iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Reminder that submissions for the Society for Consumer Psychology’s 2027 conference hosted in Cancun, Mexico is due THIS WEEKEND. Submit your research or a session in the new dialogues track!

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Interesting research in a vacation like setting? Yes please! Submit your research to present at the Society for Consumer Psychology’s annual conference which will be in CANCUN! Note there is a new track for research dialogues to stimulate debate-style research discussions. Deadline is August 15.

Society for consumer psychology call for papers deadline is August 15. The conference will take place in Cancun, Mexico on March 14, 2027.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

I’m having a great visit at the Consumer Finance Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank in Philly. Grateful to have been able to present research led by amazing Ph.D. student Reyna Wang and to get such great feedback. Looking forward to spending time today working with the smart folks here.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Open access paper is available here: academic.oup.com/jcr/advance-... We are incredibly grateful to our entire review team at Journal of Consumer Research, and to Jacob (Yanco) Goldenberg (Editor) and Stefano Puntoni (Associate Editor) in particular. (7/7)

academic.oup.com

Made With AI: Consumer Engagement with Social Media Containing AI Disclosures

Abstract. Social media shapes how people connect, communicate and consume information. As generative artificial intelligence (AI) becomes an increasingly c

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Our paper quantifies the potential impact of disclosures on a platform level and discusses how disclosures can be designed to mitigate engagement differences and other policy implications. (6/7)

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Because disclosures reduce engagement — and engagement drives monetization and algorithmic reach — creators face a real incentive to hide or downplay their AI use. If creators find ways to subvert their AI usage, policies designed to create transparency may inadvertently undermine it. (5/7)

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Instead, the AI disclosures change people's parasocial connection — those one-sided emotional bonds we form with creators we follow. It is this reduced parasocial connection that explains lower engagement. (4/7)

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

It's also not general disliking of AI, or concern for artificiality and things that are altered or edited. Telling people what effect was added with AI, even if it is relatively minor doesn't mitigate engagement reduction. (3/7)

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

AI disclosure labels reduce engagement. But the reason why is where it gets interesting. We found that it's not because content with the AIGC label is objectively worse quality. Moreover, the AI disclosure quality doesn't change people's perceptions of quality. (2/7)

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

Might AI disclosures that are meant to increase transparency exacerbate the potential for misinformation? In new work with Steve Carney and Ignacio Riveros, we analyze engagement data from TikTok after the platform introduced its AI-generated content (AIGC) disclosure policy. 🧵 (1/7)

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Sometimes work is hard and sometimes it’s fun. Today I got to celebrate with Steve Carney and Ignacio Riveros - 2 great USC PhD students I’ve been lucky to work with - as our paper got accepted to the Journal of Consumer Research! & just in time for Ignacio to graduate and head to a job at Meta!

Steve Carney, Steph Tully and Ignacio Riveros celebrating their paper’s acceptance at Journal of Consumer Research.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

This paper shows that psychological ownership drives willingness to use debt to fund purchases & explains people’s likelihood of using high interest financing options like credit cards even when other lower interest financing is available: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

journals.sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

I am excited and honored that our paper “Psychological Ownership of (Borrowed) Money” has been selected as a finalist for the Journal of Marketing Research’s Weitz-Winer-O’Dell award for long term impact! Love the project and working with @eeshasharma.bsky.social and Cindy Cryder

Announcement indicating that “Psychological Ownership of (Borrowed) Money” has been selected as a finalist for the Journal of Marketing Research’s Weitz-Winer-O’Dell award for long term impact. Paper here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022243721993816

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Since the proof of concept paper showing LLMs passing attention checks came out, I’ve been thinking the amount of technical knowledge & compute power needed relative to the low payments for completion just doesn’t make it seem worthwhile at this point. So glad to see this rigorously tested!

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

I really enjoyed my visit to HKUST for their marketing camp. My first time in Hong Kong. What a wonderful & welcoming faculty. I also had no idea how beautiful the campus location was!

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

I’d argue that this was largely true of bots before this too given the simple attention checks often used. I’m not discounting that this makes things harder to check but I‘m also am not convinced it’s a totally new concern or that AI will make significant results easier.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

Scary, but prob not the end of online studies (for now). Just because AI can be trained to pass checks doesn’t mean that they will overtake platforms (or support hypotheses). Quality control has always been a concern. This does mean that platforms & researchers need to take it more seriously now.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 13/11/2025

Interesting - and very consistent with the findings of Longoni, Cian, and Kyung (2023) on AI transference: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

journals.sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

These kinds of tools, like look-alike audiences, can be really helpful for small companies (if they work well). But companies using them don’t learn about their target market or what makes campaigns successful. Amazon retains all the power and companies who use this will become reliant on them.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

But if we start using AI instead of humans, AI will be trained by AI and it’s likely to become a game of telephone in that it will degrade over time. We won’t be able to capture changes over time or learn new insights with any real accuracy.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

I don’t know that stock photos are entirely problematic (tho they do have downsides). The bigger problem is assuming the accuracy of “digital twins” And AI marketing research will continue to be accurate. It works now because we have tons of real human data to feed AI and gave it learn from (1/2)

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/10/2025

Calling all baseball fans! The Dodgers generously gave my son’s baseball team a signed ball by Teoscar Hernandez. It’s valued at $500 and the team is raffling the ball off to raise money. Get yourself a ticket! 100% of raffle ticket prices goes to our nonprofit team. www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticket...

zeffy.com

Teoscar Hernandez signed baseball raffle

Win a Teoscar Hernandez Autographed Baseball!The Dodgers have generously supported our 12u Dirt Devils by donating an authentic, autographed baseball signed by none other than Teoscar Hernandez!This i...

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Sad that it took 4 stores to find a WSJ, but excited to see a write up of my work with @chiaralongoni.bsky.social and @gilappel.bsky.social in print.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

Interesting! I had seen this: www.newsweek.com/gen-z-pollin... but the Gallup data is even more general. Plus - my sanity needs it to be true 😆

newsweek.com

Gen Z is shifting back toward Democrats

It marks a shift from 2024 when more Gen Z voters leaned toward the Republicans than the Democrats for the first time ever.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

Methodology matters. Don’t trust the overall numbers. This was an opt-in poll weighted by 2024 presidential vote so it recruited more Rs than Ds. However, as the authoritarian dictatorship rises, the folks that still consider themselves Rs are more extreme, and are being over represented.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

Price discrimination at its worst. This is likely to penalize customers who are more brand loyal. If so, I don’t see this ending well for Delta. Unless all others follow suit.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

If you’re looking for a great book to improve your marketing prowess, The Growth Dilemma by Annie Wilson & Ryan Hamilton is the best book I’ve come across in a long time. It breaks down segmentation and targeting for growing companies really well and provides some nice frameworks to think about.

amazon.com

The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things

Amazon.com: The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things: 9781647829735: Wilson, Annie, Hamilton, Ryan: Books

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

YES! More of this. Most people don’t understand how science affects their daily lives and how important the consequences of science cuts for everyone.

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Reposted by Steph Tully

Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

This isn't about whether you like Harvard or not. This is about whether any organization in our country has a right to exist without bending the knee to Donald Trump.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 21/05/2025

Hugely important. Don’t give the current administration any more power over science. Please add a comment!

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Reposted by Steph Tully

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

I am so heartened to this seriously AWESOME #SaveNSF website go up today!!!! Has a take action toolkit with: 1. Press outreach templates 2. Social media toolkit 3. Elected official outreach 4. Talking points Check it out and share widely!!!! Likely more to come. www.savensf.com

Welcome to Save The U.S. National Science Foundation
A Girl Looking at a Physics Model
TAKE ACTION
Save NSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Our mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation in various scientific fields. NSF funding is critical to this work.

Join us in our endeavor to ensure a sustainable future for scientific exploration and discovery.

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Reposted by Steph Tully

Jennifer Richeson @jaricheson.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Congress needs to block this. This so incredibly detrimental to the health, welfare, and prosperity of the nation.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Also a huge congrats to Dina Mayzlin (mentoring award), Ike Silver (teaching award), and Davide Proserpio (associate prof chair) for their well deserved awards! I am so lucky to have such talented and fun colleagues.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

Thrilled to find out that my amazing colleague @kristindiehl.bsky.social just received an endowed chair!!! And two mentoring awards!! In a world of never ending bad news, this lifted my spirits. So well deserved. Congrats Kristin!!!

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

I have data on what people think about this! Ongoing research with Chiara Longoni and Azim Shariff.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

I’m so sorry Margaret. I know how much you loved Henry. Sending hugs.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

ACR submissions are almost due. I’m on the round tables committee. We would love to get submissions that are interested in engaging in meaningful debates that affect our field. Please consider submitting something!

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

IPSOS explores subjective feelings of AI knowledge. Our theory and results are about objective knowledge of AI. We use objective knowledge levels by combining this data with data from Tortoise Media. Details are in our paper.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

I'm not permitted to share the free version online/ for commercial reasons unfortunately. But I'm happy to share an unlocked version to anyone who DMs or emails me.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Our research highlights the need to understand systematic differences not just across content, but across people.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Our research identifies perceptions of magic as a key factor driving AI receptivity. In doing so, our findings offer insight into different reactions to emerging technologies to help understand when people show are more likely to show “algorithm appreciation” vs. “algorithm aversion.”

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

These perceptions of magic are thus greater when tasks AI completes are associated with human-like attributes. When tasks aren’t associated with human-like qualities, like calculations, magic isn’t at play, and the pattern flips—those with higher AI literacy are more receptive.

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

AI systems are now doing tasks that we once thought only humans could do. AI systems do not actually need to possess human attributes to perform these tasks and people with more AI literacy know this. But for people with less AI literacy, AI's completion of such tasks seems magical!

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

So why are lower AI literacy users more receptive? It’s NOT about perceptions of AI’s capability, ethicality, or their fear of its impact on humanity—people with lower literacy actually rate AI as less capable, less ethical, and have MORE fear of it. Instead, it’s about magic. ✨

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Steph Tully @stephtully.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

In contrast to these expectations, cross-country data and six controlled studies where we measure people's objective knowledge about AI show that people with lower AI literacy exhibit greater AI receptivity.

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