Grant Schoenebeck, associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, was awarded a $269,376 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant for his research project “Promoting Social Learning Amid Interference in the Age of Social Media.” The grant provides funding for three years. 

“The main goal of this grant is to build on a line of research often called ‘social learning,’” says Schoenebeck. Social learning is when people observe, model and imitate the behavior of others to learn and create their own behaviors. 

In particular, Schoenebeck and his collaborators from Stony Brook and Rutgers Universities will expand on the current social learning research by considering how people learn while embedded in social media environments.

The field of social learning is fascinating, but has not yet been applied to understand the influence of social media on people’s learning and behaviors, says Schoenebeck. Considering that truth-seeking activities and online discussions are highly politicized, Schoenebeck says, “We have a vision to use the fundamental understandings built up by this field and help to tackle some of the biggest challenges of our time.” 

“This research is important for two reasons,” says Schoenebeck. “First, it seeks insights on how to mitigate the effects of disinformation by designing systems that allow people to learn from correct information from each other, rather than inadvertently spreading mistruths.” 

The second research goal will “build fundamental mathematical foundations to study a blossoming area of social networks.” In particular, Schoenebeck and colleagues hope to develop models for learning more complex truths amid social pressure.

— Sarah Derouin, UMSI public relations specialist

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Learn more about associate professor Grant Schoenebeck.  

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2208662.