Briony Swire-Thompson

How much has it snowed in Boston, you ask? Well, enough that our neighbors made a whale out of snow.

My truth sandwich skepticism is what led me to conduct those experiments! The paper was originally called "The truth sandwich is baloney" and then "Is the truth sandwich toast?" but reviewers made us remove the fun title.

Thank you for sharing! I hadn't seen this... it aligns with our work that truth sandwich is effective, but not *more* effective than other corrective formats psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Thanks to brilliant colleagues @lucy-h-butler.bsky.social‬ and @davidnrapp.bsky.social (welcome to Bluesky!) and to @apajournals.bsky.social and Journal of Educational Psychology for selecting our paper as an Editor’s Choice article!

Our findings suggest that corrections can be powerfully effective against misinformation *regardless of format*, and advocacy for the truth sandwich above other simpler formats is unwarranted.

In two pre-registered experiments (hypothesizing nulls), we found that under no circumstances was the truth sandwich format more effective, not even after a 2-week delay or in subgroups with greater misinformation belief.

Originally mentioned on CNN, the truth sandwich is often said to be superior to other correction formats. There is no empirical evidence to support this. The best part about being a scientist is you can rigorously test these claims.

The truth sandwich is baloney! New paper out. We show that the “truth sandwich” correction format (in which false information is bookended by factual information) does not enhance corrections. psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

FYI @profsanderlinden.bsky.social‬ @leticiabode.bsky.social‬ @ekvraga.bsky.social‬ @jayvanbavel.bsky.social‬ ‪@lewan.bsky.social ‬@lkfazio.bsky.social‬ @davidlazer.bsky.social‬ @ethanvporter.bsky.social‬ @thomasjwood.bsky.social‬

Corrections *are* effective and how we measure their impact matters

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/...

When the government cancels your research grant, here’s what you can do The mass cancellation of US federal grants marks yet another escalation in political interference in science, but there are ways to keep crucial research going.

So your research area has been politicized and your federal funding cancelled, what now? I try to give some answers in this opinion piece for @nature.com 1/

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Talks at NetSI | Renée DiResta Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality

Renée DiResta talking on "Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality" at the Harvard / Northeastern Misinformation Speaker Series at 11.30am EST today. www.networkscienceinstitute.org/talks/renee-...

Trump’s team, often accused of spreading misinformation, slashes misinformation research Hundreds of grants axed in a field where the United States was a global leader

Terminating the grants to study misinformation is “an overt act of censoring and preventing accountability,” says Stephen Lewandowsky, a misinformation researcher at the University of Bristol. “Who other than a liar would cancel misinformation research?”
🧪
www.science.org/content/arti...

Combating Cancer Misinformation: Impacts, challenges and opportunities | Shorenstein Center Join Skyler Johnson for an event that will empower participants with the knowledge and tools needed to address impacts, challenges and opportunities of cancer misinformation.

Skyler Johnson talking on "Combating cancer misinformation: impacts, challenges and opportunities" at the Harvard / Northeastern Misinformation Speaker Series at 3pm EST today! shorensteincenter.org/new-event/co...

Toolbox of individual-level interventions against online misinformation - Nature Human Behaviour Kozyreva et al. review evidence from individual-level interventions for fighting online misinformation featured in 81 scientific papers. They classify the interventions in nine different types and sum...

Our review paper “Toolbox of individual-level interventions against online misinformation” is out today in Nature Human Behaviour! Truly a team effort by an international group of experts, led by the amazing Anastasia Kozyreva.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am advertising a postdoc position to work on a cognitive psych project on misinformation 👇
Please share!

external.jobs.uwa.edu.au/cw/en/job/51...

For data scientists and data engineers interested in democracy, please see positions posted at Northeastern for positions at the Internet Democracy Initiative (please reshare): northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/...

Hi all, I'm hiring a new research assistant, please share with anyone who might be interested - thanks!
brionyswire.com/wp-content/u...

Misinformation: Why is it a problem and what can we do about it? | Shorenstein Center This event is part of the Speaker Series on Misinformation, co-sponsored by the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School and the NULab at Northeastern Unive...

Catch me next Wed March 6th at the Harvard/Northeastern Misinformation Speaker Series (live & on zoom) for the public reveal of the results from our large collaborative megastudy testing nine misinformation interventions @dgrand.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social

shorensteincenter.org/new-event/mi...

Check out the special issue on Psych of Misinformation that you're in! Most of the articles are published now and they're both short and for a broad audience.

www.sciencedirect.com/journal/curr...

🚨New paper🚨 out in the International Journal of Press/Politics w/ Assaf Shamir and @jenny-oser.bsky.social 🎉

Here's what we learned from studying the composition of political content available to 600k+ registered U.S. voters on Twitter during the 2020 election.

doi.org/10.1177/1940...
🧵👇

New: Fact-check of 2022 AZ fraud claims reduces false beliefs but no effect on general fraud/election beliefs sites.dartmouth.edu/nyhan/files/... (with Carey, Fogarty, Reifler, and great D students)

Raises questions about effectiveness of case-by-case corrections at countering broader false claims

just SEVEN DAYS LEFT to apply to work as a postdoc with us on fmri decoding, consciousness, higher order theories, and more! big collaboration with @jorge-morales.bsky.social & Rachel Denison among others. please apply!
faculty.sites.uci.edu/cnclab/job-o...