Related papers: Self-directed online information search can affect…
Reinforcement learning and Imitation Learning approaches utilize policy learning strategies that are difficult to generalize well with just a few examples of a task. In this work, we propose a language-conditioned semantic search-based…
Physiological signals can potentially be applied as objective measures to understand the behavior and engagement of users interacting with information access systems. However, the signals are highly sensitive, and many controls are required…
People use web search engines to find information before forming opinions, which can lead to practical decisions with different levels of impact. The cognitive effort of search can leave opinionated users vulnerable to cognitive biases,…
The increasing polarization in democratic societies is an emergent outcome of political opinion dynamics. Yet, the fundamental mechanisms behind the formation of political opinions, from individual beliefs to collective consensus, remain…
As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly embedded in public and private life, understanding how citizens perceive its risks, benefits, and regulatory needs is essential. To inform ongoing regulatory efforts such as the European…
We study the impact of content moderation policies in online communities. In our theoretical model, a platform chooses a content moderation policy and individuals choose whether or not to participate in the community according to the…
Information seeking is an interactive behaviour of the end users with information systems, which occurs in a real environment known as context. Context affects information-seeking behaviour in many different ways. The purpose of this paper…
The focus of this work is on designing influencing strategies to shape the collective opinion of a network of individuals. We consider a variant of the voter model where opinions evolve in one of two ways. In the absence of external…
Internet users highly rely on and trust web search engines, such as Google, to find relevant information online. However, scholars have documented numerous biases and inaccuracies in search outputs. To improve the quality of search results,…
Over the past decade, contrary to the early popular expectation that large-scale discourse in online communities would foster greater consensus, the large-scale structure of online discourse has been measured to be strongly polarized.…
Binary decision-making process is ubiquitous in social life and is of vital significance in many real-world issues, ranging from public health to political campaigns. While continuous opinion evolution independent of discrete choice…
Political online participation in the form of discussing political issues and exchanging opinions among citizens is gaining importance with more and more formats being held digitally. To come to a decision, a thorough discussion and…
Fostering coordinated pro-environmental behaviors at scale is a key challenge for climate mitigation. Individual actions only generate meaningful impact when they diffuse widely and become socially coordinated, yet monitoring such processes…
The rapid spread of digital technologies has produced data-driven feedback loops, wearable devices, social media networks, and mobile applications that shape user behavior, motivation, and mental well-being. While these systems encourage…
We consider an online regression setting in which individuals adapt to the regression model: arriving individuals are aware of the current model, and invest strategically in modifying their own features so as to improve the predicted score…
Search engines play a central role in how people gather information, but subtle cues like headline framing may influence not only what users believe but also how they search. While framing effects on judgment are well documented, their…
Continuous action policy search is currently the focus of intensive research, driven both by the recent success of deep reinforcement learning algorithms and the emergence of competitors based on evolutionary algorithms. In this paper, we…
Online social networks have emerged as a significant platform for political discourse. In this paper we investigate what affects the level of participation of users in the political discussion. Specifically, are users more likely to be…
We evaluate the impact of probabilistically-constructed digital identity data collected from Sep. to Dec. 2017 (approx.), in the context of Lookalike-targeted campaigns. The backbone of this study is a large set of…
Information and communication technology has the capability to improve the process by which governments involve citizens in formulating public policy and public projects. Even though much of government regulations may now be in digital form…