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Alberto Acerbi

Alberto Acerbi

@acerbialberto.com

2.9K followers 1.2K following 830 posts

I am an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento (Italy): cognitive anthropology / cultural evolution / digital media / cultural analytics
More info in the pinned post. .. more

Sociology 30%

Political science 19%

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Posts Replies Media Videos

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · Mar 23

Tecnopanico: www.mulino.it/isbn/9788815...

Cultural evolution in the digital age: bit.ly/2McstmR

Individual-based models of cultural evolution. A step-by-step guide using R: bit.ly/3MQBjT4 (free: acerbialberto.com/IBM-cultevo)

Substack (italiano): bit.ly/3lDERMq

web: acerbialberto.com

A. ACERBI, Technopanic. New Media, Reasonable Caution, Unfounded Fear

The spread of fake news, the power of conspiracy theories, the influence of algorithms on our choices and behaviour, the impact of social media on youth’s mental health, and other similar phenomena al...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 7h

Venerdì prossimo sarò a Modena, se siete da quelle parti potete registrarvi qui.
www.learningmorefestival.it/i/69660c385c...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 2d

I link della settimana (#127)
open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

I link della settimana (#127)

(i) Aggiornamento su Moltbook, e un altro punto di vista.

open.substack.com

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 3d

Against a deterministic view of digital technology usage: "Overall platform use has declined, with the youngest and oldest Americans increasingly abstaining from social media altogether" (in US)
arxiv.org/html/2510.25...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 5d

Same here! Maybe I am unclear: I use the article to tell students how NOT to think, and I use to say "this is how some (wrongly) thought, but not any more today!"
The spirit of the post is that, however, I may be too optimistic about this "not any more today"...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 5d

Now out in Evolutionary Psychological Science.
OA link: rdcu.be/e2g4X

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 5d

It’s from 2008, at that moment it was possibly a widespread feeling…

Reposted by Gordon Pennycook, Brendan Nyhan, Alberto Acerbi , and 2 more Gordon Pennycook, Brendan Nyhan, Alberto Acerbi, Kate Starbird, Mohsen Mosleh

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 6d

🚨New WP "@Grok is this true?"
We analyze 1.6M factcheck requests on X (grok & Perplexity)
📌Usage is polarized, Grok users more likely to be Reps
📌BUT Rep posts rated as false more often—even by Grok
📌Bot agreement with factchecks is OK but not great; APIs match fact-checkers
osf.io/preprints/ps...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

or, even more explicitly here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Cultural evolution of emotional expression in 50 years of song lyrics | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core

Cultural evolution of emotional expression in 50 years of song lyrics - Volume 1

www.cambridge.org

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

In fact the explicit idea was to do something with the findings here, that were basically without theory-driven hypotheses: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

The Expression of Emotions in 20th Century Books

We report here trends in the usage of “mood” words, that is, words carrying emotional content, in 20th century English language books, using the data set provided by Google that includes word frequenc...

journals.plos.org

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

Well our questions were definitely inspired from cultural evolution/evo social science there, so I think it is a good example of trying to combine the two.

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

Which is why we should combine the two!

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

I like your reading!

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

I use this article as an example of failed prediction in my first class of "cultural analytics" but I may be overly optimistic.

www.wired.com/2008/06/pb-t...

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Illustration: Marian Bantjes “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we have? Only models, from cosmologi...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

Maybe cultural evolution/evolutionary social science is not the safest background, but it feels like a lot of computational social science/"big data" psychology is asking theory-free questions that will not really advance knowledge on the long run.

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Illustration: Marian Bantjes “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we have? Only models, from cosmologi...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 6d

First time I am asked to be over 18 to read about cultural evolution.

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 9d

I link della settimana (#126)
open.substack.com/pub/albertoa...

I link della settimana (#126)

(i) Vietate le scuole, non i social media!

open.substack.com

Reposted by Andrew K Przybylski, Alberto Acerbi, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham

Eli Stark-Elster @eselster.bsky.social · 11d

A vast array of data suggests that school, not social media, is the biggest modern threat to the mental health of children. If you were recently a child, that won’t be a surprise. If not: enjoy the post :)
open.substack.com/pub/unpublis...

School is Way Worse For Kids Than Social Media

On building a world that doesn’t make children want to die

open.substack.com

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 11d

...How these selective pressures create the forms of intelligence that different AIs show? How do they explain their features? Could we change the selective pressures to have the features we want more?

Here, take also my take!

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 11d

...Is it a bat? Is it a children of six month? These aren't yes/no answers, but different ecological and evolutionary pressures select for different forms of intelligence. From here, there there are interesting questions: what are the selective pressures on AI?...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 11d

In the mess of comments about AI (often selling our good old technopanic), there could be an occasion to reflect on cognition from an evolutionary and ecological perspective. There is no one AGI, but there are many different intelligences. Is a chimp intelligent?...

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 12d

Oggi su "Il T"

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 12d

Haha indeed!

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 12d

Thank you Thom!

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 12d

maybe it was used somewhere by @thomscottphillips.bsky.social?

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 12d

I seem to remember a quote on not-rejecting scientific principles in human/social sciences because science is imperfect - the idea was that just because an operating room cannot be perfectly sterile we do not operate with a saw...Am I imagining it?

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 13d

We explore misinformation, conspiracy theories, echo chambers and polarisation, algorithmic radicalisation, mental heath, etc.

Based on my book "Tecnopanico" - English translation forthcoming!
www.mulino.it/isbn/9788815...

il Mulino - Libri - ALBERTO ACERBI, Technopanic

Affronta le paure legate alla comunicazione digitale e scopri come navigare l'era digitale con intelligenza. Con Alberto Acerbi.

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 13d

Great chat with Ricardo, assessing the research on the consequences of digital/social media, what are the historical and psychological roots of alarmist narratives, and why they can be dangerous

The Dissenter @thedissenteryt.bsky.social · 14d

New episode (1207), with Dr. Alberto Acerbi. We talk about his book, Tecnopanico, and how to approach digital media with reasonable caution. #Sociology #Science

YouTube: youtu.be/D6NLQjxIjps
Podcast: tinyurl.com/waw82jd4

#1207 Alberto Acerbi: Digital Media, Between Reasonable Caution and Unjustified Fears

YouTube video by The Dissenter

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 13d

Algorithms and social media are bad - unless kids like what we liked, which is "innately countercultural and offers a liberating, non-prescriptive form of fandom and discovery"
www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

Anti-pop and an alien sigil: how Aphex Twin overtook Taylor Swift to become the soundtrack to gen Z life online

The mysterious Cornish electronic music pioneer has gained an extraordinary second life in the TikTok era. Writers and musicians explain why his glitchy slipperiness is so in tune with life today

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Alberto Acerbi

The Dissenter @thedissenteryt.bsky.social · 14d

New episode (1207), with Dr. Alberto Acerbi. We talk about his book, Tecnopanico, and how to approach digital media with reasonable caution. #Sociology #Science

YouTube: youtu.be/D6NLQjxIjps
Podcast: tinyurl.com/waw82jd4

#1207 Alberto Acerbi: Digital Media, Between Reasonable Caution and Unjustified Fears

YouTube video by The Dissenter

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 16d

It seems like a good moment to re-share knightcolumbia.org/content/dont...

Don’t Panic (Yet): Assessing the Evidence and Discourse Around Generative AI and Elections

knightcolumbia.org