People Who Don’t Read the News Are Better at Predicting Which Articles Will Go Viral, Study Finds

In an upcoming article in the journal Cerebral Cortex, Emily Falk and co-authors analyzed the brain responses of 40 people as they read real New York Times health article headlines and abstracts. Which individuals were best able to predict the popularity of those articles? Those who don’t regularly read the news.

Communication
Marketing
Psychology

Consensus and Contagion in Society

Penn names inaugural faculty co-directors of the Office of Penn First Plus Students

Robert Ghrist has been named an inaugural co-director of the Office of Penn First Plus Students. The Office is designed to to support first-generation and low-income students and offer a central, supportive home at Penn where students can form a vibrant community, learn more about resources, and connect with faculty and alumni.

Mathematics

Irrational Exuberance and the ‘FATE’ of Technology

Questions of verification, safety, and trust must be central when we embody intelligence in physical systems. Indeed, similar questions of fairness, accountability, transparency and ethics (FATE) should be addressed for data and information in society, writes Vijay Kumar.

Computer and Information Science
Electrical and Systems Engineering
Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics

Social Norms for Algorithms

The Dawn of a New Meritocracy

Higher education admissions have hit a watershed moment. Colleges need to consider the implications of the move away from standardized testing in admissions and what will replace the current hegemony of high stakes college admission tests, writes Ezekiel Dixon-Román.

Social Policy

Consensus and Contagion in Society

The Warren Center welcomes its newest affiliate, Hamsa Bastani

Hamsa Bastani completed her PhD in Stanford's Electrical Engineering department and spent a year as a Herman Goldstine postdoctoral fellow at IBM Research before joining Penn. Her work is inspired by applications to healthcare operations management, revenue management, and sustainable supply chains.

Operations Information and Decisions

Social Norms for Algorithms

Talking philosophy, privacy, and race with Anita Allen

In early July, Anita Allen began her three-year term as the first female African-American president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. Penn Today spoke with Allen about the intersection of philosophy and the law, how the field has changed, and her thoughts on being head of this organization.

Law
Philosophy

Ubiquity of Data

Professors González-Bailón and Mutz to Participate in Research Partnership with Facebook

Sandra González-Bailón and Diana Mutz will both serve on Social Science One advising committees, employing their expertise to advise how companies' data might be divided into subsets for further study.

Communication
Political Science

Ubiquity of Data

The Warren Center welcomes its newest postdoc, Victor Amelkin

Victor Amelkin, hosted by Rakesh Vohra, George Pappas, and Victor Preciado, is working on network science, with a general emphasis on analysis, modeling, and control of network processes, and a specific emphasis on network (process) resilience.

Electrical and Systems Engineering

Resilience in Networked Systems

How Big Banks Can Become Too Big to Fail

In a wide-lens view of the dynamics at play, Chaojun Wang, whose research focuses on how financial markets are organized, explains why some financial markets are so concentrated, which can lead to the problem of too-big-to-fail banks.

Finance

Resilience in Networked Systems

Understanding the social dynamics that cause cooperation to thrive, or fail

Studying the conditions that give rise to cooperation has occupied researchers for generations, with implications for understanding the forces that drive workplace dynamics, charitable giving, animal behavior, and more. Erol Akçay shows how certain types of social networks can paradoxically lead to cooperation’s collapse.

Biology

Consensus and Contagion in Society