Advancing Prosocial Interactions on Facebook Through Interdisciplinary Research

Pete Fleming has built a multidisciplinary research team at Facebook, responsible for studying social interactions and developing products to make Facebook a safer and more supportive space for people to connect with others. The team is made up of researchers from a wide range of disciplines, including social psychology, clinical psychology, human-computer interaction, sociology, demography, anthropology and public health. Through collaborating closely with academics and practitioners, they seek to build on existing information and contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge. Pete has become an expert in team-building and facilitating collaboration
between researchers from different disciplines. His presentation will focus on how building a multidisciplinary research team at Facebook has elevated their work on social connectivity including, for example, emotional responses, gratitude, social support and bullying.