What Is Media Literacy in the Digital Age?
Media literacy: recognize manipulation through clickbait and framing, verify sources before sharing, understand algorithmic filtering of content.
May 2025
April 2025
What Is the Science of Misinformation: Why False News Spreads
The science of misinformation explains why false information spreads faster than true news, how the illusory truth effect works, and what interventions actually reduce misinformation.
July 2024
How Social Media Algorithms Work: Engagement, Outrage, and the Architecture of Attention
How do social media algorithms actually decide what you see? Understand the ranking systems behind TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube — and why they systematically amplify outrage, anxiety, and misinformation.
May 2024
Why People Believe Conspiracy Theories: The Psychology Behind Them
The psychology of conspiracy theories, from the three core needs they fulfill to pattern detection, proportionality bias, social identity, and what interventions actually work.
Why Disinformation Spreads
The MIT Media Lab's landmark 2018 Science study found false news spreads 6x faster than true news. Here is the science explaining why, and what actually stops it.
How to Spot Misinformation: A Research-Based Guide
Research-backed techniques for identifying misinformation online, from lateral reading and SIFT to inoculation theory, deepfakes, and what actually works.
February 2024
Why Conspiracy Theories Spread: The Psychology of Mistrust and Pattern-Finding
Why do people believe conspiracy theories? Understand the cognitive, social, and motivational psychology that makes conspiracy thinking appealing, and why debunking alone doesn't work.
October 2023
The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories: Why Pattern-Seeking Minds Go Wrong
Why do intelligent people believe conspiracy theories? Explore proportionality bias, epistemic anxiety, Jan-Willem van Prooijen's research, gateway beliefs, and inoculation theory.
September 2022
What Is Digital Literacy: Skills for the Information Age
Digital literacy is more than knowing how to use technology. Learn the components, the SIFT method for misinformation, and why it matters more than ever.