SciTechBits – Interesting Bits of Science & Technoglogy Served For You!

Our behavior online is now a primary focus of researchers. One group of researchers believes that, our online behavior is no different to evolutionary behavior, as explained by evolutionary psychology.

Internet behavior is one of the most researched fields in the recent times. However most of the studies have based their research on traditional psychology models, which are good in determining the proximal causes of our online behavior. Researchers from UK are now proposing that our internet behavior is modeled upon evolutionary psychology and suggesting that, such a model would help learn the distal causes of our internet behavior.

Despite the major differences between face to face communication and computer mediated communication, there exist a lot of similarities. To further their claim and motivate fellow researchers, the researchers have made some interesting similarities between typical online behaviors and evolutionary psychology theories. Given below are few of those observations/suggestions. Further research into each of the following, would help us learn, whether we are following our evolutionary psychological behavior, online as well.

Your right to privacy is shrinking, but it’s happening quietly without much publicity. Identity theft steals far more than your privacy.  So far in 2009, over 13 million records have been breached! Here are the top privacy breaches this year.

by Angie Porter
Cyberspace is the new Wild West frontier where sophisticated hacking is like having the fastest gun. Man-in-the-middle attacks are common place, while credit card PIN crackers lead the pack of cyber outlaws. Neither SSL websites nor the “smart” grid can be considered safe anymore. Lucifer, AKA a social engineer, may dwell on your friend’s list within instant messengers or social sites. Even if you manage to avoid tweeting your intentions, botnets, or clickjackers, the vast frontier of cyberspace is shrinking in regards to your privacy.