We introduce a new variant of hedonic coalition formation games in which agents have two levels of preference on their own coalitions: preference on the set of "roles" that makes up the coalition, and preference on their own role within the coalition. We define several stability notions and optimization problems for this model. We prove the hardness of the decision problems related to our optimization criteria and show easiness of finding individually stable partitions. We introduce a heuristic optimizer for coalition formation in this setting. We evaluate results of the heuristic optimizer and the results of local search for individually stable partitions with respect to brute-force MaxSum and MaxMin solvers.

So-called ‘fake news’—deceptive online content that attempts to manipulate readers—is a growing problem. A tool of intelligence agencies, scammers and marketers alike, it has been blamed for election interference, public confusion and other issues in the United States and beyond. This problem is made particularly pronounced as younger generations choose social media sources over journalistic sources for their information. This paper considers the prospective solution of providing consumers with ‘nutrition facts’-style information for online content. To this end, it reviews prior work in product labeling and considers several possible approaches and the arguments for and against such labels. Based on this analysis, a case is made for the need for a nutrition facts-based labeling scheme for online content.

Fake news is prevalent in society. A variety of methods have been used in an attempt to mitigate the spread of misinformation and fake news ranging from using machine learning to detect fake news to paying fact checkers to manually fact check media to ensure its accuracy. In this paper, three studies were conducted at two universities with different regional demographic characteristics to gain a better understanding of respondents’ perception of online media labeling techniques. The first study deals with what fields should appear on a media label. The second study looks into what types of informative labels respondents would use. The third focuses on blocking type labels. Participants’ perceptions, preferences, and results are analyzed by their demographic characteristics.

Online content trustworthiness has become a topic of significant interest due to the growth of so-called ‘fake news’ and other deceptive online content. Deceptive content has been responsible for an armed standoff, caused mistrust surrounding elections and reduced the trust in media, generally. Modern society, though, depends on the ability to share information to function. Citizens may be injured if they don’t heed medical, weather and other emergency warnings. Distrust for educational information impedes the transfer of knowledge of innovations and societal growth. To function properly, societal trust in shared in information is critical. This article seeks to understand the problem and possible solutions. It assesses the impact of the characteristics of online articles and their authors, publishers and sponsors on perceived trustworthiness to ascertain how Americans make online article trust decisions. This analysis is conducted with a focus on how the impact of these factors on trustworthiness varies based on individuals’ age, education and gender.

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