These questions and many more are answered in a new quarterly magazine published by a UK-wide research centre based at Lancaster University.

The Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats (CREST) has just launched the publication entitled ‘CREST Security Review’ (CSR).

Articles translate academic jargon to ‘so what’ answers and illustrate how behavioural and social science can be used effectively in everyday scenarios.

Since its launch last year, CREST, which develops and uses economic and social science research to understand, mitigate and counter security threats, has established a growing international network of more than 80 researchers.

It has commissioned research in priority areas and begun to tackle some of the field’s most pressing questions.

The new magazine communicates research from CREST’s work and from other leading research centres and academics around the globe.

“There really is some impressive work going on,” says CREST Director Professor Paul Taylor. “Yet, all that effort is irrelevant if practitioners, policy-makers, and other stakeholders do not get to hear about it.

“CREST Security Review is one way we will keep stakeholders informed not only on what CREST is doing but also on the best research from around the world.”

Each issue will include articles on a particular focus.

The first issue addresses information elicitation including interrogation and interviewing and other contexts where people are encouraged to provide information. It will look at evidence-based techniques for detecting deception – from the polygraph to better questioning strategies; on the power of simple friendly questions in information elicitation; and on human memory.

Other articles examine why people are so trusting when online, reveal how our smart watches will soon know us better than ourselves and summarise the differences and similarities between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims.

• CREST Security Review is available from the CREST website.
• It is available free of charge, under a Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC-SA licence.
• CREST encourages the sharing and use of its material – for more information on how please visit https://crestresearch.ac.uk/copyright/

CREST is funded by the UK’s security and intelligence agencies to identify and produce social science that enhances their understanding of security threats and capacity to counter them.

CREST also receives funding from its six founding partners (the universities of Bath, Birmingham, Cranfield, Lancaster, Portsmouth and West of England).

Its funding is administered by the Economic and Social Research Council, one of seven UK Research Councils, which direct taxpayers’ money towards academic research and training. The ESRC ensures the academic independence and rigour of CREST’s work.

For more information on CREST and its work visit its website at www.crestresearch.ac.uk and follow it on twitter @crest_research