention to these responses. Participants (N = 196) aged 5-6, 10-11, and 14-15, as well as university undergraduates, participated in an erasing the blackboard…

Adolescents' willingness to share information with parents is a central process through which parents gain knowledge of their adolescents' lives. This paper addresses four questions important to understanding adolescents' decisions to voluntarily disclose areas of parent-adolescent disagreement: What are the contribution of parent-adolescent…

In this article, the author compares the arguments of Susan Swartzlander, Diana Pace, and Virginia Lee Stamler (1993) who note the contradiction between the "shockingly unprofessional" practice of asking students to write about their personal traumas in writing courses and the common occurrence of such assignments with Jeffrey Berman…

Investigated the ability to deceive in participants with autism, mental retardation (MR), and normal development. Results indicated that participants with autism and those with MR did not differ in their ability to use a deceptive method, but participants with autism were significantly less able to understand that they manipulated the beliefs of…

Examines mock jurors processing testimony under impression-set and memory-set conditions to determine under which condition they rate a witness to be more deceptive. Finds that under impression-set objectives subjects formed stronger judgments of the witness's deceptiveness, while the pattern was reversed under memory-set conditions. (MS)

Twenty-one learning-disabled and 22 nondisabled junior high students heard a series of audiotaped stories describing interactions between 2 individuals, with each story containing a statement that was either sincere, deceptive, or sarcastic. Probes of students' interpretations of these statements found that learning-disabled students were less…

Suggests that educators need to let students know that sometimes messages are sent in the hopes of confusing or misleading readers or listeners. Notes that people sending such messages include politicians, marketers, educators, parents, entertainers, medical personnel, and in fact, anybody and everybody. Considers how modern media makes it easier…

We describe an obedience demonstration that introduces social psychology in a new and interesting way. After students came to believe that a confederate was the course instructor, they complied with his request to provide him with personal information. Subsequent lecture introduced students to several key concepts, including obedience,…

In looking at recent graduation rates reported by states, Latinos should be proud. For the 2002-03 school year, North Carolina reported a 94% graduation rate for Latinos, while New Mexico claimed an 89% rate, and Indiana, an 85% rate. Unfortunately, these numbers are not only deceptive, they are, according to the Education Trust, wrong. Under the…

Deception is defined and explained as a value, not just as a behavior. This essay advocates truthfulness as a unit of instruction in the elementary and middle school grades, in secondary schools, as well as in college. Deception is shown to be ubiquitous in our culture and is defined as a corrosive cultural element in need of correcting. Deception…

In this article, the author discusses "Wiki-ality" and "truthiness"--notions that explain a lot about life in the 21st century. Both words were coined by Stephen Colbert, an American comedian and actor. Colbert coined the word "Wiki-ality" based on Wikipedia, a popular online encyclopedia which seems far more…

Provides new examples of doublespeak (use of language with the intent to obscure or deceive) from the Canadian Sampler and suggests that language arts teachers and teachers of writing can help reduce instances of doublespeak by teaching students to see through doublespeak and to write clearly. (JC)

A report on for-profit trade schools said that many schools offer such poor-quality training that large numbers of their students drop out and default on their student loans when they cannot find jobs. Secretary Bennett calls on Congress to crack down on proprietary schools. (MLW)