Researchers Ending up on Front Pages
In class we discussed research done by a professor and his graduate student at Cornell University (Depts. of Communications and Information Science) with a member of the Core Data Science Team at Facebook. The paper, “Experimental Evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks,” was published in PNAS in 2014. The research investigated the response of almost 700,000 Facebook users to tweaks in their New Feeds on their emotional states as indicated by their subsequent posts. The experiment was carried out over only 1 week. It caused a major stir and even an “Editorial Expression of Concern and Correction” in PNAS, which is appended to the original article. The senior author, i.e. Prof. Hancock, seemed to be extremely surprised at the negative response.
Now, imagine a situation where the Cornell research had not been done and you have the chance to do this research with Facebook today. In fact, it may be more important now than it probably was 9 years ago because of the impact of Facebook on the 2016 election. Furthermore, the research/publication will be very good for your career. You could also end up on the front page of major newspapers and being interviewed by seemingly outraged reporters.
For background, have provided two articles about the negative reaction:
1. Everything We Know About Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment 2.pdf
2. Facebook Doesn’t Understand The Fuss About Its Emotion Manipulation Study.pdf
The Atlantic article has most of the relevant information and actually references the Forbes article. I have also included a pdf of the PNAS paper in case you are interested,
3. Exp evidence of emotional contagion.facebook res.pdf.
(I put these three articles as pdf in question details)
For this case study I would like you to figure out how you should handle this opportunity to do important research in a way that has the best outcome, which is not the front page result mentioned above. Consider these factors:
Understanding the effect small changes to their Facebook News Feed can have on peoples’ emotional state is not known. So the research is important.
Successfully doing this research will really help your career and your future professional success.
Do not worry about how the data was analyzed, e.g. software used to determine the effects.
What are you going to do? Use the 4A’s to analyze the situation. You can also use your Code of Ethics. Your response should not be that long, around one page.
Short Introduction – what is the problem that you are solving
Acquire Facts – what are the uncertainties?
Alternatives – what are possible alternatives?
Assess – which ethical approach is the most useful, who are the stakeholders, and how are they affected?
Action – what action do you recommend and what is a possible alternative? Will it be possible to adjust and adapt?
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