“Bypassing” is a promising strategy for countering misinformation by sharing truthful, positively framed statements instead of direct corrections. New research shows it can correct misperceptions effectively, especially when people are still open to learning. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/misg...

Killing both academic research and government watchdogs protecting us from foreign manipulation campaigns apnews.com/article/rubi...

I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated. My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.

This statement from the NSF is insane. Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false. Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.

Call for papers: “The Psychology of Pushback: Understanding Resistance and Compliance During Democratic Decline.” Edited by Jonas R. Kunst and John F. Dovidio. advances.in/psychology/1...

🚨New paper alert🚨 How do different "Great Replacement" conspiracy narratives (blaming relatively powerful left-wing elites or relatively powerless Muslim communities) affect radical collective action intentions against different targets across the political spectrum? A 🧵 about what we found:

I’ve created a starter pack of scholars who study conspiracy theories academically. If I’ve missed anyone off of the list, let me know (indeed, tag yourself) go.bsky.app/PZPcxeL

Since we’re talking about trust in science right now (shout out to the TISP project!), here’s the updated „Trust in Science Scholars“ starter pack once more! Please share and reach out if you identify as a trust in science researcher and want to be added! #trustinscience #scicomm

The spread of misinformation and disinformation top the WEF short-term global risk report for 2025. www.weforum.org/publications...

Great to see this paper being accepted! @hakancakmak.bsky.social and @feitenglong.bsky.social made working on this project a pleasure! If you are interested in how different Great Replacement conspiracy narratives shape hostility against Muslims and political elites, DM one of us for the preprint.

If you're interested in research on misinformation and conspiracy beliefs, I can highly recommend checking out this special issue!

New paper alert! In this new publication in advances.in/psychology, I systematically reviewed the literature on source credibility effects in misinformation research together with my supervisors Bob Fennis and @kaiepstude.bsky.social. A short summary of the highlights of the paper:

My first PhD work is now out in PSPB! In brief: Prior work found that highly identified transgressor group members may act in solidarity with victims due to ingroup image concerns. Partially replicating this, we showed that justice concerns may motivate low-identifiers.

Chuffed to see that our research proposal with @valentinmang.bsky.social & @feitenglong.bsky.social received in-principle acceptance as a Stage 1 registered report from BJSP. Stay tuned for Çakmak, Mang & Long (possibly 2025).

We're looking for a future PhD student at the University of Groningen for a project focusing on the intersection between social and consumer psychology. The main focus is on processes that motivate individuals to buy sustainable products: www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor... (deadline: June 26, 2024)

Happy to announce that a part of my PhD research has just been published! Together with my supervisors, Bob Fennis and @kaiepstude.bsky.social, we examined how the need to evaluate shapes the effects of exposure to conspiracy theories on behavioural intentions authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Analytic thinking is related to lower belief in conspiracies. So can analytic thinking decrease belief in conspiracy theories? We don’t really know, as the one set of studies in support of this does not seem to replicate. With @marijapetrovic.bsky.social, @vukasin.bsky.social #socialpsyc #PsychSci