David Lazer
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View article: Characterizing population-level changes in human behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States
Characterizing population-level changes in human behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States Open
The transmission of communicable diseases in human populations is known to be modulated by behavioral patterns. However, detailed characterizations of how population-level behaviors change over time during multiple disease outbreaks and sp…
View article: Derivation of a 3-Item Patient Health Questionnaire as a Shortened Survey to Capture Depressive Symptoms
Derivation of a 3-Item Patient Health Questionnaire as a Shortened Survey to Capture Depressive Symptoms Open
Importance Screening measures of depressive symptoms (eg, 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ-9]) are increasingly used in surveys and remote applications, where shorter versions would be valuable. Objective To derive shorter versions…
View article: DomainDemo: a dataset of domain-sharing activities among different demographic groups on Twitter
DomainDemo: a dataset of domain-sharing activities among different demographic groups on Twitter Open
Social media play a pivotal role in disseminating web content, particularly during elections, yet our understanding of the association between demographic factors and information sharing online remains limited. Here, we introduce a unique …
View article: Declining information quality under new platform governance
Declining information quality under new platform governance Open
Following the leadership transition on October 27, 2022, Twitter/X underwent a notable change in platform governance. This study investigates how these changes influenced information quality for registered U.S. voters and the platform more…
View article: Diffusion of complex contagions is shaped by a trade-off between reach and reinforcement
Diffusion of complex contagions is shaped by a trade-off between reach and reinforcement Open
How does social network structure amplify or stifle behavior diffusion? Existing theory suggests that when social reinforcement makes the adoption of behavior more likely, it should spread more—both farther and faster—on clustered networks…
View article: CHIP50 Report #115: American Attitudes Toward Government Interventions in Science
CHIP50 Report #115: American Attitudes Toward Government Interventions in Science Open
•Americans who disapprove of the administration’s science-related policies outnumber those who approve by more than two to one. On average, 48% disapprove or strongly disapprove of recent government actions in that space, while only 21% ap…
View article: Using co-sharing to identify use of mainstream news for promoting potentially misleading narratives
Using co-sharing to identify use of mainstream news for promoting potentially misleading narratives Open
Much of the research quantifying volume and spread of online misinformation measures the construct at the source level, identifying a set of specific unreliable domains that account for a relatively small share of news consumption. This so…
View article: Information from social ties predicts conspiracy beliefs: Evidence from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump
Information from social ties predicts conspiracy beliefs: Evidence from the attempted assassination of Donald Trump Open
Belief in conspiracy theories has significant social and political consequences. While prior research has focused primarily on psychological predispositions as drivers of conspiracy beliefs, relatively less is known about the role of socia…
View article: Towards global equity in political polarization research
Towards global equity in political polarization research Open
With a folk understanding that political polarization refers to socio-political divisions within a society, many have proclaimed that we are more divided than ever. In this account, polarization has been blamed for populism, the erosion of…
View article: Towards global equity in political polarization research
Towards global equity in political polarization research Open
With a folk understanding that political polarization refers to socio-political divisions within a society, many have proclaimed that we are more divided than ever. In this account, polarization has been blamed for populism, the erosion of…
View article: Emergent structures of attention on social media are driven by amplification and triad transitivity
Emergent structures of attention on social media are driven by amplification and triad transitivity Open
As they evolve, social networks tend to form transitive triads more often than random chance and structural constraints would suggest. However, the mechanisms by which triads in these networks become transitive are largely unexplored. We l…
View article: How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign?
How do social media feed algorithms affect attitudes and behavior in an election campaign? Open
We investigated the effects of Facebook's and Instagram's feed algorithms during the 2020 US election. We assigned a sample of consenting users to reverse-chronologically-ordered feeds instead of the default algorithms. Moving users out of…
View article: Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinions
Reshares on social media amplify political news but do not detectably affect beliefs or opinions Open
We studied the effects of exposure to reshared content on Facebook during the 2020 US election by assigning a random set of consenting, US-based users to feeds that did not contain any reshares over a 3-month period. We find that removing …
View article: Curation Bubbles
Curation Bubbles Open
Information on social media is characterized by networked curation processes in which users select other users from whom to receive information, and those users in turn share information that promotes their identities and interests. We arg…
View article: Irritability and Social Media Use in US Adults
Irritability and Social Media Use in US Adults Open
Importance Efforts to understand the complex association between social media use and mental health have focused on depression, with little investigation of other forms of negative affect, such as irritability and anxiety. Objective To cha…
View article: Complex Contagion in Social Networks: Causal Evidence from a Country-Scale Field Experiment
Complex Contagion in Social Networks: Causal Evidence from a Country-Scale Field Experiment Open
Complex contagion rests on the idea that individuals are more likely to adopt a behavior if they experience social reinforcement from multiple sources. We develop a test for complex contagion, conceptualized as social reinforcement, and th…
View article: Characterizing Population-level Changes in Human Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States
Characterizing Population-level Changes in Human Behavior during the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States Open
The transmission of communicable diseases in human populations is known to be modulated by behavioral patterns. However, detailed characterizations of how population-level behaviors change over time during multiple disease outbreaks and sp…
View article: Diffusion of complex contagions is shaped by a trade-off between reach and reinforcement
Diffusion of complex contagions is shaped by a trade-off between reach and reinforcement Open
How does social network structure amplify or stifle behavior diffusion? Existing theory suggests that when social reinforcement makes the adoption of behavior more likely, it should spread more -- both farther and faster -- on clustered ne…
View article: Tracking COVID-19 Infections Using Survey Data on Rapid At-Home Tests
Tracking COVID-19 Infections Using Survey Data on Rapid At-Home Tests Open
Importance Identifying and tracking new infections during an emerging pandemic is crucial to design and deploy interventions to protect populations and mitigate the pandemic’s effects, yet it remains a challenging task. Objective To charac…
View article: Conspiratorial thinking in a 50-state survey of American adults
Conspiratorial thinking in a 50-state survey of American adults Open
Background While the NIMH Research Domain Criteria framework stresses understanding how neuropsychiatric phenotypes vary across populations, little is known outside of small clinical cohorts about conspiratorial thoughts as an aspect of co…
View article: CHIP50 Report #105: No change: Evaluating the short-term impact of the first presidential debate on voter preferences
CHIP50 Report #105: No change: Evaluating the short-term impact of the first presidential debate on voter preferences Open
We compared the voting preferences of respondents who had previously participated in the April-May wave of CHIP50 to those of the same individuals reported during the week following the June 27 US presidential debate. Our results indicate …
View article: CHIP50 Report #106: Opioid addiction in our social networks
CHIP50 Report #106: Opioid addiction in our social networks Open
The Civic Health and Institutions Project: A 50-State Survey (CHIP50) 4Opioid addiction in our social networksThe opioid crisis has worsened dramatically through the 21st century, with an estimated 107,543 people in the U.S. dying of overd…
View article: Representation in Science and Trust in Scientists in the United States
Representation in Science and Trust in Scientists in the United States Open
American scientists are notably unrepresentative of the population. The disproportionately small number of scientists who are women, Black, Hispanic or Latino, from rural areas, religious, and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds has conse…
View article: Prevalence and correlates of irritability among U.S. adults
Prevalence and correlates of irritability among U.S. adults Open
This study aimed to characterize the prevalence of irritability among U.S. adults, and the extent to which it co-occurs with major depressive and anxious symptoms. A non-probability internet survey of individuals 18 and older in 50 U.S. st…
View article: Social media spread conspiracy theories after Trump assassination attempt, but believing them was linked to interpersonal discussions
Social media spread conspiracy theories after Trump assassination attempt, but believing them was linked to interpersonal discussions Open
Conspiracy beliefs can lead to maladaptive and, in rare cases, even violent behaviors. Focusing on conspiracies about the assassination attempt on former President Trump, this report takes the rare step of differentiating exposure to consp…
View article: Trust in Physicians and Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a 50-State Survey of US Adults
Trust in Physicians and Hospitals During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a 50-State Survey of US Adults Open
Importance Trust in physicians and hospitals has been associated with achieving public health goals, but the increasing politicization of public health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic may have adversely affected such trust. Objective…
View article: Misinformation is more than "fake news": Using co-sharing to identify use of mainstream news for promoting misinformation narratives
Misinformation is more than "fake news": Using co-sharing to identify use of mainstream news for promoting misinformation narratives Open
Most research concerning the volume and spread of misinformation on the internet measures the construct at the source level, identifying a set of specific "fake" news domains that account for a relatively small share of overall news consum…