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Dr. Katharina Baum

Katharina Baum received her Master's Degree in Economics and Management Science from Humboldt University, Berlin, during which she focused on behavioral economics. After finishing her Master’s, she joined the Weizenbaum Institute and the Chair for Business Informatics, esp. Social Media and Society at the University of Potsdam as a doctoral candidate in 2018. In her dissertation, which she completed in February 2023, she examined how social media use impacts people’s well-being, behavior, and perceptions, being interested both in individual as well as societal outcomes. Further, she is especially interested in the role of cognitive biases in these relationships.

She continues her work in this area as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair for Business Informatics, esp. Social Media and Society and as a member of the research group “Well-being in the Digital World” at the Weizenbaum Institute. In her research, she applies experiments, longitudinal and cross-sectional studies, as well as large-scale data analysis with computational methods. Her studies have been published in leading research outlets (e.g., PLOS ONE, Media Psychology, International Conference on Information Systems, and European Conference on Information Systems).

Research Interests

  • The effects of social media use on well-being (e.g., self-esteem, body image)
  • Societal implications of social media use 
  • Behavioral Biases
  • Experimental Research
  • Computational Methods

List of Publications

Journal Articles and Conference Proceedings

2023

  • ​​​​​​Baum, K., Abramova, O., Meißner, S., Krasnova, H. (2023). The effects of targeted political advertising on user privacy concerns and digital product acceptance: A preference-based approach. Electron Markets 33, 46 (2023). DOI: 10.1007/s12525-023-00656-1

2022

  • Batzel, K., Baum, K. (2022). “Exploring Information Flow on Twitter: Social Network Analysis on Gender-Specific Medicine.“ In: Proceedings of the 28th Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2022), Minneapolis, USA.

2021

  • Baum, K., Meissner, S., & Krasnova, H. (2021). Partisan self-interest is an important driver for people’s support for the regulation of targeted political advertising. PLOS ONE, 16(5), e0250506; https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250506.
  • Baum, K., Baumann, A. "Affective Forecasting Errors in the Context of Social Networking Site Use." Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2021), A Virtual AIS Conference.

2020

  • Baum, K., Köster, A., Krasnova,H., Tarafdar, M. "Living in a World of Plenty? How Social Network Sites Use distorts Perceptions of Wealth Inequality." Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2020), A Virtual AIS Conference.  

2019

  • Krause, H.-V., Baum, K., Baumann, A., Krasnova, H. (2019) “Unifying the Detrimental and Beneficial Effects of Social Network Site Use on Self-Esteem: A Systematic Literature Review”, Media Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/15213269.2019.1656646.
  • Baum, K., Meißner, S., Abramova, O., Krasnova, H. "Do they really care about targeted political ads? Investigation of user privacy concerns and preferences." Proceedings of the European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2019), Stockholm, Sweden. 

Conference Presentations

2022

  • Batzel, K., Baum, A. “Exploring Information Flow on Twitter: Social Network Analysis on Gender-Specific Medicine.“ Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS 2022), Minneapolis, USA, August 2022.

2021

  • Baum, K., Baumann, A. "Affective Forecasting Errors in the Context of Social Networking Site Use." International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS 2021), A Virtual AIS Conference, December 2021.

2020

  • Baum, K., Köster, A., Krasnova,H., Tarafdar, M. "Living in a World of Plenty? How Social Network Sites Use distorts Perceptions of Wealth Inequality." European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2020), A Virtual AIS Conference, June 2020. 

2019

  • Baum, K., Meißner, S., Abramova, O., Krasnova, H. "Do they really care about targeted political ads? Investigation of user privacy concerns and preferences." European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2019), Stockholm, Sweden, June 2019.

    Service for the Research Community

    Reviewer

    • Computers in Human Behavior  
    • PLOS One 
    • Internet Research  
    • Weizenbaum Conference  
    • International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)   
    • European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)   
    • Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS)  
    • International Conference on Wirtschaftsinformatik (WI) 

    Teaching and Transfer

    Teaching

    • An Introduction to Data Science with Python (Master Lecture & Tutorial) 
    • Wissenschaftliche Methodik der Wirtschaftsinformatik (Combined Lecture and Seminar Bachelor) 
    • Social Media Research Seminar and Project (Master Seminar / Project)  

    Invited Talks

    2022

    • "From privacy concerns to others’ perceived manipulation: Targeted political advertisement on social media" (25.05.2022, Hertie School, Berlin, Germany)

    2021

    • "Gleich und Ungleich im Netz – Perspektiven auf den Digital Divide" (11.05.2021, Weizenbaum-Forum, Berlin, Germany)

    2019

    • "Targeted Political Advertisement Online - Understanding bipartisan support for restrictions" (05.11.2019, Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway)