🇺🇦 Computational social scientist, Northeastern & Harvard
LazerLab.net COVIDstates.org VolunteerScience.com, NationalInternetObservatory.com
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Articles by David Lazer
Knowledge and Misinformation Regarding Autism Risk Factors in a Survey of US Adults
Supplement 1. eMethods 1. AAPOR Survey Disclosure Checklist and Additional Methodological Detail eTable 1. Unadjusted Survey-Weighted Proportion Endorsing Childhood Vaccination and Acetaminophen, Within Each Characteristic eTable 2. Unadjusted and Adjusted Survey-Weighted Odds Ratios for Endorsing Childhood Vaccination and Acetaminophen eFigure 1. State-Weighted Endorsement of Acetaminophen in Pregnancy as an Autism Risk Factor, By State eFigure 2.
Toward an integrated and globally equitable understanding of political polarization
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Abstract Political polarization poses major societal risks, yet a globally relevant, interdisciplinary understanding remains lacking, as nearly half of all studies focus on the United States. We argue for renewed effort to bring global equity to polarization research, highlighting insights robust across countries, those unique to specific contexts, and key literature gaps.
By Max Falkenberg, Matteo Cinelli, Alessandro Galeazzi, Christopher Bail, Rosa Benito, Axel Bruns, Anatoliy Gruzd, David Lazer, Jae Lee, Jennifer McCoy, David Rand, Antonio Scala, Alexandra Siegel, Sander van der Linden, Onur Varol, Ingmar Weber, Magdalena E. Wojcieszak, Fabiana Zollo, Andrea Baronchelli, Walter Quattrociocchi, Kikuko Nagayoshi
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Nature
Verified
Untrustworthy sources on Facebook and Instagram in 2020: Concentrated exposure but no attitudinal effects
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Abstract INTRODUCTION RESULTS DISCUSSION MATERIALS AND METHODS Acknowledgments Supplementary Materials REFERENCES Information & Authors Metrics & Citations View Options References Figures Tables Media Share Abstract Despite concern about exposure to content from untrustworthy sources on social media, little is known about the frequency or effects of exposure to their content.
By Guobin Yu, Ruoqi Liu, Olivier Bergeron-Boutin, Brendan Nyhan, Jaime E. Settle, Emily Thorson, Magdalena E. Wojcieszak, Taylor Brown, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio, Carlos Rivera, Hunt Allcott, Pablo Barberá, Drew Dimmery, Deen Freelon, Matthew Gentzkow, Sandra González-Bailón, Andrew Guess, Edward Kennedy, Young Kim, David Lazer, Neil Malhotra, Devra Moehler, Jennifer Pan, Daniel Thomas, Rebekah Tromble
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Science Magazine
Verified
How deceptive online networks reached millions in the US 2020 elections
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Abstract Deceptive online networks are coordinated efforts that use identity deception to pursue strategic political or financial goals. During the US 2020 elections, these networks reached at least 37 million Facebook and 3 million Instagram users, representing 15% and 2% of the platforms’ active US adult users, respectively. Only 3 networks out of 49—1 network with explicitly political aims and 2 that appeared to use politics as a lure for profit—were responsible for over 70% of users reached.
By Ruth E. Appel, Jennifer Pan, Yiqing Xu, Ben Nimmo, Daniel Thomas, Hunt Allcott, Pablo Barberá, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio, Drew Dimmery, Deen Freelon, Matthew Gentzkow, Sandra González-Bailón, Andrew Guess, Shanto Iyengar, David Lazer, Neil Malhotra, Devra Moehler, Brendan Nyhan, Jaime E. Settle, Emily Thorson, Rebekah Tromble, Carlos Rivera, Magdalena E. Wojcieszak, Chad Kiewiet de Jonge, Annie Franco, Winter Mason, Natalie Jomini Stroud, Joshua Tucker, Beixian Xiong
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Nature
Verified
The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election - Nature Human Behaviour
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Abstract We study the effects of social media political advertising by randomizing subsets of 36,906 Facebook users and 25,925 Instagram users to have political ads removed from their news feeds for 6 weeks before the 2020 US presidential election. We show that most presidential ads were targeted towards parties’ own supporters and that fundraising ads were the most common.
By Hunt Allcott, Matthew Gentzkow, Ro’ee Levy, Adriana Crespo-Tenorio, Natasha Dumas, Winter Mason, Devra Moehler, Pablo Barberá, Taylor Brown, Juan Cisneros Verified, Drew Dimmery, Deen Freelon, Sandra González-Bailón, Andrew Guess, David Lazer, Neil Malhotra, Sameer Nair-Desai, Brendan Nyhan, Jennifer Pan, Jaime E. Settle, Emily Thorson, Rebekah Tromble, Carlos Rivera, Benjamin Wittenbrink, Magdalena E. Wojcieszak, Shiqi Yang, Annie Franco, Natalie Jomini Stroud, Joshua Tucker, Saam Zahedian, Chad Kiewiet de Jonge
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Nature
Verified
Using co-sharing to identify use of mainstream news for promoting potentially misleading narratives - Nature Human Behaviour
Abstract Much of the research quantifying volume and spread of online misinformation measures the construct at the source level, identifying a set of specific unreliable domains that account for a relatively small share of news consumption. This source-level dichotomy obscures the potential for users to repurpose factually true information from reliable sources to advance misleading narratives.
Mark Zuckerberg’s Immoderate Proposal
David Lazer is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, and faculty fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard, and elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Sandra González-Bailón is the Carolyn Marvin Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Center for Information Networks and Democracy.
The Need to Make Content Moderation Transparent
Sandra González-Bailón is the Carolyn Marvin Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, where she directs the Center for Information Networks and Democracy. David Lazer is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Computer Sciences, Northeastern University, and faculty fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard, and elected fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.
Analyzing the 2024 Presidential Election
Does the outcome of the 2024 election suggest a realignment of traditional voting patterns? Early data points to continuity along some dimensions, such as an expected anti-incumbency vote against Democrats. But there were also notable shifts among certain groups. For example, young people, who had largely tilted towards Democrats in recent election cycles, swung by more than 20 points towards Republicans. This shift was even more pronounced among young men of color with lower levels of education.
Lawfare Daily: Deplatforming Works, with David Lazer and Kevin Esterling
Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She previously served as Lawfare's managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post. David Lazer is a political science and computer sciences professor at Northeastern University and co-director of the NULab for Digital Humanities and Computational Social Science.
A Normative Framework for Assessing the Information Curation Algorithms of the Internet
Skip to main content Intended for healthcare professionals Get full access to this article View all access and purchase options for this article. Transparency Action Editor: Mirta Galesic Editor: Interim Editorial Panel References Alfano M., Fard A. E., Carter J. A., Clutton P., Klein C. (2021). Technologically scaffolded atypical cognition: The case of YouTube’s recommender system. Synthese, 199, 835–858. Ali M., Sapiezynski P., Bogen M., Korolova A., Mislove A., Rieke A. (2019).
Asymmetric ideological segregation in exposure to political news on Facebook
Results Figure 2 provides answers to RQs 1 to 4. The segregation score based on exposed audience for domains fluctuates around 0.35 (i.e., the gap between the intersection of conservatives with conservatives versus liberals with conservatives is 35 percentage points). This is substantially higher than values found in prior research based on web-browsing behavior, which range from 0.02 to 0.1 (6, 9, 11).
Using General Messages to Persuade on a Politicized Scientific Issue
Hostname: page-component-7967f7c4f6-c67bh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2023-05-04T15:35:05.069Z Has data issue: false Feature Flags: { "useRatesEcommerce": false } hasContentIssue false Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 October 2022 Jon Green [Opens in a new window] , David Lazer [Opens in a new window] , Katherine Ognyanova [Opens in a new window] , Matthew D.
Using General Messages to Persuade on a Politicized Scientific Issue
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APSA Announces the Formation of the Careers Diversity Committee
The Careers Diversity Committee will advise APSA on support for political scientists who seek careers in government, industry, nonprofits, and academia by planning events and programs designed to advance career diversity and recruit APSA members from across these careers. The primary objective of this committee is to identify ways that APSA can help build career opportunities for doctoral students and faculty outside of the academy. Building these opportunities serves multiple purposes.
Analysis | People are more anti-vaccine if they get their covid news from Facebook than from Fox News, data shows
The White House has been sharply critical of how social media has helped circulate misinformation about coronavirus vaccines. President Biden put it bluntly when he said, “They’re killing people.” The day after Biden’s statement, Facebook posted a blog entry asserting that it isn’t responsible for U.S. vaccination rates leveling off.
Sustained Online Amplification of COVID-19 Elites in the United States
Introduction Local COVID-19 caseloads, community guidelines, national directives, international travel bans, testing locations, and vaccine availability all change rapidly, sometimes on a daily or even hourly basis, as we endure the pandemic.
The role of race, religion, and partisanship in misperceptions about COVID-19
Achen, C. H., Bartels, L. M. (2017). Democracy for realists: Why elections do not produce responsive government. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvc7770q Google Scholar Allcott, H., Boxell, L., Conway, J., Gentzkow, M., Thaler, M., Yang, D. (2020). Polarization and public health: Partisan differences in social distancing during COVID-19. Journal of Public Economics, 191, Article 104254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104254 Google Scholar Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M., Yu, C.
Even among healthcare workers, inequities exist in COVID-19 vaccine rollout, new study finds
/ Photo by AP/Jae C. Hong News @ Northeastern Homepage Even among healthcare workers, inequities exist in COVID-19 vaccine rollout, new study finds 0% Up Next Healthcare workers experience the same inequities in receiving COVID-19 vaccines as the general public, according to a new study by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers. David Lazer, university distinguished professor of political science and computer and information sciences at Northeastern.
Trump’s endorsements will remain a force within the GOP, new study says
/ President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Phoenix Goodyear Airport on Oct. 28, 2020, in Goodyear, Ariz.
Trump rallies and social justice protests may have driven a big year for gun sales, study says
/ Photo by Getty Images/iStockphoto News @ Northeastern Homepage Trump rallies and social justice protests may have driven a big year for gun sales, study says 0% Up Next Gun sales in the United States soared in 2020, and those purchases correlated with participation in pro-Donald Trump rallies or protests against racism and police violence, according to a new study by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers.
Scientists and doctors are more effective vaccine influencers than politicians and celebrities, new study finds
/ Photo by Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University News @ Northeastern Homepage Want to encourage vaccinations? Don’t use politicians, says this new study. 0% Up Next In the public health drive to get people to take the COVID-19 vaccine, former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Mike Pence, and other political figures have used their celebrity as encouragement. But new research suggests that politicians may not be the best examples.
The post-holiday COVID-19 surge might not be as bad as expected, study finds
/ Travelers wearing protective face masks walk through Concourse D at Miami International Airport, Monday, Dec. 28, 2020, in Miami. With the coronavirus surging, the nation's top public health agency asked Americans not to travel and not to spend the holidays with people from outside their household.
Many Republicans don’t believe the election results, a new survey says
/ Photo by Michael Brochstein/AP Images News @ Northeastern Homepage Many Republicans don’t believe the election results, a new survey says 0% Up Next More than half of Republican voters either believe President Donald Trump actually won the 2020 race or aren’t entirely sure who did win, according to a new survey by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers.
Wearing masks is on the rise across the US but social distancing measures aren’t
/ Diners sit inside a semi-transparent sidewalk housing at a restaurant while observing social distancing protocols to combat the spread of COVID-19 on Nov. 14, 2020, in New York. AP Photo by John Minchillo News @ Northeastern Homepage Wearing masks is on the rise. Physical distancing isn’t.
An economic stimulus measure could still pass in 2020 despite an election upheaval
/ A general view of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. AP Photo by Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA News @ Northeastern Homepage An economic stimulus measure could still pass this year despite an election upheaval 0% Up Next After months of on-again, off-again negotiations, the Trump administration and Capitol Hill Democrats may finally agree on a fresh injection of federal aid amid high unemployment and a resurgence in coronavirus infections.
Improving election prediction internationally
Decision trees are machine learning models designed for classification and regression problems, and they can yield accurate prediction (1). In a Report published by KENNEDY et al. (2), the authors have demonstrated the application of Bayesian additive regression tree (BART, 3), an extension of the classification and regression tree (CART, 1), to predict executive office elections in over 85 countries with 80% to 90% accuracy.
A Global Perspective on Predicting the 2020 Election
By Stefan Wojcik, Ryan Kennedy, and David Lazer As Vice President Biden has widened his lead in polls leading up to the 2020 election and President Trump has signaled a willingness to take actions that might undermine the results (see here, here and here for example), forecasters find themselves in somewhat new territory.
Analysis | These nine swing states will see the biggest ‘blue shift’ as ballots are counted after the election
President Trump hasrepeatedly decried voting by mail as rife with“tremendous potential for voter fraud,” encouraging Republicans to “fight very hard” against it. Nevertheless, given the pandemic, many more voters than usual are expected to cast their ballots by mail in the 2020 general election, with those mail-in ballots disproportionately cast by Democrats. In some states, ballots cast on Election Day will be easier to count immediately, while mail-in ballots are tabulated later.
Biden may see sizable gains from mail-in ballots in several battleground states
/ Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media outside his campaign plane at New Castle Airport in New Castle, Del., Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, to travel to Miami for campaign events. Also pictured is Jill Biden.
Democrats and Republicans both strongly support new round of COVID-19 pandemic aid, study says
/ Left: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference about COVID-19, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin Right: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill.
Privacy in Sensor-Driven Human Data Collection: A Guide for Practitioners
[Submitted on 20 Mar 2014] Authors:Arkadiusz Stopczynski, Riccardo Pietri, Alex Pentland, David Lazer, Sune Lehmann Download PDF Abstract: In recent years, the amount of information collected about human beings has increased dramatically. This development has been partially driven by individuals posting and storing data about themselves and friends using online social networks or collecting their data for self-tracking purposes (quantified-self movement).
Searching for Answers: Networks of Practice Among Public Administrators - Maria Christina Binz-Scharf, David Lazer, Ines Mergel, 2012
Agranoff, R. (1996). Managing intergovernmental processes. In Perry, J. L. (Ed.), Handbook of public administration (pp. 131-147). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Google Scholar Agranoff, R. (2006). Inside collaborative networks: Ten lessons for public managers. Public Administration Review, 66, 56-65. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI Agranoff, R., McGuire, M. (2001). Big questions in public network management research. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 11, 295-326.
The geography of money and politics: Population density, social networks, and political contributions
Introduction This study focuses on the role of population density in influencing per-capita political donations in the US. Given time and travel restrictions, we suspect densely populated areas provide a larger number of socially connected actors from whom to draw donations. These effects, however, are not likely to be homogeneous with respect to mobility and affluence.
Misinformation in action: Fake news exposure is linked to lower trust in media, higher trust in government when your side is in power
Article Metrics Peer Reviewed One major concern about fake news is that it could damage the public trust in democratic institutions. We examined this possibility using longitudinal survey data combined with records of online behavior. Our study found that online misinformation was linked to lower trust in mainstream media across party lines. However, for moderates and conservatives, exposure to fake news predicted a higher confidence in political institutions.
The Parable of Google Flu: Traps in Big Data Analysis
Summary In February 2013, Google Flu Trends (GFT) made headlines but not for a reason that Google executives or the creators of the flu tracking system would have hoped. Nature reported that GFT was predicting more than double the proportion of doctor visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which bases its estimates on surveillance reports from laboratories across the United States (1, 2).
Congress must stay connected even in a time of social distancing
Like thousands of other college professors, we have had to rapidly transition our teaching online in response to the COVID-19 crisis. We are scrambling to leverage the internet to achieve our teaching objectives and to support our students in these trying times. Members of Congress must do something very similar: use the internet to discharge their democratic duties and support their constituents. Our research on online deliberative town halls shows how they can.
Both Republicans and Democrats think governors are too quickly reopening states during the coronavirus pandemic.
President Trump’s coronavirus task force recommends states begin reopening their economies only after 14 days in which progressively fewer covid-19 cases are diagnosed. Without any such downward trends, Republican governors in several Southern states, including Georgia, Tennessee and Florida, have begun reopening their states. Here’s how we did our research What do the citizens of Georgia, Tennessee and Florida think of their governors’ plans?
Public Health and Online Misinformation: Challenges and Recommendations
Keywords misinformation, fake news, misconceptions, health, social media INTRODUCTION The internet has become a popular resource to learn about health and to investigate one's own health condition. However, given the large amount of inaccurate information online, people can easily become misinformed. For example, the notion that eating apricot seeds will cure cancer is a misconception that can be found online (16).
The Parable of Google Flu: Traps in Big Data Analysis
Policy ForumBig Data David Lazer1,2,*, Ryan Kennedy1,3,4, Gary King3, Alessandro Vespignani5,6,3 1Lazer Laboratory, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA. 2Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. 3Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. 4University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204, USA. 5Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Sociotechnical Systems, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
The Network Structure of Exploration and Exploitation
Abrahamson, E., Rosenkopf, L. 1997 “Social network effects on the extent of innovation diffusion: A computer simulation”. Organization Science, 8: 289–309. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI Ahouse, J., Bruderer, E., Gelover-Santiago, A., Konno, N., Lazer, D., Veretnik, S. 1991 “Reality kisses the neck of speculation: A report from the NKC Workgroup”. In Nadel, L., Stein, D. (eds.), 1991 Lectures in Complex Systems: 331–352. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Google Scholar Arquilla, J., Ronfeldt, D.
Representing Is Hard. Online Town Halls Can Help
OPINION — At the end of the movie “The Candidate,” Robert Redford’s character wins a Senate seat, and then immediately pulls aside his most trusted adviser and asks, “What do we now?” After the divisive election of 2018, we imagine that many newly elected members of Congress are pondering the same question. Our suggestion, based on over a decade of research: Go beyond business as usual. Make special efforts to connect with your constituents, not just interest groups and your most vocal supporters.
Analysis | If you’ve lost hope in American democracy, here’s some good news
In 1876, Samuel J. Tilden, the reformist governor of New York, won an outright majority of the popular vote yet lost the presidency. His tombstone bears the message “I Still Trust the People.” This might seem like sour grapes or a swipe at the electoral college system that denied him a victory.
The Parable of Google Flu: Traps in Big Data Analysis
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How intermittent breaks in interaction improve collective intelligence | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Significance Many human endeavors—from teams and organizations to crowds and democracies—rely on solving problems collectively. Prior research has shown that when people interact and influence each other while solving complex problems, the average problem-solving performance of the group increases, but the best solution of the group actually decreases in quality. We find that when such influence is intermittent it improves the average while maintaining a high maximum performance.
How intermittent breaks in interaction improve collective intelligence
Significance Many human endeavors—from teams and organizations to crowds and democracies—rely on solving problems collectively. Prior research has shown that when people interact and influence each other while solving complex problems, the average problem-solving performance of the group increases, but the best solution of the group actually decreases in quality. We find that when such influence is intermittent it improves the average while maintaining a high maximum performance.
Scientists verify that fake news outruns truth on Twitter - and call for a fix
Novel but untrue reports spread faster than true reports on Twitter, scientists say. (Northeastern University Graphic) A study published in the journal Science provides hard evidence that fake news — or, to use the researchers’ preferred term, false news — spreads via Twitter significantly more rapidly than verified news. What’s more, MIT scientists found that humans, not bots, are mostly to blame. It turns out that people are generally more taken by made-up novelty than by sober truth.
Social science, today
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Data ex Machina: Introduction to Big Data
Social life increasingly occurs in digital environments and continues to be mediated by digital systems. Big data represents the data being generated by the digitization of social life, which we break down into three domains: digital life, digital traces, and digitalized life. We argue that there is enormous potential in using big data to study a variety of phenomena that remain difficult to observe. However, there are some recurring vulnerabilities that should be addressed.
Internet platforms have key role in the battle against fake news
We know a lot about fake news. Academics have been studying it – and how to combat it – for decades. In 1925, Harper’s Magazine published “Fake News and the Public,” calling its spread via new communication technologies “a source of unprecedented danger.” That danger has only increased, of course. Some of the most shared “news stories” from the 2016 U.S. election – such as Hillary Clinton selling weapons to Islamic State or the pope endorsing Donald Trump for president – were simply made up.
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