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Volunteer Science

Volunteer Science offers people around the world to become involved in scientific projects on everything from... more

News & Announcements

Volunteers Still Needed

We are still recruiting volunteers for studies on human behavior. We are interested in people from anywhere in the world. Link: https://volunteerscience.com/

Report on Communication in Aftermath of Boston Marathon Bombing

This recently released report is based on survey data from communication on the day of the Boston Marathon Bombing.

POSTDOC 2016

Two postdoctoral positions in computational social science are available with dual appointments at Northeastern and Harvard Universities, to work in the lab of David Lazer.  Candidates will be expected to work on a combination of their own research and collaborative proj

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Lab People

Jason Radford
Senior Research Scientist
Briony Swire Thompson
Senior Research Scientist
Janette M. Briceno
Project Manager
Stefan McCabe
PhD Student
Ronald Robertson
PhD Student
Navid Dianati
Lab Alumnus
Samuel Fraiberger
Lab Alumnus
Ryan P. Kennedy
Lab Alumnus
Katherine Ognyanova
Lab Alumnus
Rezvan Sherkati
Lab Alumnus
more...

Recent Publications

Misinformation
Tackling misinformation: What researchers could do with social media data
Publication date: 12/2020
Authors: Irene V. Pasquetto, Briony Swire Thompson, Michelle A. Amazeen, Fabricio Benevenuto, Nadia M. Brashier, Robert M. Bond, Lia C. Bozarth, Ceren Budak, Ullrich K. H. Ecker, Lisa K. Fazio, Emilio Ferrara, Andrew J. Flanagin, Alessandro Flammini, Deen Freelon, Nir Grinberg, Ralph Hertwig, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Kenny Joseph, Jason J. Jones, R. Kelly Garrett, Daniel Kreiss, Shannon McGregor, Jasmine McNealy, Drew Margolin, Alice Marwick, Filippo Menczer, Miriam J. Metzger, Seungahn Nah, Stephan Lewandowsky, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Pablo Ortellado, Gordon Pennycook, Ethan Porter, David G. Rand, Ronald Robertson, Francesca Tripodi, Soroush Vosoughi, Chris Vargo, Onur Varul, Brian E. Weeks, John Wihbey, Thomas J. Wood, Kai-Cheng Yang

Social media platforms rarely provide data to misinformation researchers. This is problematic as platforms play a major role in the...

COVID-19
The State of The Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey
Publication date: 11/2020
Authors: David Lazer, Mauricio Santillana, Roy H. Perlis, Matthew A. Baum, Katherine Ognyanova, James Druckman, Alexi Quintana Mathe, Matthew Simonson, Adina Gitomer, Jonathan Green, Hanyu Chwe, Jennifer Lin

This report is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants SES2029292 and SES-2029297. Any opinions, findings, and...

Journal Article
Searching for the backfire effect: Measurement and design considerations
Publication date: 09/2020
Authors: Briony Swire Thompson, Joe DeGutis, David Lazer

One of the most concerning notions for science communicators, fact-checkers, and advocates of truth, is the backfire...

Journal Article
Good Decisions or Bad Outcomes? A Model for Group Deliberation on Value-Laden Topics
Publication date: 06/2020
Authors:

Agent-based models present an ideal tool for interrogating the dynamics of communication and...

Journal Article
Theory In, Theory Out: The Uses of Social Theory in Machine Learning for Social Science
Publication date: 05/2020
Authors: Jason Radford, Kenny Joseph

Research at the intersection of machine learning and the social sciences has provided critical new...

Misinformation
Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations
Publication date: 12/2019
Authors: Briony Swire Thompson, David Lazer

The internet has become a popular resource to learn about health and to investigate one's own health...

Journal Article
Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations
Publication date: 12/2019
Authors: Briony Swire Thompson, David Lazer

The internet has become a popular resource to learn about health and to investigate one's own health...

Conference Proceeding
Polarized, together: Comparing partisan support for trump’s tweets using survey and platform-based measures
Publication date: 07/2019
Authors: Kenny Joseph, Briony Swire Thompson, Hannah Masuga, Matthew A. Baum, David Lazer

Using both survey- and platform-based measures of support, we study how polarization manifests...

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