Graduate Student Research Focus: Ruiheng (Rachel) Sun, Ph.D. Candidate

What inspired you to pick your topic of research?

During my time as a master’s student at the University of Illinois, I connected with many new friends and peers on social media. Later on, I noticed their names appeared alongside personalized ads, for instance, “[Friend’s Name] likes this.” As someone concerned about online information privacy, I think these network-based cues are uniquely intrusive, as they signal that companies are using collective social data rather than just my own data. Therefore, I did my master's thesis on transparency cues, comparing explanations rooted in the individual's behavior versus those tied to their social network. During my Ph.D. program, I want to explore this further by examining how relationship factors (e.g., social tie strength) can influence consumer response to these social signals among personalized ads.

What contribution do you hope your research makes to the field?

I think most advertising literature focuses on users themselves, as seen in studies related to online behavioral advertising, which tracks users’ online behaviors. However, the online environment is fundamentally social, connecting users who share the same platforms. Current advertising research largely lacks an integrated perspective that accounts for these social networks. On a theoretical level, this research can contribute to the application of interpersonal theories to advertising effects. Practically, it can offer actionable insights for platform developers about ad delivery and interface design.

What support did you receive from the School to be able to do this research?

Hubbard has been a great and friendly academic community. I’m currently working on projects with Dr. Claire Segijn and graduate students related to this idea. I developed one of my research proposals in the research method class with Dr. Emily Vraga and received valuable feedback. I really enjoyed the computational method class by Dr. Alvin Zhou, especially on the network analysis part that is highly relevant to my research. I also received research grant support from the Hubbard School for data collection.