Ben Lyons

1 thing I wish I could've added: moving to a more realistic “supply” of false news – skewing right, instead of balanced by slant – helps align findings from lab and field (shoutout @BernhardClemm). I wrote up a little extra supplement laying this out osf.io/r6wzs

Conditionally accepted at the APSR (w/ @scottclifford & @patrickpliu): Why does political information so often change beliefs but NOT attitudes? We highlight the role of belief relevance, or the extent to which beliefs bear on attitudes.

The results differ substantially across platforms. @Prolific and @CloudResearch’s Connect panel have relatively low failure rates, while Mturk (even via @CloudResearch) has a high failure rate.

The effects of political advertising on Facebook and Instagram before the 2020 US election dlvr.it/TRFjvC

We just executed 2.8 million search queries in 243 countries in 2024 and 2025, generating both AI and traditional search results to understand the implications of the Rise of AI Search....

@BenjaminCrew1 I found an important video re: mad men that I need to share m.youtube.com/shorts/FQ39h79…

New Pub Alert from @UtahCGM! Exposure to low-credibility online health content is limited and is concentrated among older adults pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41639217/?utm_…

@1000TimesYes it is a famous Eggleston photo though, who spoon and big star have used on covers previously

Imagine being in a band and not thinking twice about putting a Coca-Cola logo on your album cover

Research finds that people overestimate how many social media users post harmful content--which makes us think the world is worse than it really is. On average, they believed that 43% of all Reddit users have posted severely toxic comments and that 47% of all Facebook users have shared false news online. In reality, platform-level data shows that most of these forms of harmful content are produced by small but highly active groups of users (3–7%). Overestimating the proportion of social media users who post harmful content makes people feel more negative emotion, perceive the United States to be in greater moral decline, and cultivate distorted perceptions of what others want to see on social media. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/arti…

Our paper "Exposure to low-credibility online health content is limited and is concentrated among older adults", out now in @NatureAging

shoutout to Jacksonville, Illinois

New preprint revisiting a 2025 Nature Human Behaviour study on perceived scientist trustworthiness across 68 countries/regions. see osf.io/preprints/psya… The original study ranked countries and explained trust differences using observed-score averages.

@frecklefruit @NamesPynchon

just had to say “bugonia peacock” into my remote 4 times … enunciating harder everytime

@frogandtoadbook @thelonelyisland akiva they’re on your corner

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Our January 2026 issue is now online! It features a special section on trust in public health with select articles covering partnerships with policymakers, effective communication, and meaningful community engagement. 🔗: buff.ly/H3rK3vb

Marty Supreme blimp overhead, I’ve been blessed

Political attacks on the press are ↗️ globally & so is partisan polarization. In a new 📝 @aasiegel & I explore the polarizing effects of attacks on the press using an event study of targeted radio journalists and a series of experiments in Israel! chagaiweiss.com/papers/inprogr…

Currently in FirstView: In “Survey Professionalism: New Evidence from Web Browsing Data,” Bernhard Clemm von Hohenberg, @_Tiagoventura, @Jonathan_Nagler, @erickaakcire, and @mwojcieszak provide evidence on survey professionalism across three samples.

happening this afternoon if you are so inclined shorensteincenter.org/event/dubious-…

I hear @CloudResearch is promoting that they have solved the AI respondent problem and are using my work to sell the solution. I have no relationship with them and they have not provided *ANY* evidence of efficacy. Be very skeptical. Again, I encourage them to post data or a white paper.