Study shows motivation is key for teachers to overcome racial bias in classroom

The research about culturally inclusive teaching was published in the journal Learning and Instruction.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO

 

IMAGE: DR. REVATHY KUMAR, PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO JUDITH HERB COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, FOCUSED HER RESEARCH ON COLLEGE STUDENTS TRAINING TO BECOME K-12 TEACHERS AND EMPHASIZED THE NEED TO RECRUIT AND ENROLL MORE DIVERSE STUDENTS IN TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS. view more 

CREDIT: DANIEL MILLER, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO

New research focused on college students training to become K-12 teachers emphasizes the need to recruit and enroll more diverse students in teacher education programs.

The study about culturally inclusive teaching published in the journal Learning and Instruction shows the motivation to appear unprejudiced alone does not result in a positive and meaningful change in teachers’ classroom-related beliefs and instructional practices.

For this to happen, it is important that teachers are also motivated to be unprejudiced — that is, to act in an unprejudiced way because it is personally important to them as opposed to acting unprejudiced because it is the politically correct thing to do or they feel pressured by others.

“All of us carry biases — it’s natural because we’re human,” said Dr. Revathy Kumar, professor of educational psychology in The University of Toledo Judith Herb College of Education. “What we do about our awareness of those biases makes a difference to our students, their comfort in the classroom, their academic efficacy, self-esteem and academic performance. It is vital for teachers to be motivated to be genuinely unprejudiced to overcome racial bias and create an inclusive learning environment.”

The study found that pre-service teachers’ genuine desire to be unprejudiced was positively associated with their endorsement of culturally and motivationally supportive instructional practices. A genuine desire to be unprejudiced also was negatively associated with expressions of explicit bias toward minority students.

The study also shows that the positive impact of being motivated to be unprejudiced — the preservice teachers’ commitment to promoting respect in the classroom and adapting instructions for culturally diverse students — gets amplified if the teacher-in-training also wants to appear unprejudiced.

“However, just wanting to appear unbiased in the absence of a genuine desire to be unbiased is insufficient,” Kumar said. “Every student should feel that he or she belongs, not isolated or alienated. This can only happen if we create culturally inclusive learning environments that are responsive to students’ academic, social and emotional needs. This requires teachers to become aware that they and their students are cultural beings.”

The research adds additional credence to ongoing advocacy efforts proposing that it is essential for Black and other minority students to see members of their community present in the teacher workforce.

The study used a sample of 258 college students studying to become teachers — 82% white, 9.7% Black, 3.1% Latinx, 1.6% Asian American, 0.7% American Indian, 2.7% biracial and 1.6% other. 

Findings indicated that white pre-service teachers on average displayed a distinct and significant preference for white students over Black students, whereas minority teachers on average didn’t show preference.

“What is valued in society influences how we think and feel even about our own group,” Kumar said. “Therefore, it is important to note minority pre-service teachers are not insulated from holding bias toward students of color.”

“I would love to follow these same pre-service teachers into the classroom,” Kumar said. “We have all these beliefs and biases, and we have these motivations to be or to appear prejudiced. How are these beliefs and motivations going to translate into classroom behavior? For preservice teachers, most will advance into student teaching, but many still are not in the classrooms when they are taking important pedagogical courses such as educational psychology. They are not yet dealing with real students and students from different groups. They are talking about these issues at an abstract and intellectual level.”

Kumar, who emigrated from India in 1991, studies culturally inclusive teaching, self and identity processes and achievement motivation. She was a high school chemistry teacher before earning her Ph.D. in education and psychology at the University of Michigan and transitioning to teach future educators at the collegiate level.

“There has been a distinct difference in the last two years in the way people are responding to my work,” Kumar said. “People are starting to recognize culturally inclusive teaching as critically important in educational psychology. It’s not easy on our children. There is a social-cultural power dynamic in our educational institutions and definite link between power and knowledge that is valued.”

For teachers, Kumar said the key is to cultivate open-mindedness rather than anti-racist training because “open-mindedness includes a repertoire of intellectual virtues such as intellectual humility, intellectual diligence and intellectual courage. Developing these intellectual virtues enable us to become aware of our biases, have the humility to acknowledge that we hold biases and have the courage and persistence to overcome them.”

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JOURNAL

Learning and Instruction

DOI

10.1016/j.learninstruc.2021.101512 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Pre-service teachers’ desire to control bias: Implications for the endorsement of culturally affirming classroom practices

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Jun-2021

Childhood gender nonconformity in boys linked to early androgens

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

 

IMAGE: ACCORDING TO THE RESEARCHERS, SO-CALLED CHILDHOOD GENDER ROLE BEHAVIORS ARE AMONG THE LARGEST BEHAVIORAL SEX DIFFERENCES. TYPICALLY, MALE ADULTS WILL SAY THEY WERE THE MALE CHARACTER, PLAYED WITH OTHER BOYS AND PREFERRED TRUCKS, WHILE FEMALE ADULTS WILL SAY THEY WERE THE FEMALE CHARACTER, PLAYED WITH OTHER GIRLS AND PREFERRED DOLLS. view more 

CREDIT: PATRICK MANSELL, PENN STATE

In laboratory animals, sex differences in behavior occur because different hormone levels produced by males and females influence patterns of gene expression in the developing brain. However, the origins of sex differences in human behavior are not as well understood, according to a team of researchers.

"In the lab, you can do experiments on how these hormones effect animal brains and perform other experimental manipulations," said David Puts, associate professor of anthropology. "We can't do those things to people, so we looked to a natural experiment."

The natural experiment studied by Puts and his collaborators is isolated GnRH deficiency (IGD), a rare endocrine disorder. Individuals with IGD lack sex hormones beginning in the second trimester of development and continuing until they begin hormone replacement therapy to induce puberty. 

However, because the external genitals develop earlier, during the first trimester, people with IGD are unambiguously male or female at birth and are raised in a manner consistent with their chromosomal and apparent sex. Their condition is usually detected when they fail to start puberty.

Consequently, IGD provides the opportunity to study psychology and behavior in people who were raised as boys but exposed to low testicular hormones during early development or were raised as girls but exposed to low ovarian hormones during early development.

The researchers looked at 97 individuals with IGD and 1665 individuals with typical hormonal development. The researchers recruited IGD subjects through collaborations at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and from online support groups for people with IGD. Because only one in 130,000 people has IGD the number of IGD subjects was necessarily low. By comparing the two groups, the researchers attempted to isolate the direct influence of sex hormones on the developing brain from the influence of gender socialization — boys being encouraged toward active play, girls pushed to more passive pursuits, for example — because all subjects would have been similarly socialized according to their physical sex.

The researchers asked subjects to recall behaviors they had as children.

"We asked them, 'When you read a book, were you the male or female in the story?', 'Where your friends boys or girls?', 'Did you play with dolls or trucks?'," said Talia N. Shirazi, doctoral recipient in anthropology now working in the reproductive health industry.

According to Puts, such so called childhood gender role behaviors are among the largest behavioral sex differences. Typically, males will say they were the male character, played with other boys and preferred trucks, while females will say they were the female character, played with other girls and preferred dolls. 

However, males with IGD reported more gender non-conforming in these types of behaviors. The researchers report in an upcoming issue of Psychological Science, that men with IGD recalled a higher level of childhood gender non-conformity than typical men, while women with IGD did not differ from typical women in childhood gender conformity.

'"We don't see this effect in the women with IGD," said Shirazi.

This indicates that having low levels of ovarian hormones such as estrogen does not have a large effect on childhood gender role behaviors, she added.

"Our results suggest that in humans, androgens, such as testosterone produced by the testes, influence male brain development directly as they do in other mammals, rather than only indirectly by influencing external appearance and consequently gender socialization," said Puts. "Both the direct influence of androgens on the developing brain and gender socialization probably play important roles in producing sex differences in childhood behavior."

Puts and Shirazi agree that despite their modest sample of participants with IGD, they are encouraged that the results were very similar in subjects who came from a clinical setting and those recruited from support groups.

"It would be nice to be able to identify people with IGD when they are younger, before they reach what should be puberty," said Shirazi. "We need to focus on recruitment for our studies because there is a lot that can be learned about the cause of gender behaviors."

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Other researchers from Penn State include Heather Self, former lab coordinator in Puts' lab; Kevin A. Rosenfeld, doctoral candidate, anthropology; Khytam Dawood, teaching professor in psychology; and Rodrigo Cárdenas, assistant teaching professor in psychology.

Also working on the project were Lisa L. M. Welling, former Penn State postdoctoral fellow, now an associate professor of psychology, Oakland University; J. Michael Bailey, professor of psychology, Northwestern University; Ravikumar Balasubramanian, physician, Reproductive Endocrinology Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital; Angela Delaney, physician, St. Jude's Research Hospital; and Marc Breedlove, Barnett Rosenberg Professor of Neuroscience, Michigan State University.

The National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Penn State Social Science Research Institute and the American Institute of Bisexuality funded this research.

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JOURNAL

Psychological Science

Disclaimer: AAAS and Eure

 

Children at greatest risk of sexual violence in Kenya during the pandemic

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

A study of sexual violence in Kenya during the Covid-19 pandemic finds that children were more likely than adults to be attacked by somebody familiar to them, and incidents were more likely to happen during the daytime in the attacker’s home.

The findings highlight the need for plans to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) during times of national emergency to minimise risk and increase protection.

The research, published in BMJ Open, was based on interviews with 541 survivors of sexual violence who had sought help from human rights defenders during the pandemic. Of these, 224 were children, with an average age of 12, and most were female.

Analysis of the interviews revealed that children were 1.6 times more likely to be attacked during the day and 1.7 times more likely to be attacked in private, rather than in a public space. In addition, children were most often victimised by neighbours, followed by strangers and family members. Adults, in contrast, were more likely to be victimised by strangers, followed by acquaintances, members of the local community, or spouses.

Based on the findings, the research team made a series of recommendations for policy-makers to address SGBV risks adequately in future national crisis policies. These include:

• Use constituency development funds to provide alternative safe spaces and shelters when schools are closed
• Provide more community meeting facilities where educational films can be shown and social activities take place
• Expand and support community neighbourhood watch groups focused on security issues
• Improve data collection and analysis to study regional trends, identify and police SGBV hotspots or serial offenders and monitor availability of support services
• Use data to provide education about SGBV including signs that abuse is taking place
• Establish a national sexual offender register to warn communities about high risk offenders

Co-lead researcher, Sarah Rockowitz, of the University of Birmingham’s School of Psychology, said: “Around the world, compounding harms occur in the wake of war, conflict, and election periods, including sexual and gender-based violence. Measures introduced to restrict population movement during the pandemic may have helped curb the spread of the disease, but they also seem to compromise the safety of citizens.

Wangu Kanja from the Wangu Kanja Foundation who co-led the project said:  “Kenya has a long history of sexual and gender-based violence, and we urge policy-makers to ensure that measures to minimise risk are built into national crisis policies. Beyond this, we need to change the narrative around SGBV, so it is understood to be a crime and a gross violation of human rights. Governments need to make funding available for programmes and interventions to begin this culture change.”

ENDS

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JOURNAL

BMJ Open

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048636 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Patterns of sexual violence against adults and children during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kenya: a prospective cross-sectional study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Sep-2021

 

Palaeontology: Prehistoric primates had a sweet tooth

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS

Dental fossils belonging to a species of prehistoric primate, Microsyops latidens, which date to the Early Eocene (around 54 million years ago) display the earliest known evidence ​of dental caries in mammals, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. Of 1,030 individual dental fossils (teeth and jaw sections) discovered in the Southern Bighorn Basin (Wyoming, United States), 77 (7.48%) displayed dental caries, likely caused by a high fruit diet or other sugar-rich foods. Changes in the prevalence of caries over time indicate that the primates’ diet fluctuated between foods with higher and lower sugar content. 

Keegan Selig and Mary Silcox compared the position of fossils in strata of sediment from the Southern Bighorn Basin to determine their age. Fossils could be dated based on the geological age of sediment in which they were found. The authors found that the earliest and latest occurring specimens had fewer caries compared to the rest of their sample, which may indicate that the primates’ diet fluctuated between foods with higher and lower sugar content. Selig and Silcox argue that fluctuating climates during the Early Eocene may have impacted vegetation growth and food availability.

The authors also found that there was a higher prevalence of caries in the fossils of Microsyops latidens compared to the frequencies reported in studies of primates alive today. Only the genera Cebus (such as capuchins) and Saguinus (such as tamarins) had a higher prevalence of caries than Microsyops latidens.   

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Article details

The largest and earliest known sample of dental caries in an extinct mammal (Mammalia, Euarchonta, Microsyops latidens) and its ecological implications

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-95330-x

Corresponding Author:

Keegan Selig
University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Canada
Email: keegan.selig@mail.utoronto.ca

Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-95330-x

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-95330-x 

 

Vaccine selfies, when done right, can be effective, ethical way to fight pandemic, scholars argue

Theory of normative conduct shows sharing vaccine pictures can help boost acceptance

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

LAWRENCE — As COVID-19 vaccinations began in December 2020, social media and online platforms were awash with celebrities, health care workers, politicians and eventually laypeople sharing selfies confirming they got the shot. At the same time, vaccination opponents continued to use social media to present arguments and misinformation on vaccines’ safety and efficacy. A group of scholars from the University of Kansas has published a commentary article in the journal Psychology & Health arguing that vaccine selfies, when done properly, can be an effective and ethical way to fight the pandemic, misinformation and share positive experiences.

Humans are a naturally social species and tend to do what they observe the majority of others doing, the theory of normative conduct holds. Social media is a platform in which people share their behavior and reactions to everything from dining to sports, politics to health. While it has received no shortage of criticism, social media can also be a positive factor, researchers said, including in showing others they are vaccinated, ready to return to social norms and more.

“As social scientists, we observe behaviors on topics such as health, and we often see how people are chiming in or reacting to certain health issues. When we started to see people posting vaccine selfies on social media, we also saw the debate whether it is a good idea to share them or not,” said Muhammad Ittefaq, doctoral candidate in journalism & mass communications at KU and article co-author.

“Social media is often the catalyst, or viewed as where misinformation on vaccines is coming from. We wanted to look at the positive side as well and how it has been used to help,” said Mauryne Abwao, doctoral student in journalism & mass communications at KU and co-author. “When we first saw these selfies appearing, we thought it could be the foundation of more study of social media for good.”

Ittefaq and Abwao co-wrote the commentary with Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh of the University of Bremen in Germany. Vaccine selfies, they wrote, have created a bandwagon effect in encouraging others to join them in getting the shots. Those posting such selfies have several key motives: to indicate to others they are vaccinated; to invite loved ones and social contacts to have gatherings again after pandemic-induced quarantines; to encourage those skeptical to get vaccinated and to share their personal stories about the effects of the vaccine.

The authors wrote that there has been debate about whether sharing vaccine selfies constitutes shaming of those who have not been vaccinated but argued the practice is one of the most prolific ways to share that the vaccines are safe and effective. Similarly, there have been criticisms that the practice of taking photos while receiving a shot can slow down the process or interfere with health care workers, or that posting a photo of one’s vaccine card can subject that individual to identity theft or compromised personal information.

To that end, the authors made several suggestions on sharing effective vaccine selfies, including a well-lit photo that shows a person’s face and arm. Such a photo, accompanied with clear text that indicates what vaccine dose the person received, such as Moderna, Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson, along with hashtags such as #IGotTheShot, #BeatTheVirus or #vaccineswork, can encourage others who may be hesitant to take part.

“When you put your picture out there and people can see your face, it’s a sign to your friends, family, social circle and people who trust you that you are vaccinated,” Abwao said. “We’ve seen many times social media as a place where trends are set, especially with people mimicking behavior. It’s much like fashion. Everybody wants to have the latest. It doesn’t matter when you got it. People in many places around the world are still excited and posting these selfies. The conversation will be relevant for a long time.”

The researchers cautioned not to think of the practice in terms of solitary locations, timeframes or whom they are posted by. In locations around the world where vaccines are only now starting to become available, the practice is still common, and the potential to influence communities that have historically mistrusted medical officials or authorities is significant.

The authors also cited research that found sharing images of illness can unintentionally strengthen associations of vaccines with being sick. Humans are hardwired to respond to visual cues, they wrote, so vaccine selfies that highlight health, joy and optimism have the potential to positively shape public perception of COVID-19 vaccines. The study, they wrote, can also be the foundation for more research in the role of vaccine selfies in health communications and public health efforts, including the effects on perception of celebrities or laypeople and race or ethnicity of health care professionals in social media posts.

“We are continuing to look at how we can use social media positively. It’s being used by those with anti-vaccination messages, so we want to discuss both the positives and negatives, and we argue that it can be an effective method,” Ittefaq said. “By better understanding who shares health information, how and when we can help the medical and scholarly communities to design better interventions to promote vaccine acceptance.”

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JOURNAL

Psychology & Health

DOI

10.1080/08870446.2021.1957888 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

COVID-19 vaccine selfie: a modest endeavor to increase vaccine acceptance

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Aug-2021

New research analyzes millions of twitter posts during hurricanes to understand how people communicate in a disaster

This study suggests that monitoring social media during hurricanes could help communities better plan for and mitigate the impacts of climate change

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY FOR RISK ANALYSIS

In the face of a potentially disastrous storm like Hurricane Ida, people take to Twitter and other social media sites to communicate vital information. New research published in the journal Risk Analysis suggests that monitoring and analyzing this social media “chatter” during a natural disaster could help decision makers learn how to plan for and mitigate the impacts of severe weather events in their communities.  

Jose E. Ramirez-Marquez from the Stevens Institute of Technology and Gabriela Gongora-Svartzman from Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College performed an analysis of more than six million Twitter posts over time during three major hurricanes that made landfall in 2017: Harvey (Texas), Irma (Florida), and Maria (Puerto Rico). The goal of their study was to develop and test a new method for measuring social cohesion, an important factor in a community’s resilience during the severe weather events brought on by climate change. 

The methodology presented in Risk Analysis involves combining and implementing text processing techniques and graph network analysis to understand the relationships between nine different categories of Twitter users during a hurricane. These include citizens, media, government, entertainment, business, charity-NGOs-volunteers, sports, technology-science-education, and other verified accounts. Knowing who the participants are behind the messages can help researchers identify how authorities communicate which kinds of messages, how people affected by the hurricanes interact with them, and what their needs are. 

Visualizations incorporated into the study illustrate the connections between social media participants and the degree of social cohesion throughout each hurricane’s timeline. 

Social cohesion has been described as “the glue that holds society together.” It affects how a community comes together in times of need. Social cohesion can help reduce the number of vulnerabilities experienced by a community during a disaster and reduce the time it takes to rebuild. The stronger the social cohesion, the more resilient a community is. 

“If we measure and understand social cohesion within communities, then we can seek to increase cohesion - through policies, community programs, and other strategies - which in turn will increase the resilience of communities,” says Gongora-Svartzman. “People in a more resilient community are more willing to volunteer and help each other during a disaster. They are also better informed, therefore knowing who to ask for help, what resources are available, and how to help during a disaster.” 

Visualizations in the study illustrate the seven metrics that are combined to create a single measurement of social cohesion. One of those metrics is information dissemination. This refers to the intensity of tweets, or communication between participants, during the timeline captured for each hurricane. This timeline of social media activity for each hurricane shows how active participants were on each day before, during, and after the hurricane. A graph of the data shows that the intensity of communication peaks for each hurricane shortly before or after it makes landfall. In the case of Maria in Puerto Rico, the analysis shows that a significant amount of conversation continues for more than a week after the hurricane ends – signifying that post-disaster management strategies were being put in place, rescues were occurring, and rebuilding efforts were starting to evolve. 

The researchers hope this new method for tracking and visualizing social media communications during a severe storm can contribute to future risk management and disaster mitigation policies. “Because we identify the types of actors in a social network and how this network varies daily, decision makers could use this measurement to release strategic communication before, during, and after a disaster strikes – thus providing relevant information to people in need,” says Ramirez-Marquez. 

In light of the disastrous impacts of Hurricane Ida on the people of New Orleans, he adds, it is important to understand what happened during each storm to mitigate the impacts on the most vulnerable people. “If we had a national database of the social media communications pre-during-post disaster then we would be able to better identify the needs of a community and the limitations of current policy and response,” says Ramirez-Marquez. “It is concerning that the communities that experienced the harshest effects during Katrina will again be harshly affected during Ida. This shows a lack of learning from past events.” 

 

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About SRA  

The Society for Risk Analysis is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that provides an open forum for all those interested in risk analysis. SRA was established in 1980 and has published Risk Analysis: An International Journal, the leading scholarly journal in the field, continuously since 1981. For more information, visit www.sra.org.  

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JOURNAL

Risk Analysis

DOI

10.1111/risa.13820 

ARTICLE TITLE

Social Cohesion: Mitigating Societal Risk in Case Studies of Digital Media in Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Sep-2021

What AI analysis of 100 million social media interactions can teach product managers

News from the Journal of Marketing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

 

IMAGE: BRAND RELATIONSHIP CHART view more 

CREDIT: YI YANG, KUNPENG ZHANG, P.K. KANNAN

Researchers from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and University of Maryland at College Park published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines product-markets from the perspective of consumers’ perceptions of brands instead of from purchase data.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Identifying Market Structure: A Deep Network Representation Learning of Social Engagement” and is authored by Yi Yang, Kunpeng Zhang, and P. K. Kannan.

Firms compete to satisfy consumers’ specific needs. The market and the competing products comprise a “product-market” with a boundary. Identifying the product-market boundary and examining the strength of competition among brands within the product-market have long been important issues for managers. It has implications for product design, product positioning, new customer acquisition, and pricing and promotion decisions. Rapid changes to the competitive environment, however, have made identifying product-market boundaries increasingly challenging. The traditionally defined SIC and NAICS classification codes may not be adequate, and especially not for capturing consumers’ perceptions of and preferences for brands. 

Technological advances change product-market boundaries. For example, film cameras gave way to digital cameras, then the digital camera product-market was upended by technological developments in smartphones. Similarly, Ford recently introduced its F-150 Lightening electric pick-up truck at a low price of $40,000 to remove a major barrier for customers thinking about making a switch from gasoline engines and Tesla introduced its electric Model 3 starting of $39,500 to broaden its appeal to mass-market car buyers. Both moves thereby changed competition within these lower-end vehicle product-markets. Companies also increasingly enter product-markets they previously did not compete in. For example, Amazon, hitherto an online platform, essentially crossed product-market boundaries when it acquired Whole Foods, thus presenting traditional grocery brands with a new and innovative competitor. Similarly, Whirlpool Corporation, the world’s largest home appliance maker, acquired Yummly, a recipe search engine with 20 million users, getting itself closer to how its potential consumers cook.

The reality is that produce-markets are more fluid than ever. Given the potential for new and unforeseen relationships between brands, managers need deeper insights into the fluid product-market boundaries. How can managers accurately identify potential threats and opportunities, especially those in different product-markets? How can managers derive these insights using easy-to-obtain and publicly available data? A new study in the Journal of Marketing addresses these questions and derives marketing insights using big data (over a hundred million social media user engagement “likes” and “comments”) spanning several thousands of brands in different product/service categories. This research looks at product-markets from a different perspective by focusing on consumers’ perceptions of brands based on social media engagement data, which unveils more of the dynamics at play, rather than using purchase data that are locked within pre-specified product-market boundaries. “We can show that two brands are very close to each other, even though they are in completely different SIC categories. In other words, by examining brand-user relationships, we generate a more inclusive and current representation of brands and the competitive/complementary relationships among them,” says Yang.

Using brand engagement data involving millions of social media users, the researchers capture latent relationships among thousands of brands and across many categories to reveal a highly precise market structure. They build a brand-user network using the data and then compress the network into a market structure map that visually represents the brands. Readers can view and interact with the map at https://market-structure.github.io/index.html.

“For example,” explains Zhang, “consider Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods. In the chart below, the green lines show that Whole Foods’ proximity to other retail brands such as Target and Walmart increases, while the red lines shows its proximity to supermarket brands such as Goya Foods and HelloFresh decreases.”

Our market structure map helps managers identify brands outside of the product-market that are close to a specific brand. For example, Disney Cruise Line and Hyatt are two brands outside the airline product-market, but are identified as proximal brands to Southwest but not for United. Such findings can provide opportunities for Southwest to target users who like Disney Cruise and Hyatt in social media. Southwest can cross-promote with Disney Cruise and/or Hyatt on each other’s websites or launch coalition loyalty programs. From the viewpoint of other hotel chains competing with Hyatt, gleaning such insights early on may help them take proactive actions. The figure below depicts these relationships.

This research reveals that managers can obtain very useful insights from user engagement data on social media platforms at a scale and scope that cannot be easily matched by any other source. Kannan says “The power of our method lies in its ability to capture the dynamic changes in market structure. Since the maps are based on the analysis of big data that can be collected in a relatively short time, our methodology can track changes in brands’ relative position when firms introduce new products, new promotions, and new marketing initiatives. Firms can deploy our method to enhance their social network-based marketing efforts by better targeting specific potential customers.”

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429211033585

About the Journal of Marketing 

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Christine Moorman (T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.
https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA) 

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.
https://www.ama.org

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JOURNAL

Journal of Marketing

DOI

10.1177/00222429211033585 

ARTICLE TITLE

Identifying Market Structure: A Deep Network Representation Learning of Social Engagement

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Jul-2021

Video fake news believed more, shared more than text and audio versions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — People are more likely to believe fake news in a video format compared to text and audio forms of the same story, according to a team of researchers. They added that people are also more willing to share these videos with people in their network.

In a study, about 58% of people who viewed a fake news video on an instant messaging smartphone app believed the video was real, compared to 48% of the people who heard the same story in audio format. Only 33% of the audience who read the article found the information credible.

The researchers said that the impulse to “believe what you see” may make video fake news a more stealthy and possibly more dangerous form of social media manipulation.

“When you see something, you believe in it more because it seems so obviously real,” said S. Shyam Sundar, James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory and an affiliate of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. “With text, you must use your imagination and put yourself in that situation or scene that's described in a series of words. But with video, it's a much more direct experience. You are seeing it and you're feeling it. And so, people seldom stop to think when they see a video, that they've seen something that is not true.”

The study shows that this tendency to believe more in video fakes is higher among people who are less involved in the topic of the story, whereas those who are highly involved tend to be persuaded more by text and audio fakes, said the researchers.

Viral videos

People were also more likely to share the video compared to audio- or text-based versions of the story, according to Maria D. Molina, assistant professor of advertising and public relations, Michigan State, who worked with Sundar on the study. About 78% of study participants who saw the video said they would share the video with others in their network, compared to 63% who heard the story and 67% who read the story.

The researchers, who reported their findings in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication on Aug. 1, said the use of artificial intelligence to create highly realistic, video fake news — or deep fakes — make the findings even more worrisome.

“There’s a powerful psychological appeal behind video form,” said Sundar. “And recent technologies can be used to very easily manipulate videos to create deep fakes. If people are going to believe what they see with their own eyes, then, these deep fakes have potentially dangerous consequences.”

The researchers studied the reaction to videos on WhatsApp, the largest instant message platform in the world and very popular in the global south, according to the team. They exposed 180 participants from rural and urban areas of India to three fake news stories obtained from Boom Live, Alt News and Social Media Hoax Slayer, websites that specialize in exposing false online viral videos in India.

After answering demographic questions, participants were shown a WhatsApp message on the researcher’s phone with one of the three stories, in one of the three formats — video, audio, or text — and then asked to imagine that they came across this story in one of their WhatsApp groups.

After they reviewed the story, participants answered a series of questions about the story.

The researchers decided not to share the fake news stories directly with the participants’ smartphones. Molina said there was a risk that the experimental fake news stories could be spread by participants.

"We are actually showing them the stories from another phone, but we can envision the effects that we found being even stronger if people actually receive these messages in their own WhatsApp feed,” said Molina.

Serious consequences

Sundar said the study was motivated by recent mob riots and lynchings in India, which were triggered by fake videos spread through social media.

“A lot of us have been talking about fake news for a while and we think about it as spreading lies, but these incidents in India opened my eyes to the serious deadly consequences of fake news in video format,” said Sundar. “It seems to evoke a visceral reaction rather than a thoughtful response."

The video format is quite complex, according to the researchers, making it difficult to pay close attention to the accuracy of the information.

“Video contains many streams of information, including audio, visuals, moving images, graphics and text,” said Sundar. “When people take in all this information, they are mentally overloaded, making them less likely to scrutinize the details.” This, along with the seeming realism of what is portrayed, makes videos more likely to be believed and shared, he added.

WhatsApp messages are encrypted on both ends, which means the general public cannot see and correct fake information by commenting on the messages. Only the intended recipients can see the fake posts.

The researchers offered a few ways to combat possible damage caused by video-based fake news. For example, social media moderators may want to prioritize video posts when they review media that has been flagged as possible fake news.

The researchers also suggest making users aware of the power of video, but acknowledge that it may not be fully successful. While media literacy can be a component of efforts to curb the spread and power of video-based fake news, the power of the biases and mental shortcuts evoked by video will be difficult to limit just by informing the public, said Molina.

As a solution, the researchers suggest introducing interactive features that would give users pause and make them reflect on the post before rushing to forward it. They propose that platforms like WhatsApp use alerts and warnings, as and when users encounter videos.

Eugene Cho, assistant professor of communications studies, the College of New Jersey, worked with Sundar and Molina on this study.

WhatsApp supported the work through its Research Awards for Social Science and Misinformation. The staff of the Centre for Media Studies, New Delhi, India, assisted in study design and data collection.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication

DOI

10.1093/jcmc/zmab010 

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2021

Misinformation on twitter adversely affects adults’ health decisions

A new study is the first to explore the effect of misinformation on Twitter about e-cigarette harms

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Adult smokers in the United Kingdom and the United States who were considering using e-cigarettes to help them quit were deterred when exposed to tweets falsely implying the devices are more harmful than conventional cigarettes, finds new research. The study, published in BMJ Open and led by researchers at the University of Bristol (UK) and the University of Pennsylvania (US), is the first to examine the effect of this type of exposure which has important implications for public health.

While existing studies have examined current perceptions of e-cigarette harms, little is known about the role of exposure to misinformation on social media on these perceptions, and consequently on e-cigarette intentions and use.  

In this Cancer Research UK (CRUK)-funded study, researchers from Bristol’s medical school and Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication recruited 2,400 adult smokers from the US and UK who were not currently using e-cigarettes to take part in an online randomized controlled experiment to assess the effect of exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on Twitter on adult current smokers’ intention to quit smoking cigarettes. They also assessed their intention to purchase e-cigarettes and their perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes compared to regular cigarettes.

Participants were shown different types of health-related information and asked for their opinions about e-cigarettes, and were asked questions on their intention to quit smoking, intention to purchase e-cigarettes, and perceived relative harm of e-cigarettes compared to regular cigarettes. After randomization, they were asked to view one tweet at a time in random order (four tweets in total) and were asked brief questions about each tweet, in terms of the perceived effectiveness of the tweet; likelihood of replying, retweeting, liking, and sharing the tweet; and their emotional response to the tweet.

Results showed that US and UK adult current smokers were deterred from considering using e-cigarettes even after brief exposure to tweets that e-cigarettes are as or more harmful than smoking, suggesting that misinformation about e-cigarette harms may adversely influence adult smokers’ decisions to consider using e-cigarettes as a way of stopping smoking. Conversely, the results found that US adult current smokers may be encouraged to use e-cigarettes and view them as less harmful than regular cigarettes, after exposure to tweets that e-cigarettes are completely harmless. 

Andy Tan, Associate Professor at the Annenberg School and Director of the Health Communication & Equity Lab, explains: “This is the first study to explore the effect of exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on Twitter among smokers. These findings are important because they show that even brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarettes may be hindering efforts to reduce the burden of tobacco smoking on current smokers in the US and UK.”

Caroline Wright, Senior Research Associate and CRUK Population Research Postdoctoral Fellow from Bristol Medical School and the study’s lead author, said: “Health information is commonly accessed online, with recent reports showing around 63 percent of UK adults using the internet to look for health-related information, and 75 percent of US adults using the internet as their first source of health information. People are increasingly encountering free and publicly available health information through social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook. However, this ease of accessing information comes at a cost as the spread of misinformation can have negative consequences on people’s health choices and behavior. Given this, we would remind smokers that although e-cigarettes are not completely harmless, their short-term health risks are considerably lower than smoking regular cigarettes. We would encourage smokers accessing information online to check their national health agency for accurate information about e-cigarettes. 

“For health care providers we recommend being aware that your patients may have been influenced by misinformation on social media, and therefore may have misperceptions about e-cigarettes. Correct misperceptions, and consider the ways you can support your patients, so they are able to identify accurate health information. And finally, for policy makers: ensure that all social media searches associated with e-cigarettes are flagged with official health guidance, regulate all forms of misinformation on social media, and improve population awareness and skills to seek out accurate information.”

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The paper, entitled “Effects of Brief Exposure to Misinformation about E-cigarette Harms on Twitter: A Randomised Controlled Experiment,” was published today in BMJ Open. In addition to Wright and Tan, authors include: Philippa Williams, University of Bristol; Olga Elizarova, Play Collaborate Change; Jennifer Dahne, Medical University of South Carolina; Jiang Bian, University of Florida; and Yunpeng Zhao, University of Florida. The study was funded by a Cancer Policy Research Centre Innovation grant and Cancer Research UK [CRUK].

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JOURNAL

BMJ Open

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2020-045445 

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of brief exposure to misinformation about e-cigarette harms on twitter: a randomised controlled experiment

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2021