At the Hebrew University Business School, Dover combines data science, psychology, and physics to reveal how information spreads online, shaping interactions, decisions, and modern markets.
‘The reason I wanted to be a scientist,” says Prof. Yaniv Dover, associate professor of marketing and vice dean for research at the Hebrew University Business School, “is that I wanted to discover things. I want to be the first to see patterns, to look at how people behave, and find out the hidden things.”
Dover, who in addition to his teaching and research positions serves as a member of the department of cognitive and brain sciences and the Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality at the university, explores social networks, online communities, consumer behavior, and the diffusion of innovation, blending data science, psychology, and physics to understand how information spreads, how people interact through digital platforms with each other, and how it affects their lives and economic markets.
His first love was physics, and it wasn’t until he was in the middle of his PhD program that he decided to switch to the social sciences because he felt he could make a greater impact in that field.
“I love physics, but it’s pretty much well researched. Many of the major advances in physics have already been made. But I felt that the quantitative methods and the big data that started coming into the social sciences, which didn’t exist in the previous decades, presented an opportunity for me.”
Dover has been able to bring what he terms “physics-based thinking, which tries to simplify things,” to the social sciences. “If you can simplify things, you can see patterns and look at more of the common denominators between people and the bigger patterns,” he says.
Having earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Hebrew University, Dover retains a special appreciation for the institution, its environment, and its atmosphere, despite his extensive experience teaching at other schools, such as Yale School of Management and Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.
“Part of the reason I came to the Hebrew University,” says Dover, “is that we are extremely interdisciplinary and we work across disciplines, which is exactly what I do. We have diversity, interdisciplinarity, stability, and the history and multiculturalism of Jerusalem in our DNA.”
He adds that the business school attracts top professors and students, due to the overall quality of life in Jerusalem, the successful hi-tech companies in the city, such as Mobileye and Lightricks, the government institutions, and the biotech industry that revolves around the city’s leading hospitals, such as Hadassah Medical Center and Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
“We have access to amazing people, and we have access to amazing companies,” he says.
Dover singles out Israeli students and the balance between work and family that exists in Israel. “I think [that] in Israel and Jerusalem specifically, the balance between your life, your family, your community, and the work that you do, the research, the science, is just much better, and the students are amazing.
“I really love Israeli students. They’re more mature, easier to communicate with, and are more interested in the knowledge and learning itself than career aspects of coming to the university.”
One of Dover’s best-known research findings was that individuals and companies frequently post false reviews of companies and products to increase sales.
One of Dover’s best-known research findings: Individuals and companies frequently post false reviews of companies and products to increase sales Dover cautions about overreliance on AI, saying experts need to examine how it is used
“We developed a method,” he explains, “to find how much people cheat online, specifically when they write online reviews. No one knew back then if fake online reviews were a real thing, and we found out that they were. I know people, and I know that they can cheat sometimes. What surprised me was that it wasn’t only people who cheated online when writing fake reviews. It was companies. And they used fake reviews, actually, to strategize against competitors and for themselves.”
Dover concedes that while consumers may have difficulty distinguishing between authentic and false reviews, there are indicators that can show whether a review is authentic.
“If you see an establishment, and there are a lot of reviews, and if the rating is high, the probability that the fakery is driving things is low because if the establishment is really bad and it fakes thousands of reviews, people will go visit there, and then you’ll see the backlash.”
As an expert specializing in social networking and consumer marketing, Dover cautions about overreliance on AI and says that experts need to examine how it is used.
“We need to do things carefully, slowly, and deeply. I think you need people who think deeply and have the tools to check whether you’re going too quickly and if you are being responsible in how you use AI. You have to listen to them, and the regulator has to listen to them, because the incentives are so strong that you may be tempted to fire half of your workforce and then put AI instead of them.
“AI may look nice in the beginning, but then, as things become more complicated, you may find out that half of your workforce is not human and not good, and by then it will be too late. So you want to do it gradually. You want to check it with good researchers and good thinkers.”
Recently, Dover has been involved in a research project examining how AI judges people. According to the study, AI follows a more rigid, less nuanced style of judgment than humans, which can be more systematic and sometimes stronger than human judgment.
“This should concern us,” he says, “but it shouldn’t put us in an anxious mode. We should be aware, careful, and forward-looking.
“One point I want to emphasize is that companies, regulators, and governments should consult with researchers, whether at universities or outside them, because we take the time. My passion is in thinking deeply and using robust research, math, and statistics. Companies, regulators, and governments should all consult with researchers and experts in this area.
“The purpose of our research was specifically to say, ‘Look, when you’re interacting with an AI, it implicitly evaluates you.’
“You can’t think that it’s an impartial thing, that’s like an algorithm, like a word processor; that you input words and that’s it. Whatever advice it’s giving you is based on an underlying judgment of you that is affecting how it’s responding to you. You should take that into account as you do it when you talk with people.”
Dover points out that scientific methods play a significant role in marketing, especially with larger companies. He quips that even after he has eaten dinner, he still gets hungry when he watches television commercials for food products.
“I always tell my students, ‘You’re learning these methods, you’re smart people, and you’re going to be hired for these high-powered marketing jobs. But it’s up to you to keep your ethical values, look around at your fellow students and fellow Israelis, and not abuse it.’”
Dover concludes our interview with news of a research center that the Hebrew University Business School is developing in the field of AI.
“We are now developing the Research Center for AI and Organizations, which is going to be launched soon. It has been given that name because that’s what the business school does best. We know organizations. We know consumers. We know people. Through this research center, we’re trying to understand how AI will affect the job market, organizations, governments, and the public in general.
“We’re trying to raise funds for research, education, anything that will help with understanding how this revolution is going to take place, and prepare Jerusalem, the Hebrew University, Israel, and the world as much as we can to prepare it for the big disruption that’s going to happen.”
This article was written in cooperation with Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University.
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