Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication doctoral candidate Soojong Kim has received a grant for $10,000 from the Waterhouse Family Institute (WFI) at Villanova University for a new study that investigates how polarized social networks and information flows affect the perceived credibility and virality of health misinformation. He hopes his study of misinformation on social media will pave the way for feasible and effective future interventions to curb the spread of health misinformation.

WFI research grants are given to scholars conducting the kinds of communication-focused research needed to engage the complexities of social justice.

This study is part of Mr. Kim’s dissertation, which examines how social identities within social networks influence the perception of bias and credibility in information. His dissertation also considers how social identities, such as race and political affiliation, within social networks affect the way individuals spread information.

In addition to the WFI grant, Mr. Kim’s dissertation is supported by a Russell Ackoff Doctoral Student Fellowship Award from Wharton and a research grant from MisinfoCon, one of the largest organizations of professionals in the misinformation and fact-checking field.

A former computer scientist, Mr. Kim studies computational social science, with a particular focus on information propagation, social influence and social networks.