Katherine Ognyanova
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ognyanova.bsky.social
Katherine Ognyanova
@ognyanova.bsky.social

Associate Professor at the School of Communication & Information, Rutgers University | Research on politics, tech, trust, misinformation network science, computational social science | PI at http://chip50.org, http://covidstates.org, http://naiom.net .. more

Psychology 17%
Political science 17%
Pinned
We just released a new report on AI trust and knowledge in America: naiom.net/reports/
We examine trust in AI, the companies that use it, and the content it generates. We also measure how much people know about it. (🧵1 of 6)

Talked to @politifact.bsky.social about Trump & AI. Deepfakes from the Oval Office create: 1) higher epistemic uncertainty, tough to know what’s true; 2) tacit permission for others to use deepfakes in public comms; 3) excuse for liar’s dividend: public figures dismiss stuff they don't like as fake
How Trump and the White House use AI on social media
President Donald Trump has normalized sharing AI-generated content, largely without disclaimers. His posts glorify himself and attack his opponents.
www.politifact.com
We just launched a new project tracking public attitudes to higher ed. First report is out: we find the public trusts universities and opposes funding cuts, but worries about tuition costs and free speech on campus. With @davidlazer.bsky.social, M. Baum, J. Druckman, & M. Santillana edbarometer.org
American Higher Education Barometer
Measuring American Attitudes Towards Higher Education
edbarometer.org
Happy to release the first report from the American Higher Education Barometer (edbarometer.org), a 50 state survey re opinion on higher education. Key takeaways:

1) Generally, people see a universities as important to various high priority domains (economic growth, health, etc)

Video of our conversation at ICA's special anniversary session on Generative AI. Many thanks to @noshir.bsky.social for organizing! With @claesdevreese.bsky.social, @teachguz.bsky.social, Winson Peng, Yingdan Lu, and Jörg Matthes #GenerativeAI #LLM -- at @icahdq.bsky.social
ICA@75 ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL SESSION: Generative AI: Transforming Disrupting Communication Scho
YouTube video by ICA
www.youtube.com
“If your work speaks to challenges that go beyond a single field, this is the place for it.” – Katherine Ognyanova, PNAS Nexus Reviewing Editor 🌍 @pnasnexus.org is open access & interdisciplinary, connecting rigorous research with broad audiences.

Publish with us: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/pa...
You might *discover* a conspiracy theory on social media — but you’re more likely to *believe* it if you hear it from a friend
You might discover a conspiracy theory on social media — but you’re more likely to believe it if you hear it from a friend
Partisanship, conspiratorial thinking, and IRL connections make for a potent mix — on both the left and the right.
buff.ly
Not going to argue against this. Certainly can't point the finger at one specific disinfo campaign & say, "this had an impact." But the long theory of disinformation is that it erodes the ability to know/trust information, which can lead to apathy towards democracy and a preference for autocracy.
I said on the podcast yesterday that I don't think "disinformation" had that big an impact on the election. What did was a huge portion of the populace just ignoring all news because there's just too much, and it's too much work to figure out what's legit. This seems to agree...
looking at some unweighted dfp data by how much attention voters pay to political news

-a great deal: harris +8
-a lot: harris +5
-a moderate amount: trump +1
-a little: trump +8
-none at all: trump +15
APSA Statement on Executive Action Impacts on Research Funding, Data Availability and Academic Freedom

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is deeply concerned about recent executive actions that have had troubling implications for research funding and academic freedom. In January,…
APSA Statement on Executive Action Impacts on Research Funding, Data Availability and Academic Freedom
The American Political Science Association (APSA) is deeply concerned about recent executive actions that have had troubling implications for research funding and academic freedom. In January, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the termination of federal support for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. This was followed by a memorandum to temporarily pause a wide range of federal grants, loans, and other forms of financial assistance, to allow for a review of federal grants and awards and to enforce compliance with the executive order.
politicalsciencenow.com

Yeah, I'm just watching OpenAI's newly released ChatGPT Agent power through my Qualtrics survey. I have thoughts about the future of human subject research.

Reposted by David Lazer

New paper from our team, with @davidlazer.bsky.social @jonathanschulman.bsky.social @royperlis.bsky.social and other smart people who keep off social media.
People were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination of President Trump if they heard them from people they knew than if they heard them on social media, according to a study. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Now live: “Declining information quality under new platform governance” by Burak Özturan, Alexi Quintana-Mathé, Nir Grinberg, Katherine Ognyanova, and David Lazer. misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/decl...

Reposted by David Lazer

People were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories about the attempted assassination of President Trump if they heard them from people they knew than if they heard them on social media, according to a study. In PNAS Nexus: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Support for maintaining or increasing research support remains largely bipartisan. Which raises the question: what exactly is the WH and Congress doing here?

Source, CHIP50:
www.chip50.org/reports/amer...

Led by @ognyanova.bsky.social, @davidlazer.bsky.social, @royperlis.bsky.social + more.

Average approval of science-related government actions is highest among Republicans (42%), men (28%), graduate degree holders (30%), and high-income respondents (31%). Disapproval is strongest among Democrats (74%), African Americans (56%), women (53%), and those aged 65 and older (55%).

New CHIP50 report on public approval of government interventions in science -- funding cuts, mass layoffs, etc. On average, twice as many Americans disapprove of these actions as approve #science @aaas.org @science.org @sciam.bsky.social @icahdq.bsky.social @sciencenews.bsky.social
American Attitudes Toward Government Interventions in Science | The COVID States Project
Report #115
www.chip50.org
We just posted an interactive on changes in approval for Trump from right before he was inaugurated to the present. We have very large samples (30k), and the interactive allows you to look at changes within very small slices of the public.

www.chip50.org/blog/whose-a...
Whose approval/disapproval of Trump has shifted the most?
www.chip50.org
How does generative AI transform/ disrupt communication scholarship?

Happy to be part of this great #ica25 panel. With answers and many more questions

@noshir.bsky.social @teachguz.bsky.social @ognyanova.bsky.social and Peng, Lu, Matthes and 🙋
📣 Calling all #CHI2025 attendees who work with human participants: Join our panel discussion on #LLM, #simulation, #syntheticdata, and the future of human subjects research on Apr 30 (Wed), 2:10 - 3:40 PM (JP Time)

Post your questions for panelists here: forms.gle/m2mXY3xFafAX...
LAST CHANCE for early registration to #WebSci25! Early reg closes TODAY, April 21!

We hope you'll join us at #Rutgers this May for this interdisciplinary conference!

Register at: www.websci25.org

cc:
@websciencetrust.bsky.social, @noshir.bsky.social
Next week, @rutgerscomminfo.bsky.social Associate Professor @ognyanova.bsky.social will be presenting on "False beliefs in unusual times: The role of trust, technology, and social ties" at LSC's #Scicomm Colloquium! #UWLSC700

Learn more at: lsc.wisc.edu/2025/01/17/l...

Princeton's president on the US government's attack on research universities in @nytimes.com's The Daily podcast: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/09/p...
The University President Willing to Fight Trump
Christopher L. Eisgruber of Princeton University talks about the administration’s move to freeze billions of dollars in funding to higher education institutions.
www.nytimes.com
Reminder! CFP and workshop registration for the Political Networks and Computational Social Science Conference.

We have a great lineup of network analysis workshop instructors: @michaeltheaney.bsky.social, @ognyanova.bsky.social, Shahryar Minhas, & Cassie McMillan.

sites.google.com/view/confpol...

Friends, the 2025 ACM Web Science conference is coming up at #Rutgers this May. We have fantastic presenters and keynote speakers lined up. The schedule and registration just went live on www.websci25.org. Do come and join us! cc @websciencetrust.bsky.social @shugars.bsky.social
🚨 new pub: #digitalinequality explains most variance in which UGs delayed graduation after 2 yrs of pandemic learning—more than #firstgen status, #race/ethnicity or other s-d markers. Just out in @plosone.org with @abjordan.bsky.social & @ognyanova.bsky.social! journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Digital inequalities and U.S. undergraduate outcomes over the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated major and rapid changes to undergraduate student learning conditions, but the longer-term consequences of those changes have yet to be fully understood. We assess ho...
journals.plos.org
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:
forms.gle

New Jersey bookstore, but I'm sure they sell them online!

How it's going.
Save the date! PolNet & PaCSS 2025 are joining forces at Harvard and Northeastern on August 11–14, 2025—workshops on Aug 11–12, conference on Aug 13–14. Stay tuned for details on CFP, registration, and more. See you at #PolNetPaCSS2025!
U.S. scientists are losing funding and even their jobs under the new Trump administration. Researchers gathering at the 2025 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science shared their fears and hopes for the future.
The mood is ‘uncertain, anxious’ at 2025’s first big U.S. science meeting
Scientists are losing funding and even their jobs under the new Trump administration. Researchers at the AAAS meeting shared fears and coping strategies.
bit.ly

Many of us have had a very rough few weeks. But I am told, in no uncertain terms, that nobody has suffered more than this good boy who had to endure a haircut today. #dogsky #dogsofbluesky