Emma Spiro

Are you a researcher (from HCI, communication, or information science) studying online misinformaiton, disinfromation, hate speech, polarization, or related information toxicity? Apply to attend our CSCW workshop (with both remote and in-person options).

The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale Abstract. In this article, we study how AI-paraphrased messages have the potential to amplify the persuasive impact and scale of information campaigns. Bui

Excited to announce that my paper "The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale" with my wonderful collaborators @yiweixu.bsky.social, @maddyjalbert.bsky.social, and @emmaspiro.bsky.social has been published at PNAS Nexus!

Link: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Shattered Science: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission. More than 150 researchers shared with…

NEW: The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission.

ProPublica heard from more than 150 researchers to understand the work that’s been lost.

Congrats!

Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.

I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding.

It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.

unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

Speaking Up for the U.S. Scientific Enterprise – Resources, Support & Latest News | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) AAAS is mobilizing its full resources and expertise to speak up for the U.S. scientific enterprise. Learn more about the actions we are taking, and the actions we are recommending for our community.

Also: www.aaas.org/resources/sp...

Sociologists—learn skills for expanding the reach of your research. The deadline for the ASA Policy Outreach Program Fellowship is just 2 weeks away, on May 29. Must have PhD in sociology & 3+ years of experience. https://bit.ly/ASAPOP

Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate Many worry about retribution. But for others, speaking out is worth the risk

I spoke with Science about scholars—myself included—self-censoring.

In my case, my team and I feared losing our NSF funding for Expert Voices Together (expertvoicestogether.org), a program, ironically, built to support researchers and journalists under attack.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Cover Image for: Risky Research: An AoIR Guide to Researcher Protection and Safety AoIR Risky Research Working Group Contributors: Alice Marwick, Dafna Kaufman, Jacob Smith, Patricia Aufderheide, Jessica Beyer, Emma L. Briant, Coppélie Cocq, Laura Dilley, Sam DiBella, Radhika Gajjala, Kamile Grusauskaite, Alex D. Ketchum, Zelly Martin, Janice Metzger, Erin McInerney, Rachel Moran, John McNutt, Suay Melisa Oezkula, Victoria O’Meara, Riccardo Nanni, Carolina Parreiras, Katy Pearce, Ryan Payne, Meredith Pruden, Christian Sandvig, Caighlan Smith, Sam Srauy, Zeerak Talat, Leonie Tanczer, Robert Tynes, Antonia Vaughan, Shenja van der Graaf, Courtney Vowles, Michele White.

We are delighted to share the publication of Risky Research: An AoIR Guide to Researcher Protection and Safety, the culmination of over two years of collaborative effort by the AoIR Risky Research Working Group.

aoir.org/riskyresearc...

Why Social Science?

Fantastic, helpful, hopeful content to share from "Why Social Science" www.whysocialscience.com thanks to @cossa.bsky.social @popassocamerica.bsky.social @popresearchctrs.bsky.social

Applications are open for the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science SICSS 2025 at UCLA! Apply by May 2!

Free, 2-wk institute in comp social science for grad students, postdocs & early-career faculty.

sicss.io/2025/ucla/
@ianlundberg.bsky.social @jenniebrand.bsky.social

🏛️ Funding #EquityInitiatives = funding academic careers

New #Socius study by Drs. Gates, @lauraknelson.bsky.social, Grudt & @kzippel.bsky.social finds #NSF #ADVANCE awards help faculty doing #OrganizationalChange work maintain—or boost—#ResearchProductivity.

Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...

Airtable | Everyone's app platform Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes. Get started for free.

🚨 NEW: Crowdsourced database of #NSF grant terminations. 🚨

We've been able to collect info on >110 cancelled grants that were cancelled on Friday. Thanks to all the researchers who reported over the holiday weekend. 🧪 airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

NSF Grant Termination Information Collection Form Please use this form to submit information identifying specific NSF grants that have been cancelled for any reason after January 20, 2025. We are tracking these grants to increase transparency, organize affected PIs, and facilitate responses, including via litigation. Please share the form as widely as possible with your networks. We are actively building a pipeline to organize these terminations and will soon have a tracker akin to our NIH grant tracker at https://airtable.com/appjhyo9NTvJLocRy/shrNto1NNp9eJlgpA WE WILL NOT DISCLOSE THE IDENTITY OF ANYONE WHO USES THIS FORM TO PROVIDE INFORMATION. We will keep your identity confidential. These resources are maintained by Noam Ross of rOpenSci and Scott Delaney of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, with input and support from additional volunteers. For any questions, please contact Scott Delaney on Signal (sdelaney.84). THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE!

🚨Report your NSF grant terminations! 🚨

We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely!

airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

How Trump 2.0 is slashing NIH-backed research — in charts Nature analyses which fields of science and US states are being hit hardest by grant terminations.

NEW: Entire scientific fields have been wiped out by the nearly 800 grants cancelled at NIH, finds a @nature.com analysis of the unprecedented cuts.

About half of all 2024 NIH projects related to LGBT+ health or vaccine hesitancy — gone.

See the other topics and US states hardest hit here:

Hit by ‘Gut Punches,’ Scientists Band Together to Protest Trump Stand Up for Science aims to revive a movement that started in 2017, but with an all-new team and a more focused vision.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/s...

Kind of speechless. Thank you to @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social for coving our movement so well. @standupforscience.bsky.social @jpflores.bsky.social @samschuelstein.bsky.social @leslie-bern.bsky.social @emmalovesscience.bsky.social

Join us for the 2025 Political Networks & Computational Social Science Conference (sites.google.com/view/confpol...), Aug 11-14 at Harvard & Northeastern, with Duncan Watts delivering the keynote. Workshops: Aug 11-12; panels: Aug 13-14. Submit by March 28:

📢In our latest Editorial, we reflect on what science tells us about the importance of diversity. www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Here’s a strategy: 1) establish the frames, what problems will these changes cause, how will they impact communities; 2) inspire people to use those frames to tell their own stories of their families or communities are impacted; 3) amplify those stories.

Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.

White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.

It’s as broad and devastating as the early reports implied. (Thank you to @marisakabas.bsky.social for the early original reporting, which @washingtonpost.com acknowledges here.)

wapo.st/4gfgcHQ

Are you affected by the Trump administration’s pause on health communications, science meetings, and reviews? Have you been affected by the Trump administration’s pause on communications, science meetings, and reviews? @statnews would like to hear from you.

Please repost! We’re trying hard to sort out rumors from truth + would like to hear from anyone affected by the new federal orders + NIH pause. Patients, scientists, health equity researchers: please contact us below. We won’t share anything without your permission. www.statnews.com/2025/01/25/t...

Disinformation Summer Institute (DSI) - Disinformation Summer Institute Disinformation Disinformation is false or misleading information created and spread to advance policy, political, economic or ideological goals. It is sometimes used by industries, governments, and ot...

New summer institute for up-and-coming scholars across disciplines whose work investigates or intersects with disinformation: disinfoinstitute.org

The first iteration will be this June in San Diego. Applications are due January 31.

Discourse around misinformation doesn't always line up w/ our research team's findings re: how falsehoods actually spread in online spaces. Here, I provide a more nuanced view, describing the problem of misinformation as one of collective sensemaking gone awry: www.cip.uw.edu/2023/12/06/r...

Hello bsky! Thanks for the invite @schafer.bsky.social.