iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 17/09/2026

New paper out with Eliana Fattorini, Massimiano Bucchi, and Enzo Loner. “Weapon and poison? Framing disinformation in European Commission speeches, 2016–2024” We analyse how disinformation is framed in 238 speeches by European Commission in the last 10 years.

The figure shows 11 small bar charts arranged in a 3 by 4 grid, each labeled with a topic number from 1 to 11. Every bar chart has the same horizontal axis labeled misconception and the same vertical axis labeled proportion. The vertical scale runs from 0 to 0.5 with tick marks every 0.1. Within each chart, 6 vertical bars represent misconceptions from a shared legend on the right: A social media problem, Faster than reliable information, Impact on people’s behaviors, Many people are misinformed, People are easily misguided, and Pervades the Internet.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 31/08/2026

Another food-related traditions that turns out to be relatively recent: www.nytimes.com/2026/08/30/w...

Dining late is a relatively modern Spanish custom. During World War II, the dictator General Francisco Franco pushed clocks on the Spanish mainland forward an hour. Spain never reverted, meaning its official time runs ahead of its geographic position.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 29/08/2026

I did not know this: eBay ran field experiments turning off paid search ads on google and there was zero measurable effect on sales. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.3...

This begs the question: why do well-known companies spend large amounts of money on what seems to be a rather ineffective marketing channel?

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 21/08/2026

The perception that crime is on the rise is widespread in Italy. But hey, there's data! I plotted data from the Viminale (via mappine.it) from 2012 to today on homicides, thefts, and robberies. They're below.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 19/08/2026

New preprint with @carigol.bsky.social and @jstubbersfield.bsky.social on AI/cultural evolution. Three LLMs models (Mistral 7B, Qwen2.5 7B, GPT-3.5) select and mutate short health-advice statements over 100 steps of transmission-chain.

Figure9:Correlation between measured cosine diversity and estimate of frequency-dependent bias(J) and content-dependent bias

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 12/08/2026

This pattern often noticed for cars seems to hold also for furniture... from: europeancorrespondent.com/en/r/how-col...

Bar chart titled 'Furniture lost its colour: Recently purchased IKEA sofas are more likely to be grey than older ones.' It shows the most common sofa colours per year in IKEA catalogues from 1960 to 2021 as a sequence of coloured vertical stripes. Three callouts highlight the trend: green and blue dominate the 1960s; patterned sofas (stripes, dots, checks) take over in the 1990s, shown as dense black-and-tan patterned bars; and 2011 has the most neutral colours ever. Moving left to right, the bars shift from saturated greens, blues and reds in the 1960s-80s, through heavily patterned dark tones in the 1990s, to blacks and whites in the early 2000s, ending in solid grey and taupe shades through the 2010s to 2021. Source: IKEA catalogues 1960-2021, manual count. Credit: The European Correspondent, Toon Vos.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 22/06/2026

Bravi cultural analytics students! Here a Pudding-style visualisation made (voluntarily!) for a final project. Italian political parties use a populistic language when they are at opposition, but not when at government. website2-tawny-nine.vercel.app

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 15/06/2026

Reading @stevestuwill.bsky.social and it seems quite moderate to me (but ofc I am not exactly the average reader). Really many sociologists/socio-cultural anthropologists would disagree? I would think a small percentage...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 03/06/2026

Preprint of my "Cultural Evolution" entry for a forthcoming Elgar Encyclopaedia of Analytical Sociology. I tried to be as ecumenical as possible - feedback welcome! osf.io/preprints/so...

This entry introduces three evolutionary approaches to culture. Dual inheritance theory considersculture as a second system of inheritance alongside genetics, focusing on transmission dynamics and biases. Cultural attraction theory argues that cultural dynamics are driven by non-random transformation rather than copying, with factors of attraction making cultural traitsconverge toward stable forms. The ecological approach to culture rejects transmission-based frameworks, explaining culturethrough feedbacks between evolved psychology and ecological conditions. Despite their diEerences, the traditions share a common commitment in evolutionary thinking, and they provide a way to operationalise cultureand connect its studyto a broader scientific programme

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 28/05/2026

In a week (Thursday 4 June) I'll be in Napoli talking about "Social influence in the digital age". Pass by if you are around! www.cnr.it/it/eventi/al...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 25/05/2026

Today is Technopanic publication day! I have many things to say about it (and I will in the next weeks) but for now: the Kindle edition costs as much as a coffee (or two espresso in Italy…), so no excuse not to grab a copy and judge for yourself. -->

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 19/05/2026

Last lecture of the term done and now ready to travel to Torino! cs2italy.org

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 14/05/2026

Trying to do a table comparing effect sizes of content determinants of engagement in social media, but I am realising that that would require another full paper. Does something like that exist? If not, contact me if you would like to write such a paper :)

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 13/05/2026

Looking forward to host Alex Bentley in two weeks (see details below). Some more cultural evolution in Trento! "Collaborators through Time: How Humans Partnered with Nature, Technology, and Each Other"

flyer "Collaborators through Time: How Humans Partnered with Nature, Technology, and Each Other"

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 04/05/2026

Couldn't wait to give this news! English edition of Technopanic will be out at end of this month. It will appear under a new publishing project led by @danielnettle.bsky.social , which I am very glad to be part of. More details soon. And thank you to @hugoreasoning.bsky.social for the endorsement!

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 01/05/2026

Didn't try it, but this shiny app seems a useful resource to try various text analysis techniques without coding. github.com/massimoaria/...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 22/04/2026

Does emotional language drive social media engagement? On Reddit, it depends on where you post. In storytelling communities, more negative emotion = less engagement. In finance communities, the opposite.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 06/04/2026

Looking forward to participating in the "Scientific Progress via Model Transfer? The Case of Cultural Evolution" workshop in Hannover, later this week. Will have a brand new presentation! Slides here: osf.io/e8f3k/files/...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 21/03/2026

It depends on chapters...this is the title of the Haidt & Rausch one :-(

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 20/03/2026

And learning is mostly interactive (vs individual or observational)

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 20/03/2026

Cross-cultural analysis in non-industrial societies using eHRAF suggests toolmaking skill acquisition is mostly from kin (vs conformity or prestige) journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 17/03/2026

First guest lecture in my cultural analytics module! Thank you to Nadia von Jacobi, introducing a new ~27,000 folktales dataset, and testing presence of moral foundations themes. Preprint presenting the dataset: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 17/03/2026

Another proposal in line with "The cultural ecology of social media". Platforms reward engagement over accuracy: counter misinformation incentivising producers with a "Trust" button. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Abstract
By rewarding engagement over accuracy, social media platforms foster the spread of misinformation. Likes and similar engagement reactions are a central form of feedback on most platforms and shape what users share. On the platforms, users quickly learn that sharing interesting, attention-grabbing content garners positive feedback, even when it is inaccurate. With repeated exposure to these social rewards, sharing interesting content—including interesting but inaccurate content—can become a habit. We review evidence for this reward-based learning and propose a simple redesign of platform rewards: adding a Trust button so users can reward accurate, reliable posts. Experimental evidence supports this approach: Users give Trusts to accurate posts more than inaccurate posts. Then, when they receive trust feedback, users increasingly share accurate content (even when less interesting) and reduce sharing of inaccurate but highly interesting posts. Because this intervention changes incentives, it is scalable, preserves user choice, and aligns with people’s stated goal of sharing accurate information. Misinformation interventions that overlook the role of social media incentives are unlikely to produce lasting results.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 15/03/2026

Nice systematic review of how emotions affect engagements in social media. The effect is context- (e.g. negative bias in politics and positive in health) and platform-dependent. www.emerald.com/oir/article-...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 05/03/2026

I am not very convinced by the idea of "cultural stagnation". Even without entering in cultural niches, mainstream observations seem to vary. E.g., the great majority of most-listened songs on Spotify is post 2010. (Note these are cumulative streamings, which advantage older songs)

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 05/03/2026

Looking forward to Jamie Tehrani's guest lecture in my cultural analytics course, open to everybody. If you are in Trento and want to know more about cultural evolution, that is a great opportunity! eventi.unitn.it/en/origins-s...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 20/02/2026

Qualitative researchers can choose to not engage with AI, but it'd be a shame. nber.org/papers/w34834

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 18/02/2026

My kind of papers. "Can LLMs Cook Jamaican Couscous? A Study of Cultural Novelty in Recipe Generation" arxiv.org/pdf/2602.10964

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 17/02/2026

Wikipedia has different versions for every language, and the same topics don't always use the same pictures. Here you can search for topics and see the pictures in the different versions. walzr.com/in-every-lan...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 16/02/2026

Interesting preprint: "Popularity Feedback Constrains Innovation in Cultural Markets" arxiv.org/pdf/2602.09997

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 10/02/2026

An interview with RAI Trentino - “Young people and social media, Acerbi: ‘A ban is not the best approach.’” www.rainews.it/tgr/trento/v...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 09/02/2026

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

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 06/02/2026

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...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 24/01/2026

Very interesting: when X made "likes" privates, the number of likes to high-reputational-risk content (e.g., extremists, onlyFans, but also politicians...) *didn't* increase. arxiv.org/abs/2601.11140

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 23/01/2026

Eurostat data against the narrative...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 22/01/2026

The tradition of hiking with academic guests in Trento continues. Thank you for your visit @martinpalecek.bsky.social!

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 19/01/2026

Ci vediamo il 20 febbraio a Modena al www.learningmorefestival.it!

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 16/01/2026

Deadline in two weeks! Join us in Torino, 19-21 May 2026, for cs2italy.org

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 13/01/2026

Looking forward to @martinpalecek.bsky.social seminar next week in Trento: "Why Skepticism Can Backfire: Modeling Misinformation as a Gatekeeper–Trust Spiral"

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 17/12/2025

New preprint: "The Cultural Ecology of Social Media" osf.io/preprints/so... Thread ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Abstract:
Most research on social media considers them as supports for transmission of information, explaining online success (and pathologies) by focusing on consumers’ biases and interests. This article takes a different perspective, applying ideas from an ecological approach to culture to social media informational dynamics. It argues that success online depends both on the intrinsic appeal of content to receivers and on how well content serves producers’ strategic goals within the constraints and affordances of specific platforms. These goals include reputation management, coalition building and identity management, and coordination or participation in shared activities. Transmission is often a by-product of these motivations, and replication fidelity plays a limited role compared with transformations that adapt content to local incentives. Finally, the article suggests that platforms and communities can be understood as distinct ecological niches, each characterised by different audience structures, affordances, metrics, and algorithmic pressures. This perspective offers novel insight to persistent debates on social media dynamics, such as misinformation, radicalisation and polarisation, and the reasons behind online success.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 16/12/2025

"Tecnopanico" is the perfect Christmas present! 😀🎄

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 12/12/2025

Google has always struggled to give me a precise label, but this one ("biographer"??) was certainly unexpected.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 01/12/2025

Young Australians seem to have quite reasonable views about social media, who would have thought? apo.org.au/node/332901

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 15/11/2025

As I am working on this alone, I need you to cheer me up!

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 15/11/2025

Advertisement from Facebook. A special gift for your anthropologist friend.

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 24/10/2025

In a - very interesting - documentary about the founding and early years of the Faculty of Sociology in Trento, Renato Curcio (who would later go on to found the Brigate Rosse), then a student, recounts how one of the first student occupations was...

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Alberto Acerbi @acerbialberto.com · 14/10/2025

I am completely impartial, for a treatment of Dunbar's number and social media you should read the first chapter of "Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age".

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