Identity Map 2.0 is now live. 🎉 Map your identities, visualize how they overlap, and get a personalized complexity score. The new version also measures how much your political identity influences the rest of your worldview, helping reveal potential biases you may not have noticed.

There is now more spending on data centers than transportation in the United States.

Identity Map 2.0 is now live. 🎉 Map your identities, visualize how they overlap, and get a personalized complexity score. The new version also measures how much your political identity influences the rest of your worldview, helping reveal potential biases you may not have noticed.

Most federal agency X accounts receive far more likes and reposts under the Trump administration than they did in the final year of the Biden administration, with some agencies seeing engagement rise from minimal levels to thousands of interactions per post. www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

"A daily pill doubles the survival time of people with pancreatic cancer, one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat forms of the condition, even after they have stopped responding to chemotherapy." www.newscientist.com/article/2528...

As a scientist on social media, I could quickly grow my audience by dunking on the most absurd anti-science posts. But that would give those accounts a free algorithmic boost, add to the hostility online, and hand anti-science communities an easy example of scientists behaving poorly.

If a small, anonymous account's very first post is openly hostile, it's usually best not to reply. They're often seeking engagement, and responding gives them a free algorithmic boost while cluttering everyone else's feed.

One of the easiest ways to grow a social media audience is to consistently tell a specific audience what they want to hear, especially when it involves attacking another group they already dislike.

The scientific consensus is usually boring. Contrarian takes attract attention. Because social media rewards controversy and disagreement, going against the consensus can be a good way to gain likes, followers, and influence.

"When you cannot sort the evidence, you sort the messenger." www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/misg...

Great talk on why science education needs communication training! www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpqR...

Most people still trust scientists. What's eroding is something different: confidence in their own ability to navigate a chaotic information environment and know who to believe. I break down what the latest trust data reveals, and where to go from here. matthewfacciani.substack.com/p/trust-didn...

I wonder if pre-AI books will become more valuable one day, knowing a human actually produced every word.

"A federal judge barred the government on Friday from taking steps to launch President Trump’s $1.8 billion fund, for now prohibiting the Trump administration from setting up the fund that is intended to pay people the administration finds were harmed by the federal government."

Nice to see more research developing media literacy scales that can be used cross-nationally! journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Researchers looked at people’s positions on specific issues, rather than just whether they identified as conservative or liberal. They found 43% of self-identified conservatives supported mostly left-leaning policies on topics like spending, climate action, immigration, and vaccine mandates.

These proposed changes would shift U.S. science funding away from independent, merit-based peer review and toward direct political control by the Trump administration and political appointees. open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

Excited to share that my book, Misguided, won a 2026 Silver Nautilus Book Award in Psychology!

"Ebola is called the disease of compassion because it spreads through caring for one another. What we are watching now is what happens when that caring is systematically dismantled." yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/ebola-the-...

The erosion of science in the U.S. continues. It’s not something the broader public feels immediately, and we'll never know how many cures or treatments were never developed because of these funding cuts. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Americans estimate foreign aid makes up 26% of the federal budget. In reality, it has historically been about 1%, with an even smaller share going to global health. Fewer than half (44%) know that the U.S. has made major cuts to foreign aid that supports global health. www.kff.org/public-opini...

It’s always striking how differently employers treat you once you have a job. I’m the same person with the same skills, yet once I have a new title, I’m suddenly seen as more valuable and sought after.

What makes science stories engaging is not specific storytelling tricks (like vivid imagery or emotional protagonists), but whether the audience feels “transported” or absorbed into the story. jcom.sissa.it/article/pubi...

After attending the global health convening in South Africa, I swung by Denmark to speak at the Copenhagen Business School about misinformation, trust, and how our social worlds shape what we believe. Really enjoyed meeting everyone and hearing their thoughtful questions!

Here is my new website that shares all my free media literacy tools. What do you think? matthewfacciani.github.io/tools/

Last week, I was in Cape Town, working on our report for the Georgetown–Lancet Commission on Faith, Trust, and Health. Grateful for the opportunity to learn from so many incredible people in this space!

New study finds that exposure to Trump administration rhetoric calling for speech restrictions increased Trump supporters’ support for censoring political opponents. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New study finds that both liberals and conservatives care most about close ingroups, but liberals extend greater moral concern to distant others too. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

A brief, real-world conversation emphasizing the scientific consensus on climate change increased people’s perceptions of scientific agreement and slightly strengthened belief that climate change is real, but did not change broader attitudes or behaviors. journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10....

So much of the human story consists of a struggle between power’s tendency to corrupt and preserve itself, and the resistance of those excluded from it who force change. I wonder if we will ever break that cycle.

“Warm models made between 10 and 30 percentage points more errors on consequential tasks such as giving accurate medical advice and correcting conspiracy claims.” www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-04...

"Hantavirus may be contained. But the conditions that made these two weeks so destabilizing are not. The real outbreak is one of fractured trust, unhealed trauma and absent leadership. No one is coming to fix it but us. We all have a role to play" yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/something-...

New research suggests a social media platform’s structure (who can interact with who and how content flows) matters more than its recommendation algorithm in shaping what spreads and how good that information is. arxiv.org/abs/2605.19204

New paper describes how locality of evidence shapes our beliefs. When evidence is easy to observe directly (e.g. seeing a beer in the fridge), people tend to agree. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

“The opportunity now is to rebuild the institutions Americans rely on, with intentionality” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/o...

New study finds that people who prefer excitement- and suspense-heavy entertainment (like thrillers, crime, horror, and mystery) were more likely to believe conspiracy theories, particularly those who are more easily drawn into stories and enjoy suspense. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Here’s a quick video overview of my new online tool that helps you practice critical ignoring.

I spoke with Dr. Patrick Johnson about trust in journalism, why “media distrust” means very different things across communities, and why rebuilding trust may depend more on relationships, listening, and local institutions than better messaging. matthewfacciani.substack.com/p/how-does-j...

A new study finds sharp increases in ivermectin use among cancer patients following a Joe Rogan podcast episode in which Mel Gibson discussed the drug for cancer. I was quoted in the coverage on how media influence can shape health decisions, and what can be done. www.cidrap.umn.edu/public-healt...

AI chatbots provide instant validation, attentiveness, and the feeling of being heard. Social media echo chambers can also offer quick validation through a filter, but with far less immediacy and more friction.

New study finds that AI that strongly validates and agrees with users can feel emotionally rewarding and make people feel understood, but over time may subtly reduce satisfaction with real-world relationships and make people more likely to turn to AI rather than friends or family for personal advice

New Pew Research Poll finds that half of American adults under 50 get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts.

A new study analyzing 10,800 science-related TikTok videos found that White male science communicators consistently received higher engagement than female communicators and communicators of color, even after adjusting for audience size and other factors. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Why do some people swear by ivermectin despite the evidence clearly not supporting it for COVID and other viruses? The answer has almost nothing to do with the drug itself, and everything to do with identity. A thread. 🧵

When someone makes a health claim, it can help to check whether they have any financial incentives that could create a conflict of interest. Sometimes they make it easy.

It’s so great to see people using my new online tool to help them with fact-checking! Check it out here: www.critignore.com

New study finds that Community Notes on Twitter/X reduced reposting of misleading posts by about 61% after the note became visible, meaning users were much less likely to reshare content once they saw a fact-check. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

"Ironically, the government is using its power to censor researchers and chill speech while claiming it is protecting Americans from “censorship” of their speech online." www.tennessean.com/story/opinio...

A comprehensive update written by a variety of experts who share what we know and don't know about the hantavirus outbreak: evidencecollective.substack.com/p/got-hantav...

I built a free tool for deciding when not to engage online. Paste a comment → get a verdict: reply, ignore, or block. Paste a claim → get a step-by-step fact-checking plan. It's called the Critical Ignoring Companion and it's live at critignore.com