Select Publications and Working Papers
"Effects of Video Ad Features on Audience Engagement: Evidence from a Large-scale Video Platform."
Cao, Yiquin, and Sinan Aral. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing. Forthcoming.
"Human Trust in AI Search Overviews: A Large-Scale Experiment."
Li, Haiwen and Sinan Aral. Nature Human Behavior. Forthcoming. arXiv Preprint.
"Statistical Discrimination in Learning Agents."
Duéñez-Guzmán, Edgar A., Kevin R. McKee, Yiran Mao, Ben Coppin, Silvia Chiappa, Alexander Sasha Vezhnevets, Michiel A. Bakker, Yoram Bachrach, Suzanne Sadedin, William Isaac, Karl Tuyls, and Joel Z. Leibo. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Forthcoming. arXiv Preprint.
"The Production and Consumption of Social Media."
Filippas, Apostolos, John J. Horton, Elliot Lipnowski, and Prasanna Parasurama. Management Science. Forthcoming.
"The Task Space: An Integrative Framework for Team Research."
Hu, Xinlan Emily, Mark E. Whiting, Linnea Gandhi, Duncan J. Watts, and Abdullah Almaatouq. Management Science. Forthcoming. PsyArXiv Preprint.
"Measuring Social Media Network Effects."
Aral, Sinan, Seth G. Benzell, Avinash Collis, and Christos Nicolaides, MIT Sloan Working Paper 6975-23. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, May 2026.
Keywords: Network Effects, Social Media, Consumer Surplus
"Consumer Demand with Social Influences: Evidence from an E-commerce Platform."
Caoui, El Hadi, Chiara Farronato, John J. Horton, and Robert Schultz. Management Science Vol. 72, No. 4 (2026): 3550-3570. Supplemental Materials. NBER Preprint.
"Integrative Experiments Identify how Punishment Affects Welfare in Public Goods Games."
Alsobay, Mohammed, David G. Rand, Duncan J. Watts, and Abdullah Almaatouq. Science Vol. 392, No. 6794 (2026): eaeb5280.
"Does Privacy Regulation Harm Content Providers? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of the GDPR."
Lefrere, Vincent, Logan Warberg, Cristobal Cheyre, Veronica Marotta, and Alessandro Acquisti. Management Science Vol. 72, No. 3 (2026): 1727-1747. SSRN Preprint. Supplemental Material.
"Competition Avoidance vs. Herding in Job Search: Evidence from Large-Scale Field Experiments on an Online Job Board."
Fradkin, Andrey, Monica Bhole, and John J. Horton. Management Science Vol. 72, No. 2 (2026): 1305-1325. Postprint.
"Economic Rationales for Regulating Behavioral Ads."
Moradi, Pegah, Cristobal Cheyre, and Alessandro Acquisti. Yale Journal of Law & Technology Vol. 28, (2026): 336-392. SSRN Preprint.
"Reproducibility of Social Science Research Under Privacy Noise."
Topic: Data Privacy
Steed, Ryan, Eduardo Schnadower Mustri, and Alessandro Acquisti, MIT Sloan Working Paper 7355-25. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, December 2025.
Keyword: Digital Economic
"Algorithmic Writing Assistance on Jobseekers’ Resumes Increases Hires."
Wiles, Emma, Zanele Munyikwa, and John J. Horton. Management Science Vol. 71, No. 12 (2025): 144-164. NBER Preprint. Supplementary Materials.
"Are Crypto Ecosystems (De)centralizing? A Framework for Longitudinal Analysis."
Ju, Harang, Ehsan Valavi, Madhav Kumar, and Sinan Aral. Communications of the ACM Vol. 68, No. 12 (2025): 104-111. arXiv Preprint.
Shared Wisdom: Cultural Evolution in the Age of AI?
Pentland, Alex. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2025.