Anti-vaccine content and other kinds of misinformation are hypothesized to be more heavily monetized than other kinds of online content.
Academic Research
Online misinformation promotes distrust in science, undermines public health, and may drive civil unrest.
How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign?
Many critics raise concerns about the prevalence of ‘echo chambers’ on social media and their potential role in increasing political polarization. However, the lack of available data and the...
Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinions
Researchers studied the effects of exposure to reshared content on Facebook during the 2020 US election by assigning a random set of consenting, US-based users to feeds that did not contain any...
Like-minded sources on Facebook are prevalent but not polarizing
Many critics raise concerns about the prevalence of ‘echo chambers’ on social media and their potential role in increasing political polarization. However, the lack of available data and the...
Asymmetric ideological segregation in exposure to political news on Facebook
Does Facebook enable ideological segregation in political news consumption? This group of researchers analyzed exposure to news during the US 2020 election using aggregated data for 208 million US...
Evaluating Twitter's COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Removal Policy
Researchers concluded that Twitter's vaccine misinformation removal policies do not appear to have been associated with a detectable reduction in content from misinformative, compared to non-...
U.S. Spanish-speaking populations experienced gaps in timely COVID-19 information during the pandemic and disproportionate misinformation exposure. Brigada Digital de Salud was established to address...
COVID-19 vaccine uptake among U.S. Latino adults has been slower than other groups, and younger Latino children continue to be underrepresented among vaccinated populations.
The Data Abyss: How Lack of Data Access Leaves Research and Society in the Dark
This article articulates why the lack of social media platform data access for researchers is a huge problem, for research and society. We then review a number of ongoing initiatives and...
This testimony reports the key findings from our research on the effect that former President Trump’s false claims of widespread voter and electoral fraud had on public faith in the election system.
Key considerations in digital population health interventions
Digital health technologies (DHTs) have become an integral part of global public health initiatives from encouraging and monitoring vaccine uptake to supporting self-management of long-term...
The Role of Mental Representation in Sharing Misinformation Online
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...
Newer tobacco products might be more likely to use social media as they grow in the global market. This study examined global social media marketing of HTPs.
Visual Misinformation on Facebook
In this study the researchers conducted the first large-scale study of image-based political misinformation on Facebook.
A growing body of evidence indicates that e-cigarettes deliver fewer harmful chemicals than traditional cigarettes and may support smoking cessation.
Economic risk framing increases intention to vaccinate among Republican COVID-19 vaccine refusers
The COVID-19 pandemic remains a global threat to lives, livelihoods, and lifestyles.
Beyond Digital "Echo Chambers": The Role of Viewpoint Diversity in Political Discussion
Modern political conversations are typically perceived to be unproductively affirming -- siloed in "echo chambers" of exclusively like-minded discussants.
Cigarette smoking among sexual and gender minority (SGM) groups in the United States is higher than heterosexual and cisgender individuals.
Fact-checking Trump’s election lies can improve confidence in U.S. elections: Experimental evidence
As the 2020 campaign unfolded President Trump’s attacks on the integrity of the U.S. electoral system grew louder and more frequent.