Emily Vraga

Experiencing Kathy Cramer's fantastic book "Talking about Politics" firsthand in the local Caribou, with a group of older gentlemen discussing current events passionately and loudly as I answer emails.

Happy to report that APA wrote this letter, gathered a coalition across science, and will now pay for ads for it to be disseminated in Science and Chronicle of Higher Ed to spread the word!! unitedsciencealliance.org

BBC just released damning research on AI assistants' news accuracy.

Results: 51% of AI responses had significant issues. 19% introduced errors when citing BBC. 13% misquoted or made up BBC content entirely. 🤐🤐
www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/... via @ezraeeman.bsky.social

National Science Foundation freezes grant review in response to Trump executive orders The National Science Foundation has canceled all grant review panels this week. It's unclear how long the pause could last.

The National Science Foundation has canceled all grant review panels this week. It's unclear how long the pause could last.

EU medicines agency quits X, moves to Bluesky The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Monday it would no longer post on X and would use rival Bluesky instead, becoming the latest organisation to quit a social media platform that some have criticised for its content.

EU medicines agency quits X & moves to Bluesky

"EMA will no longer post updates and content on X. We believe the X platform no longer suits our communication needs” the agency said in a statement

www.reuters.com/world/europe...

Now publicly available: the #TISP dataset. It contains 71,922 survey responses on public perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries. Published in @natureportfolio.bsky.social’s #ScientificData: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 📊

Just published on APSR First View: "Curation Bubbles" by Jon Green, Stefan McCabe, Sarah Shugars, Hanyu Chwe, Luke Horgan, Shuyang Cao, David Lazer. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/curation-bubbles/EBEBDE88633A86DFC821FE86B7708BB3

OII | Oxford researchers outline recommendations for studying the impact of artificial intelligence on young people’s mental health With the rapid adoption of AI by children and adolescents using digital devices to access the internet and social media, OII experts call for a clear framework for AI research considering the impact o...

New! Oxford researchers @oiioxford.bsky.social outline recommendations for studying the impact of artificial intelligence on young people’s mental health: bit.ly/3WRtpzV. #artificialintelligence #screentime #children #mentalhealth

Researchers say an AI-powered transcription tool used in hospitals invents things no one ever said Whisper is a popular transcription tool powered by artificial intelligence, but it has a major flaw. It makes things up that were never said.

Remember this? A problem we didn't have in automated speech recognition tools until OpenAI decided they were going to do away with alignment (not the kind that so-called "AI safety" people do)? And they're giving us "artificial general intelligence" any day now right?

apnews.com/article/ai-a...

Important question: when and which political parties lie?

This new publication is pretty clear in its findings: radical-right populism is the strongest determinant for the propensity to spread misinformation.

Based on an analysis of 32 million tweets in 26 countries.

doi.org/10.1177/1940...

Differences in misinformation sharing can lead to politically asymmetric sanctions - Nature We find that conservatives tend to share more low-quality news through social media than liberals, and so even if technology companies enact politically neutral anti-misinformation policies, political...

🚨In Nature🚨
Meta is dropping fact-checking to avoid anti-conservative bias- but is there actually evidence of bias?
We this test empirically & find that conservatives
* ARE suspended more
* BUT share more misinfo
So suspension isn't necessarily evidence of bias www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New publication: Our analysis suggests in health journalists’ COVID-19 tweets, first-person pronouns, moral appeals, and negative emotions increase engagement, while politicized language reduces it.

Huge thanks to my amazing advisor @ekvraga.bsky.social and my fantastic collaborator Yuming Fang.

Community Notes don't work by themselves. So many things don't get labeled because people don't reach "consensus" on them, which is really what Community Notes optimize for, not factuality

What an utter failure. So disappointing

Strategic Subjectivity Shapes User Engagement: A Case Study on Health Journalists’ COVID-19 Tweets Despite their important role in spreading accurate health information, particularly during crises, health journalists have to compete for audience engagement with a variety of content, especially p...

My first tweet of 2025:
🚨 Publication alert 🚨 led by my awesome graduate student @ritatang.bsky.social! We examine how health journalists tweeted about COVID-19, exploring which tweets get the most engagement. HINT: not politicized language!

Free link here:
www.tandfonline.com/eprint/SCCK2...

Louisiana forbids public health workers from promoting COVID, flu and mpox shots An NPR investigation found Louisiana health officials told staff to stop promoting vaccines for COVID, flu and mpox, holding flu shot events or otherwise encouraging the public to get those vaccines.

"Every health department staff member, former staff member, public health official and vaccine expert contacted by NPR repeated the scientific consensus that vaccines are safe, effective, and essential for preventing illness, hospitalizations, and deaths."

www.npr.org/sections/sho...

Cover of the report - it's in a blue/purple color scheme and shows an abstract illustration of a molecule and the title of the report "Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science Consensus Study Report"

Out now - National Academies consensus report on Understanding and Addressing Misinformation About Science 🧪

It was a privilege to serve as one of the 15 committee members from a wide range of scientific disciplines who put this report together. Quick 🧵1/

www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/und...

Avian flu virus has been found in raw milk − a reminder of how pasteurization protects health Raw milk can carry many dangerous germs − now including the H5N1 virus that causes avian flu.

Avian flu virus has been found in raw milk − a reminder of how pasteurization protects health

In a Small California Town, an Election Tie Is Broken by Drawing Straws In an era of invective and distrust, two California candidates turned a tie over to chance.

A charming example of how politics can work, and a reminder for anyone who thinks their vote doesn't count.

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/u...

Vaccine misinformation distorts science – a biochemist explains how RFK Jr. and his lawyer’s claims threaten public health Many claims about the dangers of vaccines come from misrepresenting scientific research papers.

#Publichealth data shows #vaccines have saved 154 million+ lives worldwide over the past 50 yrs. A biochemist breaks down how claims by RFK Jr. about vaccine safety & effectiveness are inaccurate: https://buff.ly/3ZE7Kvn
(Mark R. O'Brian, University at Buffalo) 🩺🧪#episky #measles #mumps #polio

Awesome work! Just flagged it to add to my grad class reading list for the spring.

In this new article in American Psychologist we respond to critics in detail and clarify two key points for the field;

(1) The prevalence of misinformation in society is substantial when properly defined.

(2) Misinformation causally impacts attitudes and behaviors.

psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Four people are dead and several more are hospitalized in Wisconsin school shooting Four victims and the suspected shooter are dead after a shooting at a Wisconsin grade school.

I have no words to express my sorrow and horror.... This happened in my hometown, as it has in way too many others.

www.npr.org/2024/12/16/g...

Private company buys a public good. A few years go by and the company decides the public good is no longer worthwhile; the public suffers as a result.

This story arc is way too common in modern society.
deadline.com/2024/12/max-...

Can we reduce polarization with empathy? Just published a new (replication) study with @mrooduijn.bsky.social and Matthijs Gillissen showing that different components of empathy have quite different effects [1/5] www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

New publication (4+ years in the making): “The Diffusion and Reach of (Mis)Information on Facebook”. shorturl.at/VE2fU
We analyze the propagation of 1B+ posts across content moderation regimes, with @davidlazer.bsky.social @jatucker.bsky.social @taliastroud.bsky.social @annenbergpenn.bsky.social

Later sunsets begin this week in Minnesota The earliest sunsets occur this week in Minnesota.

Some good news for Minnesotans: we're already at the earliest sunsets of the year, and the sun will start setting later in the next week. As the article says, "there’s more light at the end of the wintry tunnel each day"

www.mprnews.org/story/2024/1...

David is right. Converse (writing about the 1950s) and Lipmann (writing about the 1910s) described swing voters in similar terms. And I think the lesson now (as then) is that you don't win them over by writing the right policy position paper.

Another reason why vaccines are awesome.

I'm really enjoying how well this group is combining great work in public safety with light-hearted fun.

Only if the results are ones we want to be true!