Project News
- A very nice update and description about the part of the project carried out by our team at Uni Vienna.
- Hannah describes our research and how it is relevant to society in this short video from the Digital Humanism series.
- Check our short chapter on Emotions and group dynamics around misinformation on social media in a synthesis report on climate misinformation. It got covered in the news about climate misinformation in Austria, for example at APA, DerStandard, Science.ORF, FM4 news or in a blogpost by Mimikama.
- Our perspective on emotions and misinformation in the news:
- This article at Kurier explains the nuanced role of emotions around misinformation.
- This article at APA argues for a nuanced perspective on the role of social media.
- We have our first pre-print out! Check out our Twitter thread about it, or read the full version.
Project Team
- Hannah Metzler (PI), Meduni Wien & Complexity Science Hub Vienna
- David Garcia (Co-PI), University of Konstanz & Complexity Science Hub Vienna
- Annie Waldherr (Co-PI), University of Vienna
- Apeksha Shetty (PhD student), Complexity Science Hub Vienna
- Jula Lühring (PhD student), University of Vienna
Follow us on social media for regular updates!
About the project
In November 2021, we started the project Emotional Misinformation – The Interplay of Emotion and Misinformation Spreading on Social Media (EMOMIS). It is funded by the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) for a period of three years and 4 months.
The spreading of misinformation via social media contributes to a global threat to trust in science and democratic institutions, with consequences for public health and societal conflicts. Emotions influence how we process information, suggesting a link between certain emotional states and misinformation spreading – especially in times of high uncertainty. The project aims at understanding how emotions influence the tendency to believe and share inaccurate content, and to test intervention strategies to mitigate emotional misinformation spreading. Using digital data traces, the research team will analyze patterns of emotional misinformation spreading on social media and use experimental studies testing the potential of individual emotion regulation interventions to reduce misinformation sharing. Finally, we will integrate results from social media analysis and experimental studies in an agent-based model to identify the most promising interventions to reduce misinformation spreading in social networks, and to simulate how algorithmic filters for emotional information affect the spreading of misinformation.
For more:
- Slides of our first online study on how emotions and fake news recognition are related.
- Slides of a talk at the Conference on Intelligent Machines, Emotions and the Planet
- Video of a panel discussion, including a brief introduction to EMOMIS, starting at at 29 minutes into the video.
German Summary - Zusammenfassung
Die Verbreitung von falschen Information, z.B. über soziale Medien, bedroht das Vertrauen in die Wissenschaft und die Demokratie. Die COVID-19 Pandemie hat gezeigt, dass Fehlinformation durch diesen Vertrauensverlust die Gesundheit der Bevölkerung verschlechtern kann. Der Sturm auf das US-Kapitol während der letzten US-Präsidenten Wahl zeigt, dass Fehlinformation auch gesellschaftliche Konflikte schüren kann. In diesem Projekt analysieren wir, wie sich Gefühle auf die Verbreitung von Fehlinformation auswirken. Gefühle bestimmen mit, wie wir wahrnehmen und denken. Dies zeigt sich vor allem in Zeiten großer Unsicherheit, wie der COVID-19 Pandemie. Wir untersuchen, ob Gefühle wie Angst und Wut uns anfälliger dafür machen, falsche Informationen zu glauben und weiter zu teilen. Wir analysieren dafür zuerst, wie sich falsche Informationen auf sozialen Medien wie Twitter verbreiten. Dann testen wir in Online-Experimenten, ob psychologische Strategien zur Emotionsregulation die Verbreitung von solchen Informationen eindämmen können. Schlussendlich entwickeln wir ein Computermodell, mit dem wir simulieren, welche dieser Strategien in sozialen Netzwerken am besten funktionieren könnte. Dabei simulieren wir auch, wie die Algorithmen der sozialen Plattformen, die emotionale Nachrichten bevorzugen, die Verbreitung von falschen Informationen verstärken. Unser Projekt möchte einen Beitrag dazu leisten, neue Kommunikationstechnologien so anzupassen, dass sie der menschlichen Art und Weise zu Denken und zu Handeln entsprechen.
- Eine Übersicht zu unserem Projekt auf deutsch, inklusive Literaturempfehlungen, finden Sie hier.
Project talks
Conference talks
- Shetty, A. (21-22 November 2023) Emotions in misinformation studies: Distinguishing affective state from emotional response and misinformation recognition from acceptance, 5th Symposium on Multidisciplinary International Symposium on Disinformation in Open Online Media, Amsterdam.
- Lühring, L. (25-29 May 2023) Measuring emotions in misinformation studies: Distinguishing emotional state from response and misinformation recognition from susceptibility, 73rd Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Toronto.
- Metzler, H. (8 February 2023) Measuring emotions in misinformation studies: Distinguishing emotional state from response and misinformation recognition from susceptibility, Expert Workshop on Mis- and disinformation, Zürich, University of Zurich. Slides
- Shetty, A. (23-25 February 2023) Measuring emotions in misinformation studies: A replication and extension of Martel et al. (2020) Online presentation. Annual Convention of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.
- Metzler, H. (14 January 2022). Emotional misinformation spreading: The interplay of emotions and misinformation on social media, Conference on Intelligent Machines, Emotions, and the Planet, Stockholm. Slides.
- Shetty, A., & Hannah Metzler (27 June 2022). Reducing belief in misinformation: Targeting emotional and social influences. Pre-data poster. Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science, 7th Annual Conference.
- Lühring, J.*, Shetty, A.*, Koschmieder, C., Garcia, D., Waldherr, A., & Metzler, H. (11 October 2022). Measuring emotions in misinformation studies: A replication and extension of Martel et al. (2020). [Accepted paper & presentation]. ECREA Early Career Scholars Workshop in Political Communication: “Advancing Concepts and Methods in Political Communication.” *Equal contributions.
Outreach
- Metzler, H. (20 April 2022).Digital Humanism - How to Put Humans at the Center of Emerging Tech, Panel discussion, Wilson Center. Video including a brief introduction to the Emotion & Misinformation project (at 29 minutes).
- Metzler, H.(18 November 2021). Emotional Misinformation: The interplay of emotions and misinformation spreading on social media, Vienna Art Week, Session on „Regaining Control. Der Mensch im Zentrum der technologischen Entwicklung“. Slides.
Publications
For the general public
- Metzler, H. (2023). Emotions and group dynamics around misinformation on social media, Chapter 4, Synthesis Report on Climate misinformation in a climate of misinformation, Stockholm Resilience Centre.
Pre-prints
- Lühring, J.*, Shetty, A.*, Koschmieder, C., Garcia, D., Waldherr, A., & Metzler, H. (2023). Emotions in misinformation studies: Distinguishing affective state from emotional response and misinformation recognition from acceptance. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/udqms. Data, Code, Pre-registration & SI.
Publications
- Metzler, H., & Garcia, D. (2023). Social drivers and algorithmic mechanisms on digital media. Perspectives on Psychological Science 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916231185057.
Internships
- June-August 2023: Ruggero Lazzaroni from RWTH Aachen did a summer research internship at the CSH, funded by an Erasmus scholraship, to investigate the validity of the NewsGuard news reliability ratings
- Since September 2023: Adam Urosevic joined us for an internship with Jula Lühring on reconstructing the Austrian Twitter network around political news, in relation to the reliability of news shared.