On Instagram, a Jewelry Ad Draws Solicitations for Sex With a 5-Year-Old Piotr Sapiezynski, a research scientist at Northeastern University who specializes in testing online algorithms, said advertisers competed with one another to reach women because they dominate U.S. consumer spending. As a result, Dr. Sapiezynski said, the algorithm probably focused on highly interested, easier-to-reach men who had interacted with similar content.