THE QUESTION BEHIND MY WORK
WHAT CHANGES WHEN THE SOURCE OF INFORMATION CHANGES?
I became interested in what happens when people rely on a source they see as knowledgeable or authoritative.
Do they question it?
Do they defer to it?
How does perceived credibility affect judgment?
And what changes when that source is an AI system?
I began with questions about social influence and human judgment. They led me to examine how children evaluate information sources and how AI may influence decisions within institutions.
AN EVOLVING INQUIRY
Two connected journeys show how these questions developed.
JOURNEY 1 — FROM SOCIAL INFLUENCE TO CHILDREN'S EVALUATIONS OF INFORMATION SOURCES
18 MAR 2026 . GLOBAL ZOOM ROUNDTABLE
HUMAN DECISION-MAKING & SOCIAL DYNAMICS
JOURNEY 2 — FROM AI IN DECISION-MAKING TO AI'S BROADER SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS
30 JUL 2026 · ACADEMIC–INDUSTRY ROUNDTABLE
HUMAN DECISION-MAKING & AI
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I convened an interdisciplinary roundtable examining human judgment, social influence, hierarchy, conformity, silence and responsibility in complex institutions.
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I conceived, organized and moderated an academic–industry roundtable examining human judgment, responsibility and institutional behaviour when AI enters decision-making.
↓ QUESTIONS THAT LED TO FURTHER INQUIRY
↓ QUESTIONS TAKEN INTO PRACTICE
COMPLETED . OCT 2026
10 SEP 2026 · PRACTITIONER PRESENTATION
CHILDREN'S EVALUATIONS OF INFORMATION SOURCES
AI'S INTEGRATION INTO THE WORKPLACE
Building on these questions, I studied how 108 children aged 7–11 judged whether a friend, Google and ChatGPT could correctly answer questions about the past, present and future using a questionnaire-based experiment.
I brought the questions from the roundtable into a practitioner setting, presenting and discussing them with legal, privacy, governance and data professionals.
↓ FURTHER DEVELOPED THROUGH RESEARCH
COMPLETED. OCT 2026
WHEN AI ENTERS THE DECISION-MAKING ROOM
Together, these engagements informed my 16-page exploratory research paper, developed through thematic synthesis, on perceived AI authority, trust, cognitive delegation, responsibility and dissent.
FEATURED RESEARCH
CHILDREN'S EVALUATION OF INFORMATION SOURCES
CHILDREN’S EVALUATION OF HUMANS, SEARCH ENGINES, AND GENERATIVE AI MODELS AS INFORMANTS ACROSS TEMPORAL DOMAINS
COMPLETED • OCTOBER 2026 • 25 PAGES • EMPIRICAL STUDY
RESEARCH BY PARTH PARNAMI
SUPERVISED BY STEVE JOORDENS, UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, AND FATOS SELITA, HULT INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL, UK
"How do children judge whether a person or a digital source can answer a question correctly?"
I examined this question in a study of 108 children aged 7–11 in Grades 3–5 at a school in Gurugram, India. Participants evaluated a friend, Google and ChatGPT across questions about the past, present and future using an online questionnaire.
A GLIMPSE OF WHAT EMERGED
Google received the highest proportion of “Yes” judgments that it could correctly answer a question (70.37%), followed by ChatGPT (58.02%) and a friend (33.95%).
Children were less likely to judge a source capable of answering future-oriented questions than past- or present-oriented questions. Age was not significantly associated with their judgments in the fitted model.
RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION
The study extends previous research on children's evaluations of human and search-engine information sources by incorporating generative AI into the comparison, contributing evidence from an Indian school context.
THREE WAYS I PURSUE A QUESTION
01 — ASK: RESEARCH
02 — LISTEN: DIALOGUE
03 — CONNECT: INTERDISCIPLINARY WORK
I investigate how people evaluate information, judge authority and make decisions.
I organize conversations that bring different perspectives into the same room.
I follow psychological questions into AI, law/IP and institutional practice.
FROM THE ROOM — 30 JULY 2026
HUMAN DECISION-MAKING & AI
Human Judgment, Responsibility & Institutional Behaviour
Watch two short excerpts from the academic–industry roundtable I conceived, organized and moderated on how AI changes human judgment and responsibility.
ONE QUESTION. STILL OPEN.
How should schools prepare children to critically evaluate and appropriately trust an evolving generation of AI?
An important next consideration is how these insights might inform educational approaches that help children develop a more nuanced understanding of AI, its capabilities, and its limitations.