Seeking to understand the conflict between global change and human cognition
I am a cognitive scientist at the University of Bristol. My research explores these major streams:
- People’s responses to misinformation and propaganda, and how corrections affect our memory.
- Why people reject well-established scientific facts, such as climate change or the effectiveness of vaccinations.
- The potential conflict between the architecture of our online information ecosystem and democracy.
More biographical information is available here.
I lead the Technology, Cognition and Democracy Group (TeDCog) and am currently PI for the following projects:
Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online We aim to develop cognitively and technologically sound solutions to restore people’s autonomy online.
JitsuVAX We develop tools to train and assist healthcare professionals to confront vaccine-related misinformation.
PRODEMINFO We examine how people’s differing conceptions of “truth” can be used to design interventions to protect democratic discourse.
JIGSAW/Inoculation Science We use inoculation theory to develop scalable interventions to protect online consumers against misleading and false information.
Honesty Project We identify factors that determine how people view honesty, and what we might do to make accuracy matter again.
REPHRAIN We address fundamental tensions and imbalances pertaining to protecting citizens online.
The Mercury Project We develop and test interventions to assist people in distinguishing between true and false information, and we equip practitioners with adaptable toolkits to help them reduce misinformation.
