UEL Baby Dev Lab

Quinn Spear

Quinn Spear

Quinn is a 3rd-year undergraduate double majoring in psychology and sociology at the University of Oregon who came to the lab in April 2023 for an internship through a UO’s Global Education study abroad program. Quinn is originally from Los Angeles, California, but moved to Eugene, Oregon in 2020 to attend school. After seeing the exponential increase in polarization in the United States since the rise of social media, Quinn decided to pursue a career in psychological and sociological research studying the causes, risk factors, and effects of online political radicalization. He specifically seeks to understand the ways in which social media algorithms target individual characteristics as well as identity traits that lead to potentially dangerous levels of radicalization among teenagers and young adults. In addition to this, he seeks to gain a better understanding of radical internet communities that form around various beliefs and how they differ from fringe groups that have existed in the past prior to the emergence of the internet. Quinn hopes to gain first-hand perspective and experience on the research and PhD process through interning with the many different PhD students in the lab. He is aspiring to continue his education after graduating and attaining both bachelor’s degrees in the Spring of 2024.

  • Email Quinn Spear at qspear2@uoregon.edu

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