iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Niels G. Mede

Axel Bruns @snurb.info · 09/09/2026

Fabulous #ECC2026 / #ECREA2026 panel on polarisation in climate change debates, also involving my @qutdmrc.bsky.social colleagues Carly Lubicz & sam vilkins Liveblog here:

snurb.info

ECREA 2026 | Snurblog — Axel Bruns

European Communication Conference, Brno, 7-11 Sep. 2026

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Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science (SIPS) @improvingpsych.org · 02/09/2026

Congratulations to the project “The Advantage of Big Team Science: Lessons Learned From Cognitive Science,” which received🏆2026 SIPS commendation! It offers a synthesis of strategies for successfully navigating the BTS landscape, including logistical, ethical, and epistemological challenges.

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Wisskomm.de @wisskomm.de · 14/07/2026

Macht der Ton die Musik? @nielsmede.bsky.social und @sophiavolk.bsky.social haben untersucht, wie Hochschulkommunikation mit Kritik und Angriffen umgeht. Außerdem im #Wisskomm-Forschungsrückblick: Erkenntnisse zur Watchdog-Funktion des Journalismus 👇 www.wissenschaftskommunikation.de/warum-es-wat...

wissenschaftskommunikation.de

Warum es Watchdog-Journalismus schwer hat: Neues aus der Forschung

Vor welchen Herausforderungen stehen Journalist*innen, die die Wissenschaft kritisch unter die Lupe nehmen? Und wie gehen Hochschulkommunikator*innen mit öffentlichem Backlash um – von legitimer Kriti...

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Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

New @nature.com collection on #trust in #science! A little anecdote from my conference travels opens the editorial – and in @helenpearson.bsky.social’s feature story I share my thoughts on what surveys (don’t) tell us about a “crisis of trust in science” and implications for #science #communication💡

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Werner Krause @krausewe.bsky.social · 09/06/2026

New paper out in the @thejop.bsky.social (w/ @christinagahn.bsky.social) Do opinion polls shape election results? Using both cross-national data and a survey experiment, the answer we find is yes - though it depends on how we communicate polling results. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Image showing the abstract of the paper "Self-Fulfilling Prophecies at the Voting Booth" by Werner Krause and Christina Gahn, published in the Journal of Politics. The abstract describes a quasi-experimental study across 25 countries finding that parties polling just below electoral thresholds are approximately 45 percentage points less likely to clear them, and that this effect diminishes when voters are informed about polling uncertainty.

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Lena Frischlich @lenafrescamente.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

In the second panel of day 2 on #ICA26 @nielsmede.bsky.social presents his @ddc-sdu.bsky.social * TrygFonden study in which we looked at science-related harassment- and the role of counterspeech for how bystanders perceive such attacks in 🇩🇰🇩🇪🇺🇲🇬🇧

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Wisskomm.de @wisskomm.de · 26/05/2026

Was bedeutet Wissenschaftsbezogener Populismus? Im Interview erklärt @nielsmede.bsky.social von der @w-u-r.bsky.social, was das Konzept beinhaltet, wie man solche Einstellungen messen kann und warum wir sie ernst nehmen sollten. www.wissenschaftskommunikation.de/antiwissensc... #Wisskomm

wissenschaftskommunikation.de

„Antiwissenschaftliche Ansichten können systemische Folgen haben“

Wissenschaftsbezogener Populismus ist ein Nischenphänomen – aber ein lautes. Warum wir es ernst nehmen sollten und wie man es erforschen kann, erzählt Kommunikationswissenschaftler Niels Mede im Inter...

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Ekaterina (Katja) Pronizius @epronizius.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

New paper🎈: Lessons Learned from Big Team Science Projects in Cognitive Science in @collabrapsychology.bsky.social online.ucpress.edu/collabra/art... We share practical, experience-based strategies for running large-scale collaborations - from project structure to ethics, funding, & AI use.

online.ucpress.edu

The Advantage of Big Team Science: Lessons Learned From Cognitive Science

The credibility revolution in psychology and related sciences contributed to the adoption of large-scale research initiatives known as Big Team Science (BTS). BTS has made significant advances in addr...

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European University Association (EUA) @eua.eu · 16/04/2026

Plenary Session 1 #EUA2026AC Universities and democracy: rethinking relationships of trust 🎙️ Maximilian Conrad, @haskoliislands.bsky.social 🎙️ @nielsmede.bsky.social, Wageningen University & Research 🎙️ Sijbolt Noorda, University of Amsterdam 🎙️Daciana Pop, @esuonline.bsky.social

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V-Dem Institute @vdeminstitute.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

📢 Out Now! V-Dem Dataset v16 & the V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026 💾 The V-Dem Dataset: v-dem.net/data/the-v-d... 📰 The Report "Unraveling The Democratic Era?”: v-dem.net/publications... 📈 Explore the new data with the V-Dem Graphing tools: v-dem.net/graphing/gra... #PoliSky #PoliSciSky 1/3

Two map graphs show the state of liberal democracy according to the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index for 2025 and 2024. The higher the score (or darker blue), the more democratic the country. Lower scores (or dark red) mean less democratic. While North and South America, Western Europe and Oceania are mostly in the blue, most parts of Asia and Africa are in the red in 2025.
In comparison to the map for 2024, the map graph for 2025 shows democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies in Western Europe and North America, in particular the USA, United Kingdom and Italy.

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Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Wow, what a surprise at @etmaal2026.bsky.social: I received @nefca.bsky.social's Young Scholar Award 2026. I am honored and grateful to the jury — and for all the colleagues I’ve worked with. The work this award recognizes was not a solo run, but a series of highly enjoyable #team efforts with you 🫶

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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

"Drawing on a 20.3-million-query audit of ChatGPT, we map systematic biases in the model's representations of countries, states, cities, and neighbourhoods. From these empirics, we argue that bias is not a correctable anomaly but an intrinsic feature of generative AI”. ht: Dagmar Monett

journals.sagepub.com

The silicon gaze: A typology of biases and inequality in LLMs through the lens of place - Francisco W. Kerche, Matthew Zook, Mark Graham, 2026

This paper introduces the concept of the silicon gaze to explain how large language models (LLMs) reproduce and amplify long-standing spatial inequalities. Draw...

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Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

‘Public trusts university-based scientists more than others’. Public Attitudes to Science survey finds faith in government and private-sector researchers has fallen. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

researchprofessionalnews.com

‘Public trusts university-based scientists more than others’ - Research Professional News

Public Attitudes to Science survey finds faith in government and private-sector researchers has fallen

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CWTS | Leiden University @cwts.nl · 19/01/2026

📣 In our next research seminar, @nielsmede.bsky.social from @w-u-r.bsky.social will talk about 'Public opinion and communication about science: Global evidence from a 68-country survey'. 📅 Friday, 23/1/2025 | 3:00-4:15 PM (CET) 📌 Online & at CWTS www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/events/20...

universiteitleiden.nl

Public opinion and communication about science: Global evidence from a 68-country survey

For science communication to achieve informed citizenries and meaningful public engagement with science, it is instrumental to analyse how people perceive scientists and communicate about science. How...

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Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Looking forward to visiting @unileiden.bsky.social and speaking in the research seminar series of @cwtsnl.bsky.social this Friday. Come to CWTS or join online! 👇

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Klaus Pforr @klauspforr.eurosky.social · 09/01/2026

Interesting paper in incentice effects, with nice descriptives like this one that shows that surveys are alive and kicking

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Brian Nosek @briannosek.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Join our Replicability Project: Health Behavior! We have 55 replication studies underway, our target is 65-70. We are only recruiting for secondary data replications--i.e., using existing data to test the original question. Here's a list of studies we think could be feasible. If interested...

docs.google.com

Replications Sourcing Sheet

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Heidi Schulze @hdschulze.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

New Paper in @computationalcommunication.org The Telegram COVID-19 Protest Dataset 2020-2022 with the most wonderful co-autohors @buehling.bsky.social & @maxzehring.bsky.social >> 2020-2022 >> 715 channels & 229 public groups >> 5,641,026 messages >> Manually curated >> Open for researchers

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Armin Schaefer @arminschaefer.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

In line with the 'credibility revolution', we are thinking about research designs that allow us to get closer to causal effects. Those who use surveys have often turned to survey experiments. At the same time, survey response rates have dropped considerably. Below are the figures for the ESS.

This plot shows average response rates of the European Social Survey. Between 2002 and 2023 the have fallen from 61 to 41 per cent.

This plot breaks down ESS response rates by country. In almost all countries, the rate has gone down over time - in some cases, like Sweden, quite dramatically so.

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Crossref @crossref.bsky.social · 11/12/2025

Fake DOI-like strings are increasingly common. Learn how to check whether a DOI is valid, how prefixes work, and more. tinyurl.com/599yk8yv #metadata #research #funders #librarians #community

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Diego Kozlowski @diegokoz.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

🧵 1/ 🚨 New paper out in PLOS ONE! w/ @caropradier.bsky.social @benzpierre.bsky.social @natsush.bsky.social @ipoga.bsky.social @lariviev.bsky.social We studied 43k authors and 264k citation links in U.S. economics to ask: 👉 Why do some papers cite others? 🔗 journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

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Christel van Eck @christelvaneck.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Fake expert and pseudo-scientist labels are increasingly used in science and public debates to delegitimize actors or claims, often in the context of misinformation 📰 In our newest publication in Communication Theory we explore what such terms actually mean. 👇

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Jonathan Dudek @jo-dudek.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

📰 Quantitative research on science communication requires suitable data. When it comes to academic press releases, that data is scarce. In a new paper, we introduce a dataset of more than 500,000 press releases published on @eurekalert.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1038/s415...

doi.org

An open dataset of EurekAlert! press releases for science communication research - Scientific Data

Scientific Data - An open dataset of EurekAlert! press releases for science communication research

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CERI_news @ceri-news.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

📢 Call for Papers! Theme: “Dark Side” of social conversations around science Join us for the #ICA2026 preconference hosted on 2 June 2026 in Stellenbosch. ✅ No registration fee (limited to 60 participants) 🗓 Submission deadline: 2 Feb 2026 Details & submit: www.imidibaniso.co.za/ica-pre-conf...

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Jan Pfänder @janpfa.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Trust in science is increasingly being studied across the globe—which is good news. However, expanding geographic coverage alone isn’t enough. doi.org/10.1016/j.co...

doi.org

Redirecting

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APSA & ICA Political Communication Divisions @polcomm.bsky.social · 05/11/2025

🎉 The PolComm Database Dashboard is live! The database content is now available in an interactive dashboard: a milestone since launching submissions at #ICA25 in Denver. Explore this resource here 👉 politicalcommunication.org/resources/

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Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

@matthewfacciani.bsky.social, co-author of our latest study on science communication behavior in 68 countries, just published a blog post with a great summary of the main results. Check it out! ⬇️

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 03/11/2025

How do people around the world encounter science, and what shapes those encounters? Our new global study found that social media now carries much of the world’s science content, but local culture, infrastructure, and curiosity still determine how people engage. #ScienceSky #scicomm

matthewfacciani.substack.com

How the World Talks About Science

Our new international study finds that science communication looks very different depending on culture, media systems, and access to technology.

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M.J. Crockett @mjcrockett.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Can AI simulations of human research participants advance cognitive science? In @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social, @lmesseri.bsky.social & I analyze this vision. We show how “AI Surrogates” entrench practices that limit the generalizability of cognitive science while aspiring to do the opposite. 1/

sciencedirect.com

AI Surrogates and illusions of generalizability in cognitive science

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have generated enthusiasm for using AI simulations of human research participants to generate new know…

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Boryana Todorova @todorova.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

So happy to see this out! 🎉 We surveyed people from 68 countries about how they encounter and engage with information about science! See the thread below for a summary of the main findings 👇 Congratulations to the whole team, especially @nielsmede.bsky.social and @colognaviktoria.bsky.social 👏

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Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Published today: One of the biggest #science #communication studies to date. We asked 71,922 people in 68 countries how they #engage with information about #science and combined the data with several country-level factors: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #OpenAccess

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Alon Zoizner @alonzoizner.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

New publication alert🔓🚨 Toxic speech is widespread on social media – but do users mirror the toxic behavior of their ingroup or react defensively to outgroup toxicity? Our new paper in JCMC examines how ingroup and outgroup behavior shape the spread of toxicity on social media.

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Curd Knüpfer @curdknupfer.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

If you've been reading that fantastic new paper by @dasalgon.bsky.social & @tevoelker.bsky.social on how mainstream parties lose if they adopt far-right issues: We looked at a case study & found similar dynamics for media. This was partly based on data from Daniel & Teresa!❤️ bsky.app/profile/curd...

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Florian Wintterlin @wintterlin.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

New paper out on trust in science in the International Journal of Public Opinion Research. 🙏 to @nielsmede.bsky.social and @colognaviktoria.bsky.social for initiating the TISP project and to @juliametag.bsky.social for her helpful input throughout the project. Free-access link: shorturl.at/4VBAJ

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Lars Lott @larslott.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Is research performance related to academic freedom? A preprint co-authored with @lutzb.bsky.social conducts a large-scale empirical analysis on the national level to this question. osf.io/2mh8f #academicfreedom #AcademicFreedomIndex Short 🧵

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Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 06/09/2025

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

Abstract: Under the banner of progress, products have been uncritically adopted or
even imposed on users — in past centuries with tobacco and combustion engines, and in
the 21st with social media. For these collective blunders, we now regret our involvement or
apathy as scientists, and society struggles to put the genie back in the bottle. Currently, we
are similarly entangled with artificial intelligence (AI) technology. For example, software updates are rolled out seamlessly and non-consensually, Microsoft Office is bundled with chatbots, and we, our students, and our employers have had no say, as it is not
considered a valid position to reject AI technologies in our teaching and research. This
is why in June 2025, we co-authored an Open Letter calling on our employers to reverse
and rethink their stance on uncritically adopting AI technologies. In this position piece,
we expound on why universities must take their role seriously toa) counter the technology
industry’s marketing, hype, and harm; and to b) safeguard higher education, critical
thinking, expertise, academic freedom, and scientific integrity. We include pointers to
relevant work to further inform our colleagues.

Figure 1. A cartoon set theoretic view on various terms (see Table 1) used when discussing the superset AI
(black outline, hatched background): LLMs are in orange; ANNs are in magenta; generative models are
in blue; and finally, chatbots are in green. Where these intersect, the colours reflect that, e.g. generative adversarial network (GAN) and Boltzmann machine (BM) models are in the purple subset because they are
both generative and ANNs. In the case of proprietary closed source models, e.g. OpenAI’s ChatGPT and
Apple’s Siri, we cannot verify their implementation and so academics can only make educated guesses (cf.
Dingemanse 2025). Undefined terms used above: BERT (Devlin et al. 2019); AlexNet (Krizhevsky et al.
2017); A.L.I.C.E. (Wallace 2009); ELIZA (Weizenbaum 1966); Jabberwacky (Twist 2003); linear discriminant analysis (LDA); quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA).

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms
are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

Protecting the Ecosystem of Human Knowledge: Five Principles

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Tobia Spampatti, PhD @tspampatti.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

In this new Commentary in @natclimate.nature.com, I reflect on the recent focus on truth discernment in #misinfo research and argue that this outcome alone may not be beneficial to society if interventions do not improve behaviour and other outcomes because... 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Truth discernment may not help to overcome misinformation

Nature Climate Change - Scientists increasingly assess interventions against misinformation mainly via truth discernment. However, pursuing truth discernment may not be sufficiently beneficial to...

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Claes de Vreese @claesdevreese.bsky.social · 06/09/2025

“De wetenschap heeft een tweeledige rol: als locomotief van de vooruitgang, maar ook als rem om de trein van de geschiedenis op de rails te houden.” Robbert Dijkgraaf in @nrc.nl Trump en de tech-trawanten www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/... www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

nrc.nl

Column | Trump en de tech-trawanten

Column: Vijandigheid tegenover de wetenschap staat in een lange traditie in de Amerikaanse Republikeinse partij. Robbert Dijkgraaf ziet een verrassende ontwikkeling.

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Jan Pfänder @janpfa.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

How much do people really reject science? New paper out doi.org/10.1177/0963... In four studies, we asked Americans—including flat Earthers, climate change deniers and vaccine skeptics—whether they accepted basic scientific facts. The result? A surprisingly high level of agreement. 👇

doi.org

Quasi-universal acceptance of basic science in the United States - Jan Pfänder, Lou Kerzreho, Hugo Mercier, 2025

Substantial minorities of the population report a low degree of trust in science, or endorse conspiracy theories that violate basic scientific knowledge. This m...

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NeFCA Political Communication @nefcapolcom.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

🚀 We’re live! The Political Communication Division of @nefca.bsky.social is now on BlueSky. Follow us for updates on research, events, and conversations in the PolCom community.

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Lena Frischlich @lenafrescamente.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

@nielsmede.bsky.social is opening our workshop based on his TrygFonden * @ddc-sdu.bsky.social fellowship on countering science related online harrassment - very excited to discuss how to support science communicators with a stellar line-up of academics and stakeholders!

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Hu Chuan-Peng is on paternity leave @hcp4715.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

thrilled that our guides for #OpenScience in developing countries is now published in AMPPS of @psychscience.bsky.social: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Please see the thread for details

journals.sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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Barnabas Szaszi @szaszibarnabas.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

🧵 Can you predict whether behavioral interventions will work in new contexts? … probably not, right? In our new paper with @dggoldst.bsky.social @dilipsoman.bsky.social @susanmichie.bsky.social, we dive into how to better understand and improve generalizability. rdcu.be/ewD2z Summary👇

rdcu.be

Generalizability of choice architecture interventions

Nature Reviews Psychology - Choice architecture interventions (or ‘nudges’) aim to guide behaviour by changing the proximal physical, social or psychological environment. In this...

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koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

It’s not just social media algorithms that determine whether content goes viral. Research by @steverathje.bsky.social and @jayvanbavel.bsky.social finds how the psychology of spreaders and consumers interacts with the environment also significantly influences virality: buff.ly/q17VnXN

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Karen Melchior @karmel80.bsky.social · 10/07/2025

Which is why the way reporting is done is crucial... "We find: It’s not necessarily firsthand experience of extreme weather events. Instead, it’s whether people think that these events are linked to climate change."

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Larry Miller, PhD @larrymillerphd.bsky.social · 02/07/2025

What if science communication wasn’t just about facts—but about trust, humility & shared values? This new agenda from PNAS calls for participatory models to replace top-down fixes. In this ultra-polarized environment, it’s about co-creation, not just correction. What are your thoughts? 🧪🧬🔬

pnas.org

An agenda for science communication research and practice | PNAS

Science should not unilaterally dictate individuals’ decisions or public policies. Yet, it provides a vital source of information for societies and...

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Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 06/07/2025

Excellent new study in @actapolitica.bsky.social: @roderikrekker.bsky.social uses 15 years of representative panel survey data (2007-2022, n = 19,084) to show how science skepticism is linked to political discontent in the Netherlands ⬇️

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Niels G. Mede @nielsmede.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

New paper: What increases people’s support for policy responses to #climate #change? ✊ We find: It’s not necessarily firsthand experience of extreme weather events. Instead, it’s whether people think that these events are linked to climate change. Here is the paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🔎

nature.com

Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world - Nature Climate Change

Literature produced inconsistent findings regarding the links between extreme weather events and climate policy support across regions, populations and events. This global study offers a holistic asse...

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Viktoria Cologna @colognaviktoria.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

🚨 How do exposure to extreme weather events and the subjective attribution of these events to climate change relate to climate policy support across the world? 🔥🌎 Find out more in our OA article published in Nature Climate Change 👇 1/7 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Extreme weather event attribution predicts climate policy support across the world - Nature Climate Change

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