DONDENA Seminar - William Brady

joint with the Department of Cognitive Science

You may follow the seminar at the following link.

“Algorithm-mediated social learning in online social networks” 

SPEAKER: William Brady (Kellogg School of Management)

ABSTRACT: Social information is the currency of human culture, and it is increasingly encountered in online social networks where information flow is controlled by algorithms. In practice, this has generated a significant problem: social information encountered online is often highly unrepresentative of all the people in a given social network. Focusing on the context of politics, I argue that this problem of unrepresentativeness is best explained as an emergent phenomenon that arises when humans and social media algorithms learn from one another (‘algorithm-mediated social learning’). I will present a series of experiments in the lab and in a large field experiment that find social media algorithms exploit human social learning biases toward PRestigious, Ingroup, Moral and Emotional information, or PRIME information) in ways that distort our understanding of social norms. This work also examines consequences of algorithm-mediated social learning for intergroup relations, and test newly designed algorithms that mitigate unrepresentativeness, offering possible paths toward healthier online information environments.

BIO: William Brady is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations. His research examines the dynamics of emotion at the social network level and their consequences for group behavior. His recent work studies how human psychology and AI-mediated social contexts interact to shape our emotions and intergroup attitudes. Combining tools of behavioral science and computational social science, his research aims to develop person-centered and design-centered interventions to improve our digital social interactions. Professor Brady’s research has been published in leading journals such as Nature, Science, PNAS, Science Advances, and Perspectives on Psychological Science. His work has also been featured in popular press outlets, including The New York Times, BBC, Wired, and The Wall Street Journal. In recognition of his contributions, he has been selected for the Association for Psychology Science (APS) Spence Award for transformative early career contributions, the APS Rising Star Award, and the SAGE Emerging Scholar award. Professor Brady earned his BA in Psychology and Philosophy, with distinction, from UNC-Chapel Hill, his Ph.D. in Social Psychology at New York University, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation where he worked at Yale University.