My first paper is out at Journal of Environmental Psychology! 🌱 Climate change is complex: there are many variables that are connected via unclear causal relationships. But is awareness of complexity helpful in guiding people towards effective environmental behavior, or can it hinder action? (1/5)

The claim that “emissions have come down” in this @nytimes.com @sominisengupta.bsky.social article on where we are ten years post-Paris is FALSE. Global emissions were at an all-time high in 2024. As it stands this claim is misinformation. They need to issue a correction!

Watch the video here if you missed the livestream. coveringclimatenow.org/event/the-bi...

For each additional moral–emotional word in a social media post, the number of shares increases 13% Our new meta-analysis finds robust evidence of moral contagion (N=4,821,006) The moral contagion effect is even stronger in larger, pre-registered studies (17%). academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

We have a new preprint: osf.io/preprints/so... What have we learned about social media - the constantly moving target of empirical research - over the past decade?

📢 Excited to share that my 🌟first book talk🌟 will be with @osome.iu.edu! Join me Nov 19, 12-1 pm ET (online) as I discuss key themes from #ContentConfusion (@mitpress.bsky.social). Don’t miss this opportunity to dive deep into the challenges impacting our news media today.

I revamped a figure from our paper showing our results in a nutshell: Even during the short experimental time, in the U.S., we find climate concern in the sample diverges between participants with different information diets. 3/4

In our recent paper, we use a sampling paradigm to investigate how people consume Pro-climate information and Anti-climate disinformation. In representative samples from three nations, we find belief-confirming sampling and processing and that the messages influenced climate concern. 2/4

The relationship between the climate change narratives a person holds and which type of climate messages this person consumes and trusts is a two-way street. 1/4 bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Perceptions of ideology are endogenous to the coverage that precedes their formulation you absolute idiots.

Selective Causal Focus: Research produced and funded by tech companies often either frames problems as user-driven, or solutions as the obligation of users (E.g. community notes). Distracting us from their design, business model, interface, and other causes steering us away from their profit model

I'm excited to finally have a preprint of this paper up, a few years in the making. In it we argue that industry-driven manipulation of social media research is well underway and that norms and institutions in the field are ill-prepared to resist tech's influence. arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894

🗓️ Join CAAD for a Pre-COP30 Disinformation Roundtable on Thursday October 30th, at 11am ET. We'll dig into the latest climate misinformation trends with a panel of experts and discuss how to counter false narratives ahead of COP30. Register here buff.ly/A1Da6WM

Years ago, I came across a simple post that has stayed with me ever since. Its message was this: There’s a cost to silence and a cost to speaking up. Every day I wake up and decide which bill I’m going to pay. Bill me for speaking up and standing up. Every day. 11/11

Let’s not be naive: We need to be very aware of industry influence in computational social science! Through control of data (and experiment) access the situation is even more problematic than in other industries, which makes the data access rights under DSA article 40 particular important!

Who today is influencing science a la Big Tobacco or Oil and Gas? In our new preprint we show how tech companies like Meta are capturing research on their product, using mechanisms that subtly (or not so subtly) shape what science gets produced

3. While big oil, big tobacco, etc. serve as well-known cautionary tales, social media research poses novel challenges for independent researchers—perhaps most notably, access to the study system itself. It's like trying to study climate change if Exxon-Mobile owned all the world's thermometers.

2. Here's the paper itself: arxiv.org/abs/2510.19894

1. We ( @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, and I) have a new preprint up on the arXiv. There we explore how social media companies and other online information technology firms are able to manipulate scientific research about the effects of their products.

When there is a random way to do something, there is a less random way that is better but requires more thought. In this case, regression models that make no sense don't belong in a multiverse analysis. An inferential regression without a causal justification is like an opinion without reasons.

Published today: One of the biggest #science #communication studies to date. We asked 71,922 people in 68 countries how they #engage with information about #science and combined the data with several country-level factors: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #OpenAccess

The deadline for the meeting on counterfactuals is coming up. Don't forget to send in your contribution.

NYC friends: This Thursday, NYU is hosting a discussion on the ethics of covering climate change in this political moment. I'll be tackling some of the beat's thorniest questions with @sominisengupta.bsky.social, @insideclimatenews.org's David Sassoon, & @danfagin.bsky.social. Register and come!!

As a result, the collaboration cannot identify the very mechanism of harm that Meta itself was internally concerned about. Users whose feeds are 25% harmful content will be lumped in with those for whom it is low... and only vague metrics of usage can be compared.

Join @coveringclimatenow.org & @soljourno.bsky.social for "Climate Blueprint: Myths & Disinformation". The session will cover common disinfo narratives and share tips for incorporating accountability into your reporting. 🗓️ Weds 22nd Oct 12pm ET coveringclimatenow.org/event/climat...

Welcome! This is the official account of the General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology 2026. Here, we'll be sharing all the important updates and information related to the upcoming congress. Feel free to visit our official website for more details: easp2026strasbourg.com

It's finally here! 100+ scholars, global scope, practical insights. “Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment” shows how organized interests stall policy—and how governance can respond. Open access available now! Or order for paperback and hardcover. cssn.org/wp-content/u...

This book finally got published today - free for download here cssn.org/news-researc... A monumental effort documenting climate obstruction across sectors, countries & governance levels, by 110 @cssn.org scholars I was chuffed to contribute to one of the chapters (thread)

📈 #COP30 climate disinfo is hitting record highs, with a 267% surge in false claims since July, AI-generated fakes, and viral out-of-context videos. Learn more about how coordinated campaigns threaten the “COP of truth” in the latest edition of OII. buff.ly/Fk4VvE7

Looking forward to joining Shoshana Zuboff and Cathy O'Neil this week at the Harvard Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights for a conversation on democratic resilience in the age of AI and tech power concentration. Join us October 16, 5-6pm ET. You can register here: www.hks.harvard.edu/events/surve...

Important reminder here that the US is not the only place where fossil fuel interests are pushing back hard against climate science and clean energy 👇

💯 Academic social media was a game changer for scholars from traditionally less well-connected places.

Macron remarks are notable- some quotes: "We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies."

President Macron: “We were very naive to leave our public space to social media networks controlled by US or Chinese companies that don’t share our interests and not interested in survival of our democracies.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggN...

Climate and food scientists: Hey everyone, here's a massive report showing how we need to make radical changes to our diet to avoid environmental catastrophe, but if we did it we could have amazing health benefits! UK media:

In a new paper, we find that sycophantic #AI chatbots make people more extreme--operating like an echo chamber Yet, people prefer sycophantic chatbots and see them as less biased Only open-minded people prefer disagreeable chatbots: osf.io/preprints/ps... Led by @steverathje.bsky.social

Come work with us 🚨 We are looking for a #postdoc in our @aimediademlab.bsky.social lab. Profile: Comm sci / poli sci/ computational social science. Great team, timely topocs, fabulous city, good conditions. DL 🗓️ November 1 werkenbij.uva.nl/en/vacancies...

🚨 New preprint 🚨 Across 3 experiments (n = 3,285), we found that interacting with sycophantic (or overly agreeable) AI chatbots entrenched attitudes and led to inflated self-perceptions. Yet, people preferred sycophantic chatbots and viewed them as unbiased! osf.io/preprints/ps... Thread 🧵

One of the loudest bells tolling for social science right now is that the decade of abundant data on humans is coming to a close. Whether you work on digital trace or surveys, LLM pollution is a serious problem, even while the wide roll out of LLMs creates an urgent need for social science.

Our data suggest that AI’s perceived neutrality could help reduce “echo chambers” by broadening people’s exposure to diverse information--so long as AI systems remain trusted as impartial and prioritize accuracy. osf.io/preprints/ps...

People trusted ingroup over outgroup sources, but... - In a political fact-checking task, people preferred AI over outgroup and ingroup sources - We found a similar pattern for a task that was completely unrelated to identity - This was not driven by priors, but by how people accumulate evidence

Our new paper finds that AI can overcome partisan #bias We find that AI sources are preferred over ingroup and outgroup sources--even when people know both are equally accurate (N = 1,600+): osf.io/preprints/ps...

🚨Call for papers for the 2026 Inequality conference in Konstanz. I'm co-organizing it and we welcome submissions from Computational Social Science. The deadline is approaching quickly! inequality-conference.de

ICYMI: We are hiring a postodoctoral researcher to join us at @cimcyc.bsky.social (Granada, Spain) to study mis/disinformation. 🚨 Only a few days left to apply!

Call for Papers, 2026 Cambridge Disinformation Summit Research on systemic risks from technology that affects information streams or the amplification or monetization of disinformation. www.linkedin.com/pulse/call-p...

*watching innocent people rapidly acquire the cursed knowledge that has driven me to madness* oh no

In this new Commentary in @natclimate.nature.com, I reflect on the recent focus on truth discernment in #misinfo research and argue that this outcome alone may not be beneficial to society if interventions do not improve behaviour and other outcomes because... 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨New open access paper out in BJP special issue "Psychological Understanding of Misinformation and Disinformation in the Face of Environmental Crises"! “Fighting fire with fire: Prebunking with the use of a plausible meta-conspiracy framing” 🧵👇 1/12 📖 doi.org/10.1111/bjop...

In this new Commentary in @natclimate.nature.com, I reflect on the recent focus on truth discernment in #misinfo research and argue that this outcome alone may not be beneficial to society if interventions do not improve behaviour and other outcomes because... 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New starter pack with @ipcc.bsky.social #AR7 scientists (bureau, authors, REs)! Full list: apps.ipcc.ch/report/autho... For SR cities scientists see separate starter pack! @dianaurge.bsky.social @sherilee.bsky.social @siir-kilkis.bsky.social @janfuglestvedt.bsky.social go.bsky.app/2FuXb3Y