University of Michigan School of Information faculty and PhD students are creating and sharing knowledge that helps build a better world. Here are some of their recent publications. 

Publications 

Disinformation for hire: A field experiment on unethical jobs in online labor markets

European Economic Review, February 2025

Alain Cohn, Jan Stoop

The spread of misinformation has been linked to increased social divisions and adverse health outcomes, but less is known about the production of disinformation, which is misinformation intended to mislead. In a field experiment on MTurk (N = 1,197), we found that while 70 % of workers accepted a control job, 61 % accepted a disinformation job requiring them to manipulate COVID-19 data. To quantify the trade-off between ethical and financial considerations in job acceptance, we introduced a lower-pay condition offering half the wage of the control job; 51 % of workers accepted this job, suggesting that the ethical compromise in the disinformation task reduced the acceptance rate by about the same amount as a 25 % wage reduction. A survey experiment with a nationally representative sample shows that viewing a disinformation graph from the field experiment negatively affected people’s beliefs and behavioral intentions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased vaccine hesitancy. Using a “wisdom-of-crowds” approach, we highlight how online labor markets can introduce features, such as increased worker accountability, to reduce the likelihood of workers engaging in the production of disin formation. Our findings emphasize the importance of addressing the supply side of disinformation in online labor markets to mitigate its harmful societal effects.

Investigating Affirmative Action Discussions on Social Media

GROUP '25: Companion Proceedings of the 2025 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work, January 2025

Cassidy Pyle

In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court banned race-based affirmative action (AA) in college admissions, reshaping college access for underrepresented students. AA is historically controversial, and social media platforms enable discussions of AA that traverse physical and social barriers. My dissertation explores these social media discussions of AA, taking a qualitative, cross-platform approach to investigate how socio-technical properties of platforms shape social media-based AA discussions and their impacts, especially for underrepresented college applicants. I aim to make empirical, theoretical, and design contributions to promote informed, mindful, and deliberative discussions of contentious, identity-related topics on social media.

Understanding screenshot collection and sharing on messaging platforms: a privacy perspective

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, January 2025

Alexis Shore Ingber

Individuals rely on messaging platforms to form and maintain intimate relationships, trusting shared information will remain within intended digital confines. However, the screenshot feature allows people to capture and store pieces of private conversations as a separate file on their device, rendering them shareable with third parties. While usage of this feature can be benign, this study focuses on its ability to breach privacy expectations within messaging platforms, termed within communication privacy management theory as privacy turbulence. This study recognizes the power of both interpersonal dynamics and platform affordances in constraining existing norms around screenshot collection and sharing others’ private messages. Experimental results (n = 302) suggest obscuring received messages upon use of the screenshot feature and stating an explicit privacy rule significantly reduce screenshot collection and sharing, respectively. Implications for communication theory and the future of messaging platform design will be discussed.

Can You Hear Us Now?: The Role of Podcasting in Supporting a Black Feminist News Praxis

Diversifying the Space of Podcasting, January 2025 

Chelsea Peterson-Salahuddin

Black women, femme, and queer folks have increasingly turned to digital media to create news and informational platforms that actively engage Black feminist concepts and practices in their reporting. Notably, many Black feminist journalists, or “news creators,” as I broadly refer to them, have turned to podcasting as the preferred medium to report this news to their audiences. As a handful of scholars have argued, podcasting has become a generative space for marginalized individuals to create informational counterpublics that center the lived experience of those individuals often overlooked in mainstream media. In this chapter, I draw on a subset of semi-structured, in-depth interviews  (n =15) with Black feminist news creators who use podcasting as their primary medium. In line with this previous research, interviews revealed that many participants use podcasting as their primary medium because it affords accessibility and persistence, experimental and conversational format, disembodied voice, and intimacy. However, participants also elucidated how some of these affordances and the audio editability afforded by podcasting presented unique challenges. The chapter concludes by contributing to a broader discussion around the role of podcasting in supporting liberatory practices and diversity in our news and information ecosystem.

Time’s Sublimest Target: Practices of Forgetting in HCI and CSCW

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, January 2025

Sam Addison Ankenbauer, Robin Brewer

In our contemporary moment, there exists a hegemonic design practice and a general social desire to retain information. With the help of sociotechnical platforms and other contemporary technologies, information has changed its temporal and spatial boundaries, creating unbounded, algorithmic, and emergent forms of retention. The consequences of such retention are numerous, ranging from an overabundance of autobiographical information that cannot be fully understood by the individual to the improper use and economization of such information by state and corporation alike. Within this context, this paper investigates a counter hegemonic practice of forgetting, specifically from the perspective of human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work research, with additional insight drawn from adjacent fields. In doing so, we present forgetting as a significant area of research with HCI and CSCW, a burgeoning and contradictory space that may offer solutions to issues we face within a moment of persistence by default. This paper also explores potential directions for future research and design on forgetting in HCI and CSCW through an investigation of an art piece by Chinese artist Song Dong.

Meeting People Where They Are: Building Community-Centered Care with Smartphone-Facilitated Response to Overdoses

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, January 2025

Yongjie Sha, Alexis Roth, Stephen Lankenau, David G. Schwartz, Gabriela Marcu

We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 members who engaged in community-based effort to reverse overdoses using a smartphone-based app in an Eastern United States (U.S.) city. Drawing from feminist ethics of care, we identify how the caring practices of community members extend from administering a medical intervention to building trust and support between the care receivers and caregivers in the case of opioid overdose response. Contrary to the predominant patient-centered care paradigm, we emphasize community-centered care, which acknowledges the resistance of individuals and attends to reallocating caring responsibility and building relationships within the community. Our results highlight how trust intersects with social ecologies of care in the highly stigmatized context of opioid overdose and that trustful and less hierarchical relationships are critical sources of care for groups experiencing marginalization. We discuss applying harm reduction principles in designing health technologies for substance use disorders. We also discuss research and design opportunities for community-centered design for marginalized individuals and community caregivers.

Weight-Based Health Care Discrimination and Cervical Cancer Screening Among Black Sexual and Gender Minoritized Assigned Female at Birth Adults in the United States

Health Equity, January 2025

Simran Singh, Neil Mehta, Madeline Noh, Keosha Bond, Megan Threats, John W. Jackson, Nkiru Nnawulezi, Marquisele Mercedes, Madina Agénor

Introduction: Black sexual and gender minoritized (SGM) people assigned female at birth (AFAB) face notable barriers to cervical cancer screening, including racism, heterosexism, and cisgenderism. Although weight-based discrimination is prevalent in the United States and may compound other forms of discrimination, no study has examined the association between weight-based discrimination in health care settings and Pap test use among Black SGM AFAB. 

Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey among Black SGM AFAB adults aged 18–45 years (N = 135) and used multivariable logistic modeling to analyze the association between weightbased health care discrimination and Pap test use, adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and health care factors. 

Results: Approximately one quarter (27.5%; n = 33) of respondents eligible for a Pap test had ever experienced weight-based health care discrimination. Moreover, 63.3% (n = 76) and 45% (n = 54) of respondents had ever received a Pap test in their lifetime and in the last 3 years, respectively. Respondents who had experienced weight-based health care discrimination had significantly lower adjusted odds of having ever received a Pap test in their lifetime (odds ratio [OR] = 0.10; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.02–0.40) and in the last 3 years (OR = 0.07; CI: 0.01–0.31) compared with those who had never experienced such discrimination.

Association Between Healthcare Discrimination and Medical Mistrust Among Black Assigned Female at Birth Adults with Minoritized Sexual and Gender Identities in the United States

LGBT Health, February 2025

Madeline Noh, Neil Mehta, Keosha Bond, Megan Threats, John Jackson, Nkiru Nnawulezi, Madina Agénor  

Purpose: Black sexually and gender minoritized (SGM) people who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) experience compounding health care inequities, barriers to equitable care, and disproportionately adverse health outcomes. Given prior literature indicating that both experienced and/or anticipated reported health care discrimination and medical mistrust may shape these health care experiences of Black SGM AFAB people, we sought to investigate the specific interplay between these two factors to bolster understanding of their relationship.

Methods: In January and February 2023, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey of 156 Black SGM AFAB adults in the United States (U.S.) assessing their reported lifetime experiences of all-cause and gender-, race/ethnicity-, and weight-based discrimination in health care settings, in addition to their ratings of medical mistrust on the Medical Mistrust Index (MMI). Univariate statistics, analysis of variance, post hoc pairwise tests, and multivariable linear regression were conducted to assess measures of health care discrimination, medical mistrust, and covariates and their associations among the analytic sample (n = 130).

Results: Most participants reported prior experiences of health care discrimination. Adjusting for demographic, socioeconomic, and health care factors, we identified an association between experiencing any-cause-, race/ethnicity-, or weight-based discrimination and significantly higher MMI scores. The association for gender-based discrimination was not statistically significant.

The persuasive role of generic-you in online interactions

Scientific Reports, January 2025

Minxue Niu, Emily Mower Provost, David Jurgens, Susan A. Gelman, Ethan Kross, Ariana Orvell

Persuasion plays a crucial role in human communication. Yet, convincing someone to change their mind is often challenging. Here, we demonstrate that a subtle linguistic device, generic-you (i.e., “you” that refers to people in general, e.g., “You win some, you lose some”), is associated with successfully shifting people’s pre-existing views in a naturalistic context. Leveraging Large Language Models, we conducted a preregistered study using a large (Ntrials = 204,120) online debate dataset. Every use of generic-you in an argument was associated with an up to 14% percent increase in the odds of successful persuasion. These findings underscore the need to distinguish between the specific and generic uses of “you” in large-scale linguistic analyses, an aspect that has been overlooked in the literature. The robust association between generic-you and persuasion persisted with the inclusion of various covariates, and above and beyond other pronouns (i.e., specific-you, I or we). However, these findings do not imply causality. In Supplementary Experiment 2, arguments with generic-you (vs. first-person singular pronouns, e.g., I) were rated as more persuasive by open-minded individuals. In Supplementary Experiment 3, generic-you (vs. specific-you) arguments did not differentially predict attitude change. We discuss explanations for these results, including differential mechanisms, boundary conditions, and the possibility that people intuitively draw on generic-you when expressing more persuasive ideas. Together, these findings add to a growing literature on the interpersonal implications of broadening one’s perspective via a subtle shift in language, while motivating future research on contextual and individual differences that may moderate these effects.

Children’s Understanding of Digital Tracking and Digital Privacy

Handbook of Children and Screens (Springer Books), January 2025

Susan A. Gelman, Shaylene E. Nancekivell, Youngeun Lee, Florian Schaub

Digital technologies have proliferated into all aspects of life, for children and their families. With these technologies come not only benefits but also risks, including privacy risks with both interpersonal and institutional/commercial dimensions. Regarding interpersonal privacy, children may expose private information about themselves and their families to peers and strangers, with implications for children’s safety online and in the physical world. Sharing self-relevant information or problematic views online at a young age may affect one’s opportunities years later when this information is found and taken out of context, for instance when applying for college or jobs. 

"Dialing it Back:" Shadowbanning, Invisible Digital Labor, and how Marginalized Content Creators Attempt to Mitigate the Impacts of Opaque Platform Governance

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, January 2025

Sena A. Kojah, Ben Zefeng Zhang, Carolina Are, Daniel Delmonaco, Oliver L. Haimson

Content creators with marginalized identities are disproportionately affected by shadowbanning on social media platforms, which impacts their economic prospects online. Through a diary study and interviews with eight marginalized content creators who are women, pole dancers, plus size, and/or LGBTQIA+, this paper examines how content creators with marginalized identities experience shadowbanning. We highlight the labor and economic inequalities of shadowbanning, and the resulting invisible online labor that marginalized creators often must perform. We identify three types of invisible labor that marginalized content creators engage in to mitigate shadowbanning and sustain their online presence: mental and emotional labor, misdirected labor, and community labor. We conclude that even though marginalized content creators engaged in cross-platform collaborative labor and personal mental/emotional labor to mitigate the impacts of shadowbanning, it was insufficient to prevent uncertainty and economic precarity created by algorithmic opacity and ambiguity.

Assessments for Non-CS Major Computing Classes

SIGCSE Virtual 2024: Proceedings of the 2024 on ACM Virtual Global Computing Education Conference, December 2024

Jinyoung Hur, Parmit Chilana, Kathryn Cunningham, Dan Garcia, Mark Gudzial

The realization that computer science (CS) is an integral part of many fields has led to an influx of non-CS major students (henceforth, non-CS majors) in CS courses. There is ample evidence that these students have various interests and learning goals in CS other than writing code. While non-CS majors’ learning goals are diverse, the primary methods of assessment in introductory CS courses are often centered on the evaluation of written code. How can we design assessments that better align with non-CS majors’ learning goals? Since non-CS majors have different learning goals, their assessments may need to be tailored to focus on their specific goals and desired endpoints. Therefore, our main goals for the panel include: 1) articulating non-CS majors’ diverse learning goals beyond code-writing and 2) discussing how to practically align assessments with their learning goals.

Long-Term Pandemic Effects On Social Activity And Loneliness Among Older Adults In An Urban Community

National Library of Medicine, December 2024

Rebecca Lindsay, Angela Gaye, Meosia Lee-Turner, Yolanda Hill-Ashford, Robin Brewer, Sheria Robinson-Lane, Mary Janevic 

The COVID-19 pandemic sharply curtailed social activity among older adults. In Detroit, an underserved area impacted by structural inequities, older adults were at particularly high risk for social isolation, given the digital divide and prolonged closures of senior and community centers. While daily life has now mostly normalized, little is known about the extent to which older adults have re-engaged in social activities following the lengthy disruption. We examined baseline data collected in 2023-24 from an ongoing randomized controlled trial in Detroit of the RESET intervention (Re-Engaging in Self-care, Enjoying Today). Participants rated their level of 1) loneliness and 2) social activity compared to pre-pandemic (1=much lower to 5=much higher). The sample (N=213) was 91% female and 85% African American, mean age 68 years (range 50 to 90), and 54% lived alone. Almost half (46.0%%) of the sample reported that their current social activity level was much lower or lower than pre-pandemic, and 34.8% that their loneliness level was much higher or higher. No significant differences were found by age group (under 65 vs 65+) or living alone vs. with others. We then examined open-ended responses to a question about continued pandemic impact. Major themes were: ongoing fear of COVID-19 infection, caution about gatherings/crowds, and persistent mood problems. These data show that for some older adults, the pandemic continues to have adverse effects on social activity and loneliness. Targeted interventions that address and accommodate older adults’ ongoing COVID-19 concerns may be needed to boost social functioning in this group.

Harnessing Project Identity and Safety Norms to Promote Construction Workers’ Safety Behavior: Field Intervention Study

Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, December 2024

Juhyeon Bae, Byungjoo Choi, Erin Krupka, SangHyun Lee

The importance of workers’ social identity in shaping their safety behaviors has become increasingly acknowledged. Among various social identities (e.g., workgroup, trade, etc.), improving project identity stands out as particularly impactful; it not only promotes safer behaviors among workers but also establishes a shared identity that unites all project members, thereby enhancing their sense of belonging. However, existing management strategies, primarily designed for traditional, long-term organizations, often require substantial managerial efforts to build and maintain high-quality management-employee interactions or organizational reputation. Such strategies may be less effective and economically impractical in the temporary nature of construction projects, suggesting a notable gap in management strategies that effectively foster workers’ project identity to enhance safety behaviors. To fill this knowledge gap, the authors aim to develop and evaluate affordable and easy-to-implement managerial interventions that foster workers’ project identification and safety behaviors. Drawing on social identity theory, the authors designed project identity-promoting messages and symbols that could be easily embedded into everyday items, such as posters and T-shirts. To evaluate their effectiveness, longitudinal field experiments were conducted, gathering 124 self-reported surveys on project identification and safety behavior from 31 workers before and after the interventions at two separate construction sites over three months. The survey data were analyzed using repeated measures (RM) ANOVA analysis to examine changes before and after the intervention. The results indicate significant improvements in both affective and behavioral dimensions of project identification, as well as in safety participation, demonstrating the potential of social identity–based interventions in improving workers’ safety behaviors and project identification. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on construction organizations and construction safety by developing and evaluating practical managerial interventions based on social identity theory, which enhance construction workers’ project identification and safety behavior.

Toxicity on Social Media During the 2022 Mpox Public Health Emergency: Quantitative Study of Topical and Network Dynamics

Journal of Medical Internet Research, December 2024

Lizhou Fan, Lingyao Li, Libby Hemphill

Background: Toxicity on social media, encompassing behaviors such as harassment, bullying, hate speech, and the dissemination of misinformation, has become a pressing social concern in the digital age. Its prevalence intensifies during periods of social crises and unrest, eroding a sense of safety and community. Such toxic environments can adversely impact the mental well-being of those exposed and further deepen societal divisions and polarization. The 2022 mpox outbreak, initially called “monkeypox” but later renamed to reduce stigma and address societal concerns, provides a relevant context for this issue. 

Objective: In this study, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the toxic online discourse surrounding the 2022 mpox outbreak. We aimed to dissect its origins, characterize its nature and content, trace its dissemination patterns, and assess its broader societal implications, with the goal of providing insights that can inform strategies to mitigate such toxicity in future crises. Methods: We collected >1.6 million unique tweets and analyzed them with 5 dimensions: context, extent, content, speaker, and intent. Using topic modeling based on bidirectional encoder representations from transformers and social network community clustering, we delineated the toxic dynamics on Twitter. 

Results: By categorizing topics, we identified 5 high-level categories in the toxic online discourse on Twitter, including disease (20,281/43,521, 46.6%), health policy and health care (8400/43,521, 19.3%), homophobia (10,402/43,521, 23.9%), politics (2611/43,521, 6%), and racism (1784/43,521, 4.1%). Across these categories, users displayed negativity or controversial views on the mpox outbreak, highlighting the escalating political tensions and the weaponization of stigma during this infodemic. Through the toxicity diffusion networks of mentions (17,437 vertices with 3628 clusters), retweets (59,749 vertices with 3015 clusters), and the top users with the highest in-degree centrality, we found that retweets of toxic content were widespread, while influential users rarely engaged with or countered this toxicity through retweets. 

Conclusions: Our study introduces a comprehensive workflow that combines topical and network analyses to decode emerging social issues during crises. By tracking topical dynamics, we can track the changing popularity of toxic content on the internet, providing a better understanding of societal challenges. Network dynamics highlight key social media influencers and their intentions, suggesting that engaging with these central figures in toxic discourse can improve crisis communication and guide policy making.

Making academia suck less: Supporting early career researchers studying harmful content online through a feminist ethics of care

New Media and Society, December 2024

Megan A Brown, Josephine Lukito, Meredith L Pruden, Martin J Riedl

Early career researchers (ECR) in communication and media research face increasing problems and stressors due to systemic challenges in academia, including the precarity of being an ECR and the politicization of research and targeting of researchers. For researchers studying harmful content online (HCO), research-related trauma (RRT) can compound these stressors. In this study, we present results from interviews with 18 ECRs from communication studies and adjacent disciplines studying HCO. We find researchers frequently experience RRT from harmful content, pressure from superiors to conduct research on harmful content, and outside harassment related to their research. In addition, researchers frequently use individualized self-care practices fordealing with RRT or couch their trauma. Drawing from widespread consensus by our participants that their needs are not being institutionally met, we offer a vision of what an ethics of care framework for ECRs should provide.

Essential work, invisible workers: The role of digital curation in COVID-19 Open Science

Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, November 2024

Irene V. Pasquetto, Amina A. Abdu, Natascha Chtena

In this paper, we examine the role digital curation practices and practitioners played in facilitating open science (OS) initiatives amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In Summer 2023, we conducted a content analysis of available information regarding 50 OS initiatives that emerged—or substantially shifted their focus—between 2020 and 2022 to address COVID-19 related challenges. Despite growing recognition of the value of digital curation for the organization, dissemination, and preservation of scientific knowledge, our study reveals that digital curatorial work often remains invisible in pandemic OS initiatives. In particular, we find that, even among those initiatives that greatly invested in digital curation work, digital curation is seldom mentioned in mission statements, and little is known about the rationales behind curatorial choices and the individuals responsible for the implementation of curatorial strategies. Given the important yet persistent invisibility of digital curatorial work, we propose a shift in how we conceptualize digital curation from a practice that merely “adds value” to research outputs to a practice of knowledge production. We conclude with reflections on how iSchools can lead in professionalizing the field and offer suggestions for initial steps in that direction.

Wellness Influencer Responses to COVID-19 Vaccines on Social Media: A Longitudinal Observational Study

Journal of Medical Internet Research, November 2024

Gabrielle O'Brien, Ronith Ganjigunta, Paramveer S Dhillon

Background: Online wellness influencers (individuals dispensing unregulated health and wellness advice over social media) may have incentives to oppose traditional medical authorities. Their messaging may decrease the overall effectiveness of public health campaigns during global health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: This study aimed to probe how wellness influencers respond to a public health campaign; we examined how a sample of wellness influencers on Twitter (rebranded as X in 2023) identified before the COVID-19 pandemic on Twitter took stances on the COVID-19 vaccine during 2020-2022. We evaluated the prevalence of provaccination messaging among wellness influencers compared with a control group, as well as the rhetorical strategies these influencers used when supporting or opposing vaccination.

Methods: Following a longitudinal design, wellness influencer accounts were identified on Twitter from a random sample of tweets posted in 2019. Accounts were identified using a combination of topic modeling and hand-annotation for adherence to influencer criteria. Their tweets from 2020-2022 containing vaccine keywords were collected and labeled as pro- or anti vaccination stances using a language model. We compared their stances to a control group of non influencer accounts that discussed similar health topics before the pandemic using a generalized linear model with mixed effects and a nearest-neighbors classifier. We also used topic modeling to locate key themes in influencer’s pro- and anti vaccine messages.

Results: Wellness influencers (n=161) had lower rates of pro vaccination stances in their on-topic tweets (20%, 614/3045) compared with controls (n=242 accounts, with 42% or 3201/7584 provaccination tweets). Using a generalized linear model of tweet stance with mixed effects to model tweets from the same account, the main effect of the group was significant (β1=–2.2668, SE=0.2940; P<.001). Covariate analysis suggests an association between anti vaccination tweets and accounts representing individuals (β=–0.9591, SE=0.2917; P=.001) but not social network position. A complementary modeling exercise of stance within user accounts showed a significant difference in the proportion of anti vaccination users by group (χ21[N=321]=36.1, P<.001). While nearly half of the influencer accounts were labeled by a K-nearest neighbor classifier as predominantly anti vaccination (48%, 58/120), only 16% of control accounts were labeled this way (33/201). Topic modeling of influencer tweets showed that the most prevalent anti vaccination themes were protecting children, guarding against government overreach, and the corruption of the pharmaceutical industry. Pro Vaccination messaging tended to encourage followers to take action or emphasize the efficacy of the vaccine.

Conclusions: Wellness influencers showed higher rates of vaccine opposition compared with other accounts that participated in health discourse before the pandemic. This pattern supports the theory that unregulated wellness influencers have incentives to resist messaging from establishment authorities such as public health agencies.

Authors’ Reply to: Strengthening the Backbone: Government-Academic Data Collaborations for Crisis Response

JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, November 2024

Jian-Sin Lee, Allison R B Tyler, Tiffany Christine Veinot, Elizabeth Yakel

In their Letter to the Editor responding to our original viewpoint article [1], Yang and Yang [2] identified practical challenges and limitations inherent in constructing the government-academic data infrastructures that we proposed. They emphasized the importance of further examining the nuances involved in implementing this vision. We appreciate their thoughtful feedback and are pleased that our work has sparked the kind of dialogue that we intended. In this Authors’ Reply, we engage with the issues raised in the letter while offering extended discussions based on these comments. 

An archival world turns: Armenian women’s archives in Southeast Michigan

Archival Science, November 2024 

Nazelie Doghramadjian, Patricia Garcia, Ricardo Punzalan 

This paper examines the nature and context of archival silences in two Armenian institutions in south-east Michigan and how those absences relate to the personal and family archives of Armenian women. We studied the dissonance between the representation of Armenian women’s voices and experiences in institutional archives and their larger role in the community as cultural linchpins and memory-keepers. Through interviews, archival research, participant observation, and abductive coding and analysis of both interview transcripts and fieldnotes, we uncover and theorize the significance behind those absences and the abundance of archival materials outside the institution. Each name in this research project has been changed to protect the privacy of our participants.

Historical Friction: Pacing Ourselves in HCI

Interactions, November 2024

Michaelanne Thomas, David Ribes, Andrea Grover, Megh Marathe, Alexandra Teixeira Riggs, Firaz Peer, Pooja Upadhyay

This article draws attention to the friction between our fields’ publishing and production norms and the speed of life for researchers and the communities they work with. Fast-paced academic production can be at odds with rigorous, reflective qualitative research, affecting quality and inclusivity. We draw together long-standing conversations about interdisciplinary collaboration, structures of scholarly production, and calls to attend to diverse identity groups. In doing so, we call for broadened academic norms around publication and funding to better support interdisciplinary work and diverse researcher needs. We hope this article will propel practical changes in the timing and pacing of HCI scholarship as we continue working toward producing rigorous yet sustainable scholarship. 

Pre-prints, Working Papers, Articles, Reports, Workshops and Talks

The Spread of Virtual Gifting in Live Streaming: The Case of Twitch

arXiv, January 2025

Ji Eun Kim, Seura Ha, Sangmi Kim, Libby Hemphill

This paper examines how gifting spreads among viewers on Twitch, one of the largest live streaming platforms worldwide. Twitch users can give gift subscriptions to other viewers in the chat room, with the majority of gifters opting for community gifting, which is gifting to randomly selected viewers. We identify the random nature of gift-receiving in our data as a natural experiment setting. We investigate whether gift recipients pay it forward, considering various gift types that may either promote or deter the spread of gifting. Our findings reveal that Twitch viewers who receive gift subscriptions are generally more likely to pay it forward than nonrecipients, and the positive impact of gift-receiving becomes stronger when the recipient is the sole beneficiary of the giver’s gifting behavior. However, we found that gifts from frequent gifters discourage recipients from paying it forward, and gifts from anonymous gifters do not influence the likelihood of viewers becoming future gifters. This research contributes to the existing literature on the spread of online prosocial behavior by providing robust evidence and suggests practical strategies for promoting online gifting.

Development of the Critical Reflection and Agency in Computing Index

arXiv, January 2025

Aadarsh Padiyath, Mark Guzdial, Barbara Ericson

As computing’s societal impact grows, so does the need for computing students to recognize and address the ethical and sociotechnical implications of their work. While there are efforts to integrate ethics into computing curricula, we lack a standardized tool to measure those efforts, specifically, students’ attitudes towards ethical reflection and their ability to effect change. This paper introduces the novel framework of Critically Conscious Computing and reports on the development and content validation of the Critical Reflection and Agency in Computing Index, a novel instrument designed to assess undergraduate computing students’ attitudes towards practicing critically conscious computing. The resulting index is a theoretically grounded, expert-reviewed tool to support research and practice in computing ethics education. This enables researchers and educators to gain insights into students’ perspectives, inform the design of targeted ethics interventions, and measure the effectiveness of computing ethics education initiatives.

Collective Memory and Narrative Cohesion: A Computational Study of Palestinian Refugee Oral Histories in Lebanon

arXiv, January 2025

Ghadeer Awwad, Tamara N. Rayan, Lavinia Dunagan, David Gamba

This study uses the Palestinian Oral History Archive (POHA) to investigate how Palestinian refugee groups in Lebanon sustain a cohesive collective memory of the Nakba through shared narratives. Grounded in Halbwachs’ theory of group memory, we employ statistical analysis of pairwise similarity of narratives, focusing on the influence of shared gender and location. We use textual representation and semantic embeddings of narratives to represent the interviews themselves. Our analysis demonstrates that shared origin is a powerful determinant of narrative similarity across thematic keywords, landmarks, and significant figures, as well as in semantic embeddings of the narratives. Meanwhile, shared residence fosters cohesion, with its impact significantly amplified when paired with shared origin. Additionally, women’s narratives exhibit heightened thematic cohesion, particularly in recounting experiences of the British occupation, underscoring the gendered dimensions of memory formation. This research deepens the understanding of collective memory in diasporic settings, emphasizing the critical role of oral histories in safeguarding Palestinian identity and resisting erasure.

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