Sleight of Hand: Identifying Concealed Information by Monitoring Mouse-Cursor Movements

Authors

Jeffrey L. Jenkins, Brigham Young UniversityFollow
Jeffrey Proudfoot, Bentley UniversityFollow
Joseph S. Valacich, University of ArizonaFollow
G. Mark Grimes, University of HoustonFollow
Jay F. Nunamaker, Jr., University of ArizonaFollow

Abstract

Organizational members who conceal information about adverse behaviors present a substantial risk to that organization. Yet the task of identifying who is concealing information is extremely difficult, expensive, error-prone, and time-consuming. We propose a unique methodology for identifying concealed information: measuring people’s mouse-cursor movements in online screening questionnaires. We theoretically explain how mouse-cursor movements captured during a screening questionnaire differ between people concealing information and truth tellers. We empirically evaluate our hypotheses using an experiment during which people conceal information about a questionable act. While people completed the screening questionnaire, we simultaneously collected mouse-cursor movements and electrodermal activity—the primary sensor used for polygraph examinations—as an additional validation of our methodology. We found that mouse-cursor movements can significantly differentiate between people concealing information and people telling the truth. Mouse-cursor movements can also differentiate between people concealing information and truth tellers on a broader set of comparisons relative to electrodermal activity. Both mouse-cursor movements and electrodermal activity have the potential to identify concealed information, yet mouse-cursor movements yielded significantly fewer false positives. Our results demonstrate that analyzing mouse-cursor movements has promise for identifying concealed information. This methodology can be automated and deployed online for mass screening of individuals in a natural setting without the need for human facilitators. Our approach further demonstrates that mouse-cursor movements can provide insight into the cognitive state of computer users.

Recommended Citation

Jenkins, Jeffrey L.; Proudfoot, Jeffrey; Valacich, Joseph S.; Grimes, G. Mark; and Nunamaker, Jr., Jay F. (2019) "Sleight of Hand: Identifying Concealed Information by Monitoring Mouse-Cursor Movements," Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 20(1), .
DOI: 10.17705/1jais.00527
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol20/iss1/3

DOI

10.17705/1jais.00527