Ullrich Ecker

This is coming up and I thought I'd boost it again with the little test tube icon: 🧪

We show that event-specific climate misinformation - i.e. claims that arson caused Australia’s 2019–20 Black Summer fires - distorts reasoning and donation behaviour. Corrections mitigated these effects, especially when highlighting multicausality of extreme weather events.

New paper by @emilyspearing.bsky.social et al. out now in the Journal of Environmental Psychology

Black Summer Arson: Examining the Impact of Climate Misinformation and Corrections on Reasoning

doi.org/10.1016/j.je...

Publications Copyright Notice: The documents below are available for downloading. These have been provided as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly work on a noncommercial basis. Copyright and all...

Works for me. It's also on my website www.emc-lab.org/publications...

We show that event-specific climate misinformation - i.e. claims that arson caused Australia’s 2019–20 Black Summer fires - distorts reasoning and donation behaviour. Corrections mitigated these effects, especially when highlighting multicausality of extreme weather events.

Happy to share a new paper (accepted at J Environ Psych), led by the amazing @emilyspearing.bsky.social

Black Summer Arson: Examining the Impact of Climate Misinformation and Corrections on Reasoning

osf.io/preprints/ps...

@johnfocook.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social @profsanderlinden.bsky.social

I hear a lot about misinformation as a "symptom" of "distrust". Here we test this & find that while trust is important, it doesn't buffer: misinfo isn't mitigated by high trust. Both misinfo & distrust *independently* predict vaccine denial. It's a disease of its own!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Having to go to some chatbot to get misinformation is such a waste of time. That's why we need to put this right in the browser so you can get your misinformation faster.

Published today: One of the biggest #science #communication studies to date. We asked 71,922 people in 68 countries how they #engage with information about #science and combined the data with several country-level factors: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #OpenAccess

Why Misinformation Must Not Be Ignored

Quite proud of this paper, which just received the journal's APA Editor's Choice award 😊

Big thanks to my coauthors Li Qian Tay, Jon Roozenbeek,
@profsanderlinden.bsky.social, John Cook, @naomioreskes.bsky.social, and @lewan.bsky.social

Experts reveal how to change a conspiracy theorist’s mind Did Dezi Freeman really kill two police officers or was he framed by the Government? This is one question being posed on a Facebook group for last weekend’s March for Australia anti-immigration rallie...

"The danger isn’t just the extreme cases — it’s the slow erosion of social trust"

some informed opinions on this featuring experts in the space including @ulliecker.bsky.social @drdanieljolley.bsky.social

The disinformation playbook: how industry manipulates the science-policy process—and how to restore scientific integrity - Journal of Public Health Policy For decades, corporate undermining of scientific consensus has eroded the scientific process worldwide. Guardrails for protecting science-informed processes, from peer review to regulatory decision ma...

"Five tactics used by industry to undermine science. The disinformation playbook tactics are employed by industry during the scientific process and the science-based decision-making process"

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A fancy silver mint julip cup engraved with Chancellor's Award for Research and my name sitting on a wooden shelf with a poster reading "Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated" - Rosalind Franklin, a glass lego figure, and some other knickknacks

Photo of all the awardees with Vanderbilt leadership. Lisa's in a green dress and holding a silver cup

Honored to receive the Chancellor's Award for Research for this co-authored paper on the psychology of misinformation. It was really affirming to receive recognition for this research while the field is under attack and misinfo grants are being cancelled. 1/

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Great ECR job opportunity on the project “A Unified Computational Model of How Humans Use Automated Advice”: external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/en/job/52075...

Specific media literacy tips improve AI-generated visual misinformation discernment - Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications Images generated using artificial intelligence (AI) have become increasingly realistic, sparking discussions and fears about an impending “infodemic” where we can no longer trust what we see on the in...

Happy to share our new research on AI-generated visual misinformation - we find that specific media literacy tips about AI images improve misinformation discernment over general tips about fake news.

Feedback and comments welcome!

doi.org/10.1186/s412...

#psychsky #phdsky

AI summaries kill search traffic. This has been an obvious consequence of Google's AI summary strategy since its inception.

Apparently the training data is so valuable that Google is willing to risk the neck of the goose that lays golden eggs.

Screenshot: thebullshitmachines.com/lesson-9-blu...

A very important paper led by the phenomenal @lucy-h-butler.bsky.social

Say it with me: Corrections. Of. Scientific. Misinformation. Are. Effective.

@lewan.bsky.social @profsanderlinden.bsky.social @lkfazio.bsky.social @tobyprike.bsky.social @brionyswire.bsky.social @emilyspearing.bsky.social

The Misleading Panic over Misinformation People can’t agree on how to define misinformation and its related terms, making regulation nearly impossible. Instead, free expression serves as a better tool for discovering truth.

🧵 THREAD: Why the Cato Institute’s new paper on “misinformation panic” is dangerously wrong, and why it completely misunderstands the real crisis we face.
www.cato.org/policy-analy...

Countering AI-generated misinformation with pre-emptive source discreditation and debunking | Royal Society Open Science Despite widespread concerns over AI-generated misinformation, its impact on people’s reasoning and the effectiveness of countermeasures remain unclear. This study examined whether a pre-emptive, sourc...

Very excited to see this out today - led by the fabulous @emilyspearing.bsky.social

@lewan.bsky.social @brionyswire.bsky.social @tobyprike.bsky.social

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Hey Australia, let's stay out of this one, yeah?

As the media works to win trust, people say they want the truth Australians want journalists to tell the truth. Is that a simple request?

www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06...

I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12

Thanks so much for a fabulous #sarmac2025, @ciaragreene.bsky.social @gillian-murphy.bsky.social! Many details made it such a joyess Irish-tinted celebration of the sarmac community. You're legends & we're immensely grateful ❤️ And I'm wildly proud of this lot too! (Thxs for putting up with me x)

The Impacts of Intent and Uncertainty on Source Credibility Following the Correction of Misinformation Mitch Dobbs

Finally Mitch Dobbs on how correcting false claims can affect source credibility. Why do we see differences between politicians and doctors (corrections decrease trust in lying doctors but not politicians)? Possibly differences in initial trust. #sarmac2025 26/

Misinformation Spread in Communication Chains Toby Prike, Bradley Walker, Nicolas Fay, Andrew Perfors, Yoshihisa Kashima,& Ullrich Ecker

Next is @ulliecker.bsky.social on misinformation spread in communication chains. Rather than look at transmission from one to many (eg social media), look at peer-to-peer transmission of misinformation corrections (game of telephone). #sarmac2025 21/

Photo of Emily in front of slide Trust the Machine: Examining Reliance on Al-Generated Misinformation and How to Reduce It Emily R. Spearing, Constantina I. Gile, Amy L. Fogwill, Toby Prike, Briony Swire-Thompson, Stephan Lewandowsky, & Ullrich K. H. Ecker

E1: Method & Predicted Results Generic article Al-generated misleading article about the benefits of "trickle-down economics" Trust Boost Al algorithms process information neutrally and consistently... Inoculation Al-generated Information can reflect human biases and stereotypes... Disclaimer Chat GPT can make mistakes. Check important info

Next @emilyspearing.bsky.social on AI-generated misinformation, its influence and how to correct it. Expected more misinfo reliance in human and AI condition, inoculation would reduce beliefs, trust boost would increase belief and disclaimer would have no impact.

#sarmac2025 24/

Public health suffers when those in power dismiss knowledge “Knowledge is power”—or at least it was when Sir Francis Bacon coined this phrase in the 16th century. In today’s world, we frequently encounter a different variant of this philosophy, perhaps best de...

My latest column in Science went up yesterday doi.org/10.1126/scie... . I argue that “Knowledge is power”—or at least it was when Sir Francis Bacon coined this phrase in the 16th century. 1/n

Oh wow, my alma mater!

Why do they go after universities? A panel discussion reflecting on academic freedom and democracy, the people and forces working against them both, and what we can do. Wednesday, 4 June 2025 7pm to 8pm AEST Stephan Lewandowsky Bristol University Yasemin Acar University of St Andrews Melis Ulug University of Sussex Register: https://www.socialchangelab.net/academicrepression.html Gill Boehringer Retired professor of law & activist

Very pleased to be part of this next Wednesday at 11 am CET (10 am UK). Register here: www.socialchangelab.net/academicrepr... of possible interest to: @scibeh.bsky.social @karmaos.bsky.social @ulliecker.bsky.social @profsanderlinden.bsky.social @jagolinzer.bsky.social

...with papers by @rmpillai.bsky.social, @lkfazio.bsky.social, Jonas De keersmaecker, @emilyspearing.bsky.social, @kimwade.bsky.social, @moorepsych.bsky.social, @maddyjalbert.bsky.social, Nikita Salovich, Ariana Modirrousta-Galian, Sharon Leal, Alison Butler, Samuel Robson, Emil Skog