Dave Rand

@[email protected]
2.1K Followers
1.4K Following
594 Posts
Prof at MIT working on misinformation/fake news, social media, intuition vs deliberation, cooperation, politics, and religion.
(he/him)
Google Scholarhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=list_works&hl=en&hl=en&user=C0ANojIAAAAJ
Misinfo-related research linkshttps://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1k2D4zVqkSHB1M9wpXtAe3UzbeE0RPpD_E2UpaPf6Lds/mobilebasic
Websitehttps://davidrand-cooperation.com/
MIT News Profile "Playing a New Tune"https://news.mit.edu/2020/david-rand-0412
Dave RandApr 6, 2024
Ulrike HahnApr 6, 2024

“We find small but meaningful variation in the persuasive effects of advertisements. In addition, we find that common theories about what makes advertising persuasive have limited and context-dependent power to predict persuasiveness. These findings indicate that experiments can compound money’s influence in elections: it is difficult to predict ex ante which ads persuade, experiments help campaigns do so…”

@Drand

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/how-experiments-help-campaigns-persuade-voters-evidence-from-a-large-archive-of-campaigns-own-experiments/FF5BE6ED1553475F8321F7C4209357F7

How Experiments Help Campaigns Persuade Voters: Evidence from a Large Archive of Campaigns’ Own Experiments | American Political Science Review | Cambridge Core

How Experiments Help Campaigns Persuade Voters: Evidence from a Large Archive of Campaigns’ Own Experiments

Cambridge Core
Dave RandMar 25, 2024
Dave RandMar 25, 2024

🚨New PNASNexus🚨
Reserach on misinformation & harmful language as often studied separately. Here we look at how they relate to each other, and find:
-More harmful language in tweets w low-quality news links β=0.1 & in false headlines β=0.19
-Users who share more misinformation use more harmful language in non-news tweets β=0.13

PDF: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/3/pgae111/7626151

w @mohsenmosleh

Dave RandMar 25, 2024

🚨New PNASNexus🚨
Reserach on misinformation & harmful language as often studied separately. Here we look at how they relate to each other, and find:
-More harmful language in tweets w low-quality news links β=0.1 & in false headlines β=0.19
-Users who share more misinformation use more harmful language in non-news tweets β=0.13

PDF: https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/3/3/pgae111/7626151

w @mohsenmosleh

Dave RandFeb 20, 2024
Dave RandFeb 7, 2024

🚨New WP🚨

Field experiments with 33 million FB users & 75k Twitter users: Ads prompting users to think about accuracy reduce misinformation sharing!

Accuracy prompts offer platforms a content-neutral approach that is scalable and preservers user autonomy https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/u8anb

OSF

Dave RandFeb 7, 2024

🚨New WP🚨

Field experiments with 33 million FB users & 75k Twitter users: Ads prompting users to think about accuracy reduce misinformation sharing!

Accuracy prompts offer platforms a content-neutral approach that is scalable and preservers user autonomy https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/u8anb

OSF

Dave RandFeb 7, 2024
I'll be at SPSP on Friday - if anyone is interested in meeting up, send me an email or DM!
Dave RandJan 24, 2024
markJan 24, 2024

SPSP is approaching!

If any grad students or postdocs would like to chat, email me! Happy to grab a coffee.

Feel free to pass along this invite to people not on the extinct elephant site

Email located here: https://tbslaboratory.com/authors/brandtmark/

Mark J. Brandt | The Belief Systems Laboratory

The Belief System Laboratory's website

The Belief Systems Laboratory
Dave RandDec 27, 2023
nixCraft 🐧Dec 26, 2023
🤭
Dave RandDec 13, 2023
Emmett O'ConnellDec 13, 2023

Speaking as one of the local elections communicators that felt absolutely lost in 2020 and feels only a smidge better in 2024, the work @katestarbird and @mikecaulfield and the @uwcip and Stanford's Internet Observatory was absolutely invaluable.

I have no idea what we're going to do if we don't have them next year

https://www.kuow.org/stories/kate-starbird-on-the-backlash-to-disinformation-research-online

How the fight to stop election misinformation morphed into a free speech battle

Since the 2020 election, conservative lawmakers and staffers have led a campaign against mis- and dis-information researchers like Kate Starbird, the director and co-founder of the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public, arguing that the researchers are attempting to censor them, thus violating the First Amendment. But that argument itself would be misinformation, according to Starbird.

Dave RandOct 31, 2023

🚨New WP🚨
"Pro-Climate Statements from Elon Musk can Persuade Republicans on #Climate Change"
https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/v9mzk/

How can more Republicans be convinced of the importance of #climatechange?

We show tweets from Elon Musk
- a favorite of the right, but still pro-climate - sig increase climate concern/action among Reps. Musk can be a powerful climate messenger!

In recent years, Musk has embraced the political right – fighting with prominent liberals like AOC, Bernie Sanders, buying Twitter & reinstating people like Trump etc. But he has remained consistent in expressing pro-climate beliefs. This creates an opportunity!

We test whether highlighting Musks’s conservative credentials and then showing some of his pro-climate tweets can persuade Republicans on climate change.

RESULT: Yes! Seeing the tweets increases belief in and support for addressing climate change, pro-climate behavior intentions - but has no effect on attitudes towards Musk.