Meet Spencer Early, PhD Candidate and Technical Manager
What is your research focus?
My research focus is primarily centered around human behavior on social media platforms. The current direction and research design approaches the phenomenon of misinformation. Assessing the individual decisions and perceptual models that are leveraged to determine what it believable, as well as the underlying intention of interaction with said misinformation. In addition, my research extends to the conceptualization and effectiveness of interventions and mitigation techniques, attempting to understand how and why individuals are receptive to the intervention information.
How do you see your research making an impact on business/business improvement?
Social media is an integral component of the business world. It is the primary mode of communication within a business setting, as well as the medium through which a business reaches their customers. In this regard, consumer satisfaction and underlying trust is contingent on their perception of the information a business chooses to provide. Extending beyond the individual business level, social media platforms must carefully and effectively navigate the misinformation issue. Productive social discourse is the bedrock of any successful democracy, and the contagion of misinformation presents a sizable roadblock. Effective interventions and counter information protocols must be designed and tested in order to create an open and productive platform for public discourse.
What led you to your career?
I was always interested in the sciences and pushing myself to solve problems efficiently and in ways that exemplify my unique creativity. Starting out in Engineering gave me a solid framework for cultivating a strong technical skillset. I soon discovered that I enjoyed the dynamic and complex problems that influence individuals. This led me to Neuroscience and finally to Information Systems, in which the primary focus is on human behavior with technology from a neurophysiological perspective.
What big problems/issues need to be addressed?
The emergence and integration of natural language processing will fundamentally redefine much of the business world. I think effectively designing research and providing practical contributions that embraces this technology will be the greatest issue to be addressed moving forward.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
The aspect of our field that I find most enjoyable is the nature of the problem sets. We deal with both frontier defining theoretical research, as well as practical research that can be effectively integrated into the existing business infrastructure. This duality of research design results in a vast spectrum of problems that keep my mind from getting too saturated to one perspective.
Publications
Actively open-minded thinking is key to combating fake news: A multimethod study
Mirhoseini, M., Early, S., El Shamy, N., & Hassanein, K. (2023). Actively open-minded thinking is key to combating fake news: A multimethod study. Information & Management, 60(3), 103761.
Communications