MIS Distinguished Speaker Series

Temple University

You are here: Home / Archives for social network

social network

Apr 22 – Joey George to present “Using Eye Tracking to Discover Why People Believe Disinformation about Healthcare”

By

Using Eye Tracking to Discover Why People Believe Disinformation about Healthcare

by

Joey George

The John D. DeVries Endowed Chair in Business
Distinguished Professor in Business
Ivy College of Business
Iowa State University

Friday, Apr 22
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
In-person: 1810 Liacouras Walk, Room 420

 

Abstract:

Disinformation – false information intended to cause harm or for profit – is pervasive. While disinformation exists in several domains, one area with the most potential for personal harm from disinformation is healthcare. The ongoing study described in this presentation seeks to determine what aspects of multimedia social network posts lead people to believe and potentially act on healthcare disinformation. The study has two parts: one online and one in our neuroscience laboratory. In both parts, study participants viewed a series of false social media posts dealing with various aspects of healthcare. They were asked to determine if the posts were true or false and then to provide the reasoning behind their choices. In the second part of the study, participant gaze was captured through eye tracking technology. This approach has the potential to discover the elements of disinformation that help convince the viewer a given post is true. In the long term, it is hoped that these discoveries will lead to the development of interventions that will discourage people from acting on healthcare related disinformation.

Bio:

Joey F. George is the John D. DeVries Endowed Chair in Business and a Distinguished Professor in Business at Iowa State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Stanford University and a doctorate at the University of California Irvine. His research interests focus on deceptive computer-mediated communication. He is a past president of the Association for Information Systems (AIS), a Fellow of AIS, and in 2014, he was awarded the AIS LEO lifetime achievement award.

Jan 24: Lynn Wu to speak on Social Network Effects on Performance and Layoffs: Evidence from the Adoption of a Social Networking Tool

By

Lynn Wu

PhD Candidate
Sloan School of Management,
MIT

January 24, 2011

Speakman Hall 200, 1000am – 1130am

Abstract

By studying the changes in employees’ networks and performance before and after the introduction of a social networking tool, I find that a structurally diverse network (low in cohesion and rich in structural holes) has a positive effect on work performance. The size of the effect is smaller than traditional estimates, suggesting that omitted individual characteristics may bias the estimated network effect. I consider two intermediate mechanisms by which a structurally diverse network is theorized to improve work performance: information diversity (instrumental) and friendship (expressive). I quantify their effects on two types of work outcomes: billable revenue and layoffs. Analysis shows that the information diversity derived from a structurally diverse network is more correlated with generating billable revenue than is friendship. However, the opposite is true for layoffs. Friendship in a diverse network of colleagues is more correlated with reduced layoff risks than is information diversity. Field interviews suggest that friends can serve as advocates in critical situations, ensuring that favorable information is distributed to decision makers. This, in turn, suggests that having a structurally diverse network can drive both work performance and job security, but that there is a tradeoff between either mobilizing friendship or gathering diverse information. Furthermore, it is important to examine the mechanisms by which friendship reduces the risks of being laid off. If friendship promotes team effectiveness, delegating decisions rights to managers is optimal. However, if managers choose to optimize their own power at the expense of the firm, the positive impact of friendships on layoffs is evidence that delegating layoff decisions to managers can incur important costs.

For a copy of the paper, click here..