This work was presented at HAIDM 2015. The 2015 workshop on Human-Agent Interaction Design and Models was co-organised by SmartSociety.

Abstract: Crowdsourcing has emerged as a powerful way to provide computer systems with quick and easy access to human intelligence. However, there is a risk that online crowd workers could be directed to perform harmful tasks. To understand the impact of financial incentives on paid crowd workers’ willingness to behave maliciously, we conducted a series of experiments in which we hired crowd workers via one crowdsourcing task (Attack task) to attack a different crowdsourcing task (Target task. We found that roughly one third of all crowd workers were willing to provide the attack task with potentially sensitive information from the target task, and that we could double this number by increasing the payment of the Attack task. Based on exit interviews and community feedback, we discuss some of what workers reported. Our findings reveal a measurable cost to completing malicious work that well-meaning task designers can leverage to protect their systems from attack.

Citation: Walter Lasecki, Jaime Teevan and Ece Kamar. What’s Your Price? The Cost of Asking Crowd Workers to Behave Maliciously.

Download: http://bit.ly/1VB1DTh

EASSS 2014 will be held at the Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece , from the 14th July to the 18th July 2014. Primarily focussed on single and multi-agent systems, this year’s school will feature additional courses covering topics related to social intelligence. It will be co-organised by the European Network for Social Intelligence and serves as their official Summer School.

Please note the deadline for early registration, which is the 31st May 2014. You can view the school’s complete schedule here.