Matthew Facciani

AI deepfakes of real doctors spreading health misinformation on social media Hundreds of videos on TikTok and elsewhere impersonate experts to sell supplements with unproven effects

“TikTok and other social media platforms are hosting AI-generated deepfake videos of doctors whose words have been manipulated to help sell supplements and spread health misinformation.”
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

That’s awesome! If you ever want to talk with a social scientist who thinks a lot about the word misinformation, science communication, and how to have productive conversations, let me know :)

New study finds that public health messages that acknowledge uncertainty and explain the scientific process lead to greater perceived trustworthiness and understanding compared to basic fact-based messages.
journals.lww.com/jphmp/abstra...

Under RFK Jr., the CDC provides a megaphone to the anti-vaccine movement Common anti-vaccine talking points were on display as the CDC’s immunization advisers repealed a hepatitis B birth vaccine recommendation and scrutinized the childhood schedule.

"During the meetings, committee members and presenters made at least 60 false, misleading or unsupported claims about vaccine safety, disease spread and rationale for childhood vaccination, according to the Evidence Collective, a coalition of science and medicine researchers."

Relatively calm afternoon ACIP session still cauldron of ‘misinformation, disinformation, and information taken out of context’

Offit, who also co-invented a rotavirus vaccine, characterized the meeting to CIDRAP News as “a sad day for America's children. You have a clearly poorly informed group making recommendations for the nation's health. They didn't know certain key facts.”
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

New Course for 2026: The Three Pillars of Literacy — A Hands-On Framework for Navigating Misinformation This January, I’m launching a practical, weekly course to build psychological, media, and scientific literacy — and to help you share those skills with others.

Free for all paid subscribers. Syllabus drops next week. Learn more and sign up here!
matthewfacciani.substack.com/p/new-course...

I’m launching a new course this January: The Three Pillars of Literacy — a hands-on framework for navigating misinformation. Each week focuses on a different type of literacy—psychological, media, and scientific—and gives you practical tools you can use in real life.

Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, and What to Do About It Why are people inclined to believe misinformation? This wide-ranging and comprehensive book shines a light on how false beliefs take root and spread, exploring the cognitive, emotional, and social fac...

"Winner, 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Title" is already shared on my book's Amazon page!
amzn.to/48zTs59

Thrilled to share that my book, Misguided, was named a 2025 Choice Outstanding Academic Title by the American Library Association’s CHOICE magazine, an honor given to a small percentage of academic books each year!

The CEO of Kalshi — a multi-billion-dollar online gambling platform — recently said he wants to “financialize everything and create a tradable asset out of any difference in opinion.” And Kalshi just announced a partnership with CNN. This would be too far-fetched for a Black Mirror episode...

Thank you so much for giving my book a shoutout!

It does! I try to take breaks, and it helps to have a few hobbies completely outside what I study like playing sports or the piano.

Probably my favorite historical sociologist!

When you recognize that the brain’s primary objective is survival—not seeking truth—a lot of people’s seemingly irrational behavior starts to make much more sense.

💯

The world is often scary, uncertain, and chaotic. When something unfortunate happens, conspiracy content and the communities around it offer clean, simple explanations that give people a sense of closure and understanding.

Second, there’s the powerful community element, large groups of people validating the belief and supporting one another as they try to make sense of chaos.

I consume a lot of conspiracy-theory content for work, and two major themes always stand out. First, conspiracy theories offer comforting certainty around confusing and complex issues.

Promo graphic for episode 983 of Public Health On Call podcast, titled Why Do We Believe Misinformation? Additional text on the graphic reads: Author and social scientist Matthew Facciani on the psychological identities and relationships behind misinformation.

Whether it’s claims that CBD oil can cure cancer or a very convincing AI video of a dog driving a semi-truck, falsehoods abound in our lives.

@matthewfacciani.bsky.social details the psychological biases that make us vulnerable to misinformation.

podcast.publichealth.jhu.edu/983-why-do-w...

When Politics Feels Distant, Conspiracies Rise A new study uncovers how psychological distance fuels conspiracy beliefs and how bringing politics closer can help rebuild trust.

New research shows that the farther people feel from politics, the more likely they are to believe conspiracy theories. But the study also found that when people imagine a better politics—one that is transparent, relatable, and connected to daily life—their conspiratorial thinking goes down.

I'm glad to hear that! It's a very cool paper.

I’m pretty sure Aftyn Behn’s joke about hating Nashville because of the bachelorette parties and pedal taverns didn’t hurt her in the election. She won the city by 56 points, and when I lived there, I knew plenty of people who shared the sentiment.

Tennessee Seventh Congressional District Special Election Results 2025: Behn vs. Van Epps Get live results and maps from the 2025 Tennessee congressional special election.

Source:
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Every single Tennessee county moved to the left in the TN-7 Special Election last night. Democrat candidate Aftyn Behn lost by 9 points in a district where Kamala Harris lost by 22 points in 2024.

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to incite fear of China vaccines The covert effort began under Trump and continued into Biden’s presidency, Reuters found. Health experts say it endangered lives for possible geopolitical gain.

The Trump administration is fully aware of the effectiveness of using vaccine disinformation to divide a population and undermine trust in scientific institutions.

Under the first Trump administration, the U.S. military ran a clandestine operation to undermine trust in China’s COVID19 vaccine.

Epistemic Fragility in Large Language Models: Prompt Framing Systematically Modulates Misinformation Correction As large language models (LLMs) rapidly displace traditional expertise, their capacity to correct misinformation has become a core concern. We investigate the idea that prompt framing systematically m...

A new study tested AI chatbots by prompting them with popular misinformation topics while varying how the prompts were framed. They found that framing mattered: prompts that were creative, closed-minded, or written from an expert’s point of view made the models less likely to issue a correction.

I Almost Delayed My Son’s First Vaccine The hepatitis B birth dose

"Ultimately, saying yes to the Hep B birth dose isn’t just about protection today. It’s about safeguarding their future from an infection you might not be otherwise able to see or avoid, but could cause lifelong liver damage and cancer."
fromthescienceclass.substack.com/p/i-almost-d...

#medsky #pedsky #idsky #immunosky #episky

I collaborated with exceptionally talented people in infectious diseases to write this Special Article about aluminum salts in childhood vaccines.
We review the evidence base for key safety concerns and offer guidance for communication with caregivers.

If only I had not fallen down the rabbit hole: Counterfactual thinking reduces engagement with conspiracy theories Conspiracy theories harm society, so it is important to find ways to stop their spread. We provide evidence that counterfactual thinking – thinking ab…

New study finds that asking people to imagine how things might have been better if they didn't waste time focusing on conspiracy beliefs made them more open to other viewpoints and less likely to engage with conspiracy content.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Sources:
news.gallup.com/poll/699221/...

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...