The politics of ‘platforms
This article explores how online content providers like YouTube strategically position themselves to various stakeholders using the term “platform” to navigate their roles in the information landscape. The term appeals to different…
The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation and adaptation
This article examines the gap between the widespread recognition of climate change as a critical issue and the insufficient mitigating actions taken by individuals, particularly those engaged in high-greenhouse-gas-emitting behaviors. It highlights…
Propagation from Deceptive News Sources: Who Shares, How Much, How Evenly, and How Quickly?
This article investigates the spread of misinformation on social media by analyzing 11 million posts and examining user behaviors in propagating content from trusted versus suspicious news sources. The study contrasts population…
Does counter-attitudinal information cause backlash? Results from three large survey experiments.
This article explores the concept of “backlash,” where exposure to counter-attitudinal evidence is believed to reinforce pre-existing beliefs, leading to stronger opinions. The article formalizes this concept and presents findings from three…
Analyzing and measuring the spread of fake content on twitter during high impact events
This paper introduces TweetCred, a semi-supervised ranking model that assigns real-time credibility scores to tweets, implemented as a browser plug-in. Over three months, TweetCred was used by 1,127 Twitter users, scoring 5.4…
Faking Sandy: Characterizing and identifying fake images on Twitter during Hurricane Sandy
The study focuses on how Twitter facilitated the propagation of deceptive images during Hurricane Sandy. It reveals that a small number of users were responsible for most retweets of fake image tweets…
Global crackdown on fake news raises censorship concerns.
The article discusses the growing trend of governments legislating against fake news due to its rapid and widespread impact despite the challenges of balancing such laws with free speech protections. It highlights…
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (Journal Article)
This article examines the psychological factors that contribute to the allure of conspiracy theories, focusing on epistemic, existential, and social motives. It demonstrates that these factors explain why individuals are drawn to…
The psychology of conspiracy theories (Book)
This book investigates the factors that make certain individuals more prone to believing in conspiracy theories, focusing on the psychological mechanisms that make these theories appealing. The book dismisses the notion that…
Don’t blame social media for conspiracy theories – they would still flourish without it
This opinion article argues that attributing the spread of conspiracy theories solely to the internet and social media is overly simplistic. While journalists, activists, and politicians blame social media for spreading such…
294 literature databases found