Timothy R. Levine

Last updated

Timothy R. Levine is an American communication professor, prolific researcher, and theorist. He is Distinguished Professor and Chair of Communication Studies at University of Alabama at Birmingham. [1] Levine is credited as one of the most central and prolific researchers in the field of Communication Studies, [2] is known for his work as the creator of truth-default theory, his developmental work on the veracity effect, and editing of the encyclopedia of deception. [3] He is the author of Duped, published by The University of Alabama Press.

Contents

Education

Levine was born in Scottsdale, Arizona and attended Northern Arizona University, where he received a BS in psychology, and West Virginia University, where he received a MA in communication in 1985. He earned a Ph.D. at Michigan State University in 1992.

Career

Dr. Timothy Levine teaches and produces research on topics such as deception, interpersonal communication, persuasion, social influence, cross-cultural communication, and social scientific research methods. [4] Levine teaches graduate and undergraduate classes, and also does training for police, attorneys, and people in the intelligence and counterintelligence work industry. Before he held his current position at UAB, Levine has had teaching positions at Korea University, Michigan State University, Indiana University and University of Hawaii. Some of his contributions to the study of communication are developments of Information Manipulation Theory, Truth Default Theory, the Veracity Effect, the Probing Effect, and the Park-Levine Probability Model. Levine has had research funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, [5] and the FBI.

Related Research Articles

Deception is the act of convincing one or many recipients of untrue information. The person creating the deception knows it to be false while the receiver of the message has a tendency to believe it. It is often done for personal gain or advantage. Deception can involve dissimulation, propaganda and sleight of hand as well as distraction, camouflage or concealment. There is also self-deception. It can also be called, with varying subjective implications, beguilement, deceit, bluff, mystification, ruse, or subterfuge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Alabama at Birmingham</span> Public university on Birmingham, Alabama, US

The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama. Founded in 1969 and part of the University of Alabama System, UAB has grown to be the state's largest employer, with more than 24,200 faculty and staff and over 53,000 jobs at the university. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".

Everett M. "Ev" Rogers was an American communication theorist and sociologist, who originated the diffusion of innovations theory and introduced the term early adopter. He was distinguished professor emeritus in the department of communication and journalism at the University of New Mexico.

In media studies, mass communication, media psychology, communication theory, and sociology, media influence and themedia effect are topics relating to mass media and media culture's effects on individuals' or audiences' thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors. Through written, televised, or spoken channels, mass media reach large audiences. Mass media's role in shaping modern culture is a central issue for the study of culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth E. Boulding</span> British-American economist (1910–1993)

Kenneth Ewart Boulding was an English-born American economist, educator, peace activist, and interdisciplinary philosopher. Boulding was the author of two citation classics: The Image: Knowledge in Life and Society (1956) and Conflict and Defense: A General Theory (1962). He was co-founder of general systems theory and founder of numerous ongoing intellectual projects in economics and social science. He was married to sociologist Elise M. Boulding.

Sally Ann Jackson is an American scholar of argumentation, communication, and rhetoric. She is Professor Emerita of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark L. Knapp</span> American academic

Mark L. Knapp is the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Professor Emeritus and a Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin. He is internationally known for his research and writing on nonverbal communication and communication in developing relationships. He has also done research and published books on lying and deception. The Mark L. Knapp Award for career contributions to the study of interpersonal communication is awarded annually by the National Communication Association. The Mark L. Knapp Professorship, Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, was established in 2017.

Interpersonal deception theory (IDT) is one of a number of theories that attempts to explain how individuals handle actual deception at the conscious or subconscious level while engaged in face-to-face communication. The theory was put forth by David Buller and Judee Burgoon in 1996 to explore this idea that deception is an engaging process between receiver and deceiver. IDT assumes that communication is not static; it is influenced by personal goals and the meaning of the interaction as it unfolds. IDT is no different from other forms of communication since all forms of communication are adaptive in nature. The sender's overt communications are affected by the overt and covert communications of the receiver, and vice versa. IDT explores the interrelation between the sender's communicative meaning and the receiver's thoughts and behavior in deceptive exchanges.

Information Manipulation Theory (IMT) & is a theory of deceptive discourse production, rooted in H. Paul Grice's theory of conversational implicature. IMT argues that, rather than communicators producing "truths" and "lies," the vast majority of everyday deceptive discourse involves complicated combinations of elements that fall somewhere in between these polar opposites; with the most common form of deception being the editing-out of contextually problematic information. More specifically, individuals have available to them four different ways of misleading others: playing with the amount of relevant information that is shared, including false information, presenting irrelevant information, and/or presenting information in an overly vague fashion. As long as such manipulations remain covert - that is, undetected by recipients - deception will succeed. Two of the most important practical implications of IMT are that deceivers commonly use messages that are composed entirely of truthful information to deceive; and that because this is the case, our ability to detect deception in real-world environments is extremely limited.

Charles R. Berger was an American professor emeritus of communication at the University of California, Davis. Berger died on September 25, 2018, from health complications arising from cancer.

Judee K. Burgoon is a professor of communication, family studies and human development at the University of Arizona, where she serves as director of research for the Center for the Management of Information and site director for the NSF-sponsored Center for Identification Technology Research. She is also involved with different aspects of interpersonal and nonverbal communication, deception, and new communication technologies. She is also director of human communication research for the Center for the Management of Information and site director for Center for Identification Technology Research at the university, and recently held an appointment as distinguished visiting professor with the department of communication at the University of Oklahoma, and the Center for Applied Social Research at the University of Oklahoma. Burgoon has authored or edited 13 books and monographs and has published nearly 300 articles, chapters and reviews related to nonverbal and verbal communication, deception, and computer-mediated communication. Her research has garnered over $13 million in extramural funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Counterintelligence Field Activity, and the National Institutes of Mental Health. Among the communication theories with which she is most notably linked are: interpersonal adaptation theory, expectancy violations theory, and interpersonal deception theory. A recent survey identified her as the most prolific female scholar in communication in the 20th century.

Relational transgressions occur when people violate implicit or explicit relational rules. These transgressions include a wide variety of behaviors. The boundaries of relational transgressions are permeable. Betrayal for example, is often used as a synonym for a relational transgression. In some instances, betrayal can be defined as a rule violation that is traumatic to a relationship, and in other instances as destructive conflict or reference to infidelity.

Post-truth is a term that refers to the 21st century widespread documentation of and concern about disputes over public truth claims. The term's academic development refers to the theories and research that explain the historically specific causes and the effects of the phenomenon. In the United States, Donald Trump has been characterized as engaged in a "war on truth."

Aurelio José Figueredo is an American evolutionary psychologist. He is a professor of psychology, Family Studies and Human Development at the University of Arizona, where he is also the director of the Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology Laboratory. He is also a member of the interdisciplinary Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona. His major areas of research interest are the evolutionary psychology and behavioral development of life history strategy, cognition, sex, and violence in human and nonhuman animals, and the quantitative ethology and social development of insects, birds, and primates. He is known for his research on personality, such as a 1997 study in which he and James E. King developed the Chimpanzee Personality Questionnaire to measure the Big Five personality traits in chimpanzees.

Piers Gregory Robinson is a British academic researcher in the field of media studies. He is also a co-director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and a founder of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (SPM). He has authored a number of publications on the CNN effect. He has attracted criticism for disputing the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War.

Truth-default theory (TDT) is a communication theory which predicts and explains the use of veracity and deception detection in humans. It was developed upon the discovery of the veracity effect - whereby the proportion of truths versus lies presented in a judgement study on deception will drive accuracy rates. This theory gets its name from its central idea which is the truth-default state. This idea suggests that people presume others to be honest because they either don't think of deception as a possibility during communicating or because there is insufficient evidence that they are being deceived. Emotions, arousal, strategic self-presentation, and cognitive effort are nonverbal behaviors that one might find in deception detection. Ultimately this theory predicts that speakers and listeners will default to use the truth to achieve their communicative goals. However, if the truth presents a problem, then deception will surface as a viable option for goal attainment.

William Lyon Benoit is an American scholar in the field of political communication. He graduated from Ball State University in 1975 and obtained his Master of Arts degree from Central Michigan University in 1976. He also holds a PhD from Wayne State University.

<i>Talking to Strangers</i> Non-fiction book by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know is a nonfiction book written by Malcolm Gladwell and published by Little, Brown and Company on September 10, 2019. The audiobook version of the book follows Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast-style structure, using Gladwell's narration, interviews, sound bites, and the theme song "Hell You Talmbout".

David M. Markowitz is a communication professor at the University of Oregon who specializes in the study of language and deception. Much of his work focuses on how technological channels impact the encoding and decoding of messages. His work has captured the attention of magazines and outlets in popular culture; he writes articles for Forbes magazine about deception. Much of his research has utilized analyses of linguistic and analytic styles of writing, for example, Markowitz's work on pet adoption ads was referenced in a website featuring tips on how to write better pet adoption ads.

References

  1. "UAB - CAS - Department of Communication Studies - Timothy R. Levine". UAB . Retrieved 2018-12-16.
  2. Griffin, Darrin J.; Bolkan, San; Dahlbach, Barbara J. (2018). "Scholarly Productivity in Communication Studies: Five-Year Review 2012-2016". Communication Education. 67 (1): 88–101. doi:10.1080/03634523.2017.1385820. ISSN   0363-4523. S2CID   148600349.
  3. "Encyclopedia of Deception". SAGE Publications Inc. 2018-11-24. Retrieved 2018-12-16.
  4. "Timothy Levine". timothy.levine.socialpsychology.org. Retrieved 2018-12-16.
  5. "Levine, Timothy". SAGE Publications Inc. 2018-11-24. Retrieved 2018-12-16.