Hannah Overbye-Thompson
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overbye.bsky.social
Hannah Overbye-Thompson
@overbye.bsky.social
PhD candidate @ UC Santa Barbara Comm | I study how people detect, perceive & respond to AI/algorithmic bias | On the market!

https://www.hannahoverbye.com/
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I'm excited to share that I'm officially a Ph.D. candidate 🎉 Meaning I'll be on the job market this fall (gulp). My research explores human-algorithm interaction and the social impact of emerging tech at the intersection of mass communication & decision-making.

#commsky #AcademicSky
I've noticed w/research it's often hard to find validated measures of constructs without hobbling together scales from multiple papers; now when possible I try to contribute by validating scales. Below is a scale that I hope is helpful that measures the perceptual attributes of DOI + reinvention 🧪
October 16, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Fabulous study by @felix-dietrich.de @aliciaernst.bsky.social @rkreling.bsky.social et al., examining how algorithmic curation affects music streaming UX. Key finding: More algorithmic recommendations = less enjoyment, BUT listening sessions w/algorithmic curation were perceived as more novel 🧪
October 14, 2025 at 5:32 PM
New study (2025) examines how AI autonomy affects user agency and attitudes. Key finding: AI autonomy triggers psychological reactance through threats to freedom, BUT personalization benefits cancel this out + users with higher agency feel more threatened by autonomous AI 🧪

doi.org/10.1080/0883...
October 9, 2025 at 9:53 PM
New study (2025) examines if people can detect bias in AI training data. Key finding: Training data cues were largely ineffective; users relied on AI performance instead to judge bias + consistent with prior work on AI bias, the majority of participants failed to notice any bias in training data 🧪
September 23, 2025 at 6:06 PM
New paper (2025) by @len-s.bsky.social proposes the PMSIS model: parents can use racially diverse entertainment media + "foreground co-viewing" + active mediation to improve children's intergroup socialization 🧪 doi.org/10.1093/annc...

Great work Sovannie 👏👏👏 #commsky
September 3, 2025 at 4:24 PM
New study by @janadreston.bsky.social @anneo.bsky.social & @germanneubaum.bsky.social reveals how users understand algorithms. Key findings: 71% have a basic understanding of algorithms but only 33% can explain how they work; users see themselves as passive actors when interacting with algorithms 🧪
August 29, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Excited to share my new paper with @garciaerick.bsky.social Xinyi Zhang & @laurentwang.bsky.social.

We ask: Do people see algorithmic bias as a risk—and do they feel capable of addressing it? Answer... It depends! More below 👇🧪 #commsky

doi.org/10.1080/1044...
August 27, 2025 at 3:14 PM
New study by Aquino et al. provides a fabulous look at differing opinions about algorithmic bias held by healthcare professionals. 72 experts had 3 key disagreements: whether bias exists (most say yes, some no), who's responsible for fixing it & whether to include race/ethnicity data in AI systems 🧪
August 21, 2025 at 5:48 PM
New study by @drjt.bsky.social examines if attention control explains the 🔗 between inspection time tasks and intelligence. Key finding: attention control fully mediated the inspection time-intelligence relationship + people with better sustained attention showed less performance decline over time 🧪
August 21, 2025 at 1:40 AM
Reposted by Hannah Overbye-Thompson
🎉 Huge congrats to our team @overbye.bsky.social, Kristy Hamilton and @jacobtfisher.online for receiving a Top Student Paper award in the Communication & Social Cognition Division at #NCA25! 🏆
August 5, 2025 at 9:22 PM
After a great summer teaching Social Networks at UCSB, I wanted to share 4 of my favorite network examples we explored in class 🧪🧵

1. Who Will Be the Next Pope?
2. The Hidden Network of Trees 🌳
3. The Beer Graph 🍺
4. The Oracle of Bacon 🥓🎬
August 4, 2025 at 5:33 PM
New from @kyliewoodman.bsky.social "baseline levels of psychopathology were significantly associated with an increased risk of developing gaming disorder 1 year later. However, there was no significant association between gaming disorder and the development or worsening of psychopathology." 🧪
“Why is my teen addicted to video games?”
Our new study in JAMA Network Open shows that psychopathology is a key driver--not an outcome of gaming disorder!
Depression, anxiety, ADHD, and social challenges may underlie gaming disorder.
Treat the root, not just the game. 🎮🧠
#commsky #psychsci #gaming
August 1, 2025 at 9:00 PM
New study (Campbell & Hawkins, 2025) examines why people expect news to find them on social media (vs seeking it out). Key finding: when people habitually scroll social media w/out thinking + believe algorithms/lack of control drive SM usage, they're more likely to rely on incidental news exposure 🧪
August 1, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Excited to share my new work aimed at making algorithmic bias easier to study w/3 key contributions

• Clear overview of how/where algorithmic bias arises
• Workarounds as a concept for user adaptation
• Framework for analyzing bias that is real, perceived, or absent

1/5 🧵🧪
doi.org/10.1007/s001...
July 27, 2025 at 8:47 PM
For anyone on the Communication job market this year S. Rutherford McEwan has put together an excellent spreadsheet for 2025-2026 openings. Highly recommend checking it out (whether you're applying or hiring):

docs.getgrist.com/rHppfvPrMDQd...

#commsky #academicsky #communication
Comm Job Spreadsheet 2025-2026 - Grist
A modern, open source spreadsheet that goes beyond the grid
docs.getgrist.com
July 24, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Paper by @oriplonsky.bsky.social et al., introduces BEAST-GB, merging behavioral decision theory with XGBoost to predict choices under risk/uncertainty. Key finding: behavioral features are critical even with abundant training data, suggesting theory-guided ML beats purely data-driven approaches 🧪
July 22, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Hannah Overbye-Thompson
🚨 New publication alert 🚨

Aqsa Farooq and I explore how aesthetic realism and emotional salience influence authenticity judgements of AI-generated disinformation images.

#GenAI #disinformation #authenticity #commsky

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Deciphering authenticity in the age of AI: how AI-generated disinformation images and AI detection tools influence judgements of authenticity - AI & SOCIETY
An ongoing surge of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled false content has been spreading its way through the information ecosystem, including AI-generated images, which have been used as part of poli...
link.springer.com
July 11, 2025 at 6:38 AM
New paper by Zhang et al. examines algorithmic management (AM) systems identifying 5 perspectives: surveillance/control, neutral tool, agentic boss, socio-technical process, and contradictory unity. AM creates tensions between control vs autonomy, transparency vs opacity & efficiency vs fairness 🧪
July 8, 2025 at 10:59 PM
New study (2025) introduces the Capability-Personalization Framework to explain when people prefer AI vs humans. Meta-analysis reveals AI appreciation occurs only when AI seems more capable AND personalization is unnecessary; otherwise people show AI aversion 🧪

doi.org/10.1037/bul0...
July 3, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Want to learn about drift diffusion modeling (DDM) but not sure where to begin? I put together a short, non-technical intro + curated links to help you get started 👇🧪

🔗 www.hannahoverbye.com/home/drift-d...
Hannah Overbye-Thompson - Drift Diffusion Modeling
This page is meant to provide a brief, high-level, non-technical overview of drift diffusion modeling so that you can get an intuition of what Drift Diffusion Models do before you delve into more tech...
www.hannahoverbye.com
June 17, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Hannah Overbye-Thompson
Very happy to see that @overbye.bsky.social’s fantastic work on detecting bias in human-in-the-loop algorithms was awarded a top paper in @icacsab.bsky.social this year. Incredibly interesting, rigorous, and timely research! #ica25
June 15, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Everyone go see Erick present our work on algorithmic bias and risk. He is fantastic! #ICA25
Important Notice!! 😳

Due to @overbye.bsky.social receiving a Top Paper Award from the Communication Science and Biology (CSAB) Interest Group at #ICA25, I’ll now be presenting on behalf of her and our wonderful mixed-methods team: Ceciley Zhang and @laurentwang.bsky.social. Drop by and say hi! 👋🏽
Next up for our #ICA25 presentations: Risk, Race, and Algorithms: Understanding Perceptions of Algorithm Bias Through the RPA Framework 🧠🤖
By @overbye.bsky.social, @garciaerick.bsky.social, Zhang & @laurentwang.bsky.social
📅 Sunday June 15
🕟 4:30–5:45 PM
📍Grays Peak B (Grand Conv Center 2)
June 15, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Reposted by Hannah Overbye-Thompson
Important Notice!! 😳

Due to @overbye.bsky.social receiving a Top Paper Award from the Communication Science and Biology (CSAB) Interest Group at #ICA25, I’ll now be presenting on behalf of her and our wonderful mixed-methods team: Ceciley Zhang and @laurentwang.bsky.social. Drop by and say hi! 👋🏽
Next up for our #ICA25 presentations: Risk, Race, and Algorithms: Understanding Perceptions of Algorithm Bias Through the RPA Framework 🧠🤖
By @overbye.bsky.social, @garciaerick.bsky.social, Zhang & @laurentwang.bsky.social
📅 Sunday June 15
🕟 4:30–5:45 PM
📍Grays Peak B (Grand Conv Center 2)
June 15, 2025 at 3:42 PM
@rachaelkee.bsky.social blowing us all away with her project at @hackingcommsci.bsky.social. Super impressive project with the goal of collecting high-throughput sleep and media data ✨😴📺

#ICA25
June 12, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Great presentation by @kyliewoodman.bsky.social on fMRI analysis at @hackingcommsci.bsky.social. I am always blown away by how clearly Kylie is able explain complex topics

#ICA25
June 11, 2025 at 10:18 PM