Deception Awareness and Resilience Training

NSF Convergence Accelerator program logo.

The overarching goal of our DART project is the development of a research/educational platform with integrated digital tools, advanced pedagogical techniques, and timely materials to increase awareness of and improve resilience, to inoculate users against the impact of scams and prevent their spread.

Online deception disproportionately target seniors to disastrous effect. The Deception Awareness and Resilience Training (DART) platform helps seniors recognize threats and protect themselves. A collaboration between researchers, game designers, and community organizations, DART is unique in tailoring its curriculum and using gamification to make training accessible and engaging for seniors.

Project Summary

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Fact Sheet

The primary objectives of our proposed project are to:

  1. Develop flexible technologies and culturally responsive group learning activities to facilitate communal examination and discussion of false and misleading information and inauthentic online behaviors in safe and familiar settings.
  2. Conduct transdisciplinary research to advance our understanding of the impact of scams.
  3. Identify and implement preventive (‘immunization’) strategies and mitigation practices.
Graphic entitled Figure 1: Overview of DART Components. DART logo appears in the upper left corner with the tagline “Play. Practice. Protect.” On the left is a cartoon depiction of an older man and woman labeled DART Users. Two blue arrows point from them to pictures representing the DART Play and DART Learn components. DART Play is on top and is represented by a smart phone. DART Learn is represented by a chalkboard. There is a third blue arrow pointing from DART Play to DART Learn. On the right of the figure is a picture of profile photos and chat bubbles, representing social media, labeled DART Practice; two blue arrows point from DART Play and DART Learn to DART Practice.

The DART platform is an unprecedented transdisciplinary effort to improve user awareness and build their resilience to deception in social media. Our project is distinctive in its integration of a breadth of research fields and methods into a convergent research approach to knowledge creation and problem-solving in collaboration with community partners. DART is designed for joined social experiences and learning, distinguishing it from existing gamified platforms and cyber ranges and allowing us to take full advantage of our team’s expertise in both STEM and non-STEM fields. It also helps us establish meaningful collaborations with a range of partners and facilitate optimal integration with flexibility built-in for further growth and reach into additional areas and community partnerships.

DART is also a unique research platform that can serve as a valuable observation desk and data-gathering tool for the study of the harmful effects of deception in our social media ecosystem. We expect that it will enable researchers from a wide range of fields develop comprehensive methods and strategies to improve the user awareness and resilience of diverse demographics and groups, especially in underserved communities.