Sean Laraway
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Professor
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Current Research Activities
I’m interested in events that motivate instrumental behavior in a variety of contexts. Currently, I’m researching motivation in the areas of online consumer behavior and the behavior of sports fans. I’m also working to expand my expertise and knowledge of human factors in transportation (e.g. aviation), online behavior, and other domains.
Research Connections to Current Events
Working with my graduate students has forced me to “find time” to engage in RSCA. Their passion, skills, and enthusiasm have motivated me to complete projects that I otherwise might have pushed to the bottom of my to-do list. I’ve been very lucky to work with many talented graduate students, and their research interests have driven a lot of my research at SJSU. I have also benefited from talented and eager undergraduate students, who have contributed to my research.
Personal Connections to Research
I’ve been working on the topic of motivation since graduate school in the early 2000s due to the influence of my graduate advisors at Western Michigan University (Jack Michael and Alan Poling). I see motivation as an important influence on a lot of interesting and socially important behavior. I’m a regular online consumer (of products and information) and an avid (Detroit) sports fan, so I’m interested in variables that influence our interactions in these areas and what motivates us to act in certain ways therein, such as cheering for a sports team we don’t normally care about, avoiding news about our team when it loses, and choosing to use certain web sites over others, etc. With respect to human factors, I work with many talented human factors researchers at SJSU and NASA Ames Research Center, and I’d like to be able to better understand their work to improve my collaborations with them.
