Online Deception and Misinformation

Online deception and misinformation have been fueled by the deep penetration of the Internet and social media in support of personal and business communications. The identification of indicators and signals of deception or misinformation is instrumental to the detection task. We have investigated multiple dimensions of indicators of online deception, including lexical, structural, and discourse behaviors, in a variety of settings. In addition, we have developed and enhanced a variety of traditional machine learning and deep learning models for automatic deception detection and for augmentation of human detection.

Selected Publications

Zhang, D., G. Shan, M. Lee, L. Zhou, Z. Fu (2025), MT-GPD: A Multimodal Deep Transfer Learning Model Enhanced by Auxiliary Mechanisms for Cross-Domain Online Fake News Detection, Production and Operations Management, 34(8), 2448-2470.

Zhou, L., J. Tao, D. Zhang (2022). Do Fake News in Different Languages Tell the Same Story? An Analysis of Multi-level Thematic and Emotional Characteristics of News about COVID-19, Information Systems Frontier, September, 1-20.

Shan, G., L. Zhou, and Zhang, D. (2021). From Conflicts and Confusion to Doubts: Examining Review Inconsistency for Fake Review Detection. Decision Support Systems. 144, May.

Ahmed F. Aleroud and L. Zhou (2017). Phishing Environments, Techniques, and Countermeasures: A Survey, Computers & Security, 68, 160-196.

Zhang, D, L. Zhou, Luo, J., and D. Isil (2016). What Online Reviewer Behaviors Really Matter? Journal of Management Information Systems, 33(2), 456-481.

Zhou, L., J. Wu, and D. Zhang (2014). Discourse Feature of Deception Behavior in case of Multiple Receivers. Information & Management, 51(6), 726-737.

Pak, J. and L. Zhou (2014). Social Structural Behavior of Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication. Decision Support Systems. July, 63, 95-103.

Zhou, L., D. Zhang, and Y. Sung (2013). The Effects of Group Factors on Deception Detection Performance. Small Group Research, 24(3), 272-297, June.

Zhou, L., Y. Sung, and D. Zhang (2013). Deception Performance in Online Group Negotiation and Decision Making: The Effects of Deception Experience and Deception Skill. Group Decision and Negotiation. 22(1), January, 153-172.

Zhou, L. Y. Shi, and D. Zhang (2008). A Statistical Language Modeling Approach to Online Deception Detection, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 20(8), 1077-1081.

Zhou, L. and A. Zenebe (2008). Representation and Reasoning under Uncertainty in Deception Detection: A Neuro-fuzzy Approach, IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems, 16(2), April, 442-454.

Zhou, L. and D. Zhang (2007). An Ontology-supported Misinformation Model: Toward a digital misinformation library, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (Part A). 37(5), Sept. 804-813.

Zhou, L. and D. Zhang (2007). Typing or Messaging? Modality Effect on Deception Detection in Computer-mediated Communication, Decision Support Systems, 44, 188-201.

Zhou, L., J.K. Burgoon, D. Twitchell, T. Qin, and J.F. Nunamaker (2004). A Comparison of Classification Methods for Predicting Deception in Computer-Mediated Communication. Journal of Management Information Systems, 20(4), 139-165.