Home
Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics
In the heart of the nation's capital, the George Washington University Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics (IDDP) brings together top researchers from academic disciplines across GW's Columbian College.
IDDP works side-by-side with journalists from leading media outlets, advises and helps agenda set with policymakers in the U.S. and Europe and engages with a variety of organizations that have significant societal influence and reach.
What We Do
Our work is of vital importance in an age when media manipulation, fake accounts and malicious social media activities are undermining fundamental aspects of societal cohesion and democratic ideals. Abuse, harassment, hate speech and disinformation abound, with foreign and domestic actors alike taking advantage of key features of digital platforms to target vulnerable and marginalized members of society. IDDP endeavors to educate the public about these threats, and counter them with reliable information and sound solutions.
Research
Produce timely publications about the threat to democracy posed by digital propaganda and deception and contribute to academic journals with new scholarships.
Convenings
Bring together leading interdisciplinary researchers from around the world under one roof and organize events on new disinformation research.
Education
Collaborate with the Poynter Institute and its PolitiFact project to offer trainings on the misinformation landscape and how to correct false information.
Research Clusters
Investigations
Meaningful Open Source Indicators
Misinformation/
Disinformation Lab
Public Heath & Governance
Digital Democracy
Visual Misinformation on Facebook
IDDP researchers conducted the first large-scale study of image-based political misinformation on Facebook.
IDDP in the News
The Role of Mental Representation in Sharing Misinformation Online
April 4, 2023
Fuzzy-Trace Theory posits that people will be more likely to share misinformation online if it promotes gist mental representations that cue motivationally-relevant values. In this paper, the researchers test these predictions by examining the combined roles of mental representation and valenced affect in decisions to share misinformative articles on Facebook.
How to empower fathers in the fight for mothers’ lives
April 1, 2023
How is it possible that in the richest nation on earth, childbirth remains all too often a death sentence?
Could a Global “Wicked Problems Agency” Incentivize Data Sharing?
March 27, 2023
Global data sharing could help solve “wicked” problems (problems such as climate change, terrorism and global poverty that no one knows how to solve without creating further problems).
Failing banks and mass layoffs: Is the 15-year tech boom finally over? What went wrong?
March 24, 2023
The long boom has ended, not with an overnight crash but with a months-long decline, rounds of mass layoffs, and a recent series of high-profile bank collapses.