Ethan Porter

Fact-checks improve accuracy. But can they penalize spreaders of misinfo? At @polbehavior.bsky.social, Jacob Ausubel, Annika Davies and I show that the answer is yes--sometimes. Unknown misinfo producers can be penalized, but well-known figures get off. Link: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

New paper with Don Green and @ethanvporter.bsky.social in the QJPS. After much deliberation, we went with a title that just states the result. 📝 journal: www.emerald.com/qjps/article...

From September 2025 - Rethinking Citizen Competence: A New Theoretical and Empirical Framework - cup.org/3I85Zlp - @stevenklein.bsky.social & @ethanvporter.bsky.social #OpenAccess

When 'When Prophecy Fails' Fails: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... (h/t @ethanvporter.bsky.social )

it would be hilarious and cosmically correct in the year 2025 for a canadian team to win the world series toronto is america’s team

On October 21 at 4 PM, I hope you will join me, @gwiddp.bsky.social and The New Republic at GW for "The State of Democracy in Trump's America: Year One," featuring @ryanenos.bsky.social + others discussing U.S. democracy. Ro Khanna is keynoting! Space is limited. RSVP: lnkd.in/euqqNB9s

Study shows that fact-checking reduces false belief in misinformation. A 2023 @bjpols.bsky.social article by Alexander Coppock, Kimberly Gross, @ethanvporter.bsky.social, @emilythorson.bsky.social & @thomasjwood.bsky.social has been referenced by @3streamsblog.bsky.social. https://cup.org/3WdASby

🚨 new paper out w/ @simonchauchard.bsky.social in BJPS @bjpols.bsky.social on the link between misinformation and religiosity- does religious belief cause people to endorse more misinformation? And if so, what can we do about it? thread below ⬇️

Curious to know about where IDDP is headed? In a Q&A with GW Today, @catiebailard.bsky.social and @ethanvporter.bsky.social spoke about their vision for the Institute. Read it at gwtoday.gwu.edu/q-new-co-directors-gws-institute-data-democracy-and-politics.

Our first post! And what better way to mark this occasion than by announcing the start of a new chapter at IDDP. Last month @catiebailard.bsky.social and @ethanvporter.bsky.social stepped in as the Institute's Co-Director's. Read their full statement at iddp.gwu.edu/about.

‼️ New paper! In "Rethinking Citizen Competence," Steven Klein and I argue that common concerns about citizen competence do not reflect recent evidence, especially in the misinfo + persuasion literatures. We're more competent than we give ourselves credit for. Link: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Some people find politics interesting. Others do not. In a new paper, I show that appealing to MEANING increases political interest. In 6 experiments, connecting what people find meaningful in their lives to politics increases political interest. Link: osf.io/preprints/so...

Today, @catiebailard.bsky.social and I take the reins at GW's Institute for Data, Democracy + Politics! We'll work to make IDDP a one-stop shop for research on misinfo, platform manipulation, and threats to democratic ideals. To follow our work + learn about opportunities, visit: bit.ly/45GLggi

Bard president Leon Botstein says Trump’s campaign against colleges follows ‘a classic antisemitic routine’ forward.com/fast-forward...

Cool "micro-sabbatical" opportunity for tenured or tenure-track faculty at GW’s Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics (IDDP).

A 2023 NHB paper concluded that corrections of science-relevant misinformation are, on average, ineffective. Our response (in press) challenges this conclusion, showing why corrections *are* effective, and why considering measurement is important: 🔗 osf.io/preprints/ps... (1/5)

Do citizens have the capabilities required for democracy? The standard story is that empirical research debunks normative democratic theory. With @ethanvporter.bsky.social, we argue for a better framework and show empirical research supports citizen capacities. Forthcoming in @bjpols.bsky.social

Literally describing themselves as occupying a blue state like hostile territory with the military and federal forces.

must be incredibly frustrating and disheartening to have federal funding that was promised to you for important work suddenly and arbitrarily ripped away

Important message from @ethanvporter.bsky.social @aaronshaw.bsky.social @emmaspiro.bsky.social “NSF has accepted a dangerous myth that misinformation research (and research more generally) is really just partisan activism […] Nothing could be further from the truth” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Dangerous to democracy www.thedailybeast.com/the-view-tol...

‼️ Two new post-docs at GW! Both affiliated with the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics, one will be more computational, the other more experimental. Links: www.gwu.jobs/postings/119... and www.gwu.jobs/postings/119... Spread the word!

There's this old joke: "War is how Americans learn geography." I guess DOGE is how Americans learn what government does.

Lots of discussion about fact-checks--but what do they actually DO? In a new working paper, Jacob Ausubel, Annika Davies and I show that they improve belief accuracy + penalize leaders who spread misinfo--*IF* the leader is unknown bit.ly/3WraNGs

My take on the Meta announcement @npr.org in coverage from @bobbyallyn.bsky.social www.npr.org/2025/01/07/n...

*175 years later* Hang on, the Camptown Race Track is five miles long? That seems awfully long for a race track!

What's the best way to debrief study participants? At @pnasnexus.org, Katie Clayton, @yamilrvelez.bsky.social, @thomasjwood.bsky.social and I introduce a new debriefing method that leaves participants much better off than standard debriefs. Especially relevant for misinfo research. bit.ly/41i19sU

Democrats need to remove racist grifters like Rachel Bitecofer from their orbit.

New WP! What are the effects of encouraging people to read IPCC reports? Knowledge of climate change + support for gov action increase BUT no effects on donating real $ to fight climate change. With @thomasjwood.bsky.social and @brendannyhan.bsky.social. Link: bit.ly/3VfsvfN

Where not #OpenAccess, the papers in our October 2023 issue are free to read until the end of 2024 - cup.org/3BSSxhP With papers by @eugeniaartabe.bsky.social, @patrickshea.bsky.social, @aecoppock.bsky.social, @ethanvporter.bsky.social, @emilythorson.bsky.social, @thomasmmeyer.bsky.social & more

Here’s my pitch: the Democrats should take a few million dollars and fund free childcare centers and bowling nights in swing districts resnikoff.beehiiv.com/p/the-party-...

We've moved to the stage of grief where doomposting is allowed, right? I couldn't sleep. Here's my doompost. Sorry. This isn't the end of the world. But it is far worse than 2016. It will take decades to recover. ...And I can't say we had that time to spare. open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...

🚨 New pub! In Behavioural Public Policy, @thomasjwood.bsky.social, @broniatowski.bsky.social, Pedram Hosseini and I show that aggressively confronting people about the scourge of misinfo reduces willingness to share and believe misinfo. Implications for accuracy nudges. OA: bit.ly/4hJhRYj

genuinely wild world where, on trump at least, matt drudge has better news judgment than most of the mainstream media

An Elon Musk-funded PAC is microtargeting Muslim people in Michigan and Jewish people in Pennsylvania with opposite messaging about Kamala Harris using ZIP code targeting, according to data I pulled from Snapchat. Few things from this investigation: www.404media.co/this-is-exac...

very kind 'review' of my cheat sheet to the November elections in esquire today: esquire.com/news-politic... if learning it is 'choke-full of hidden delights' (!) doesn't make you want to jump in and start exploring... what will?! boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

My new Cambridge Element is FREE for the next few weeks. It takes on an important question: does the media's obsession with covering misinformation have the unintentional effect of eroding trust? I'll give some answers in this thread... www.cambridge.org/core/element...

What happens when misinfo about Russia/Ukraine is corrected IN Russia & Ukraine (+ Belarus, Estonia and Kazakhstan)? Accuracy improves, but war attitudes remain the same! With Raushan Zhandayeva, @thomasjwood.bsky.social and Bailey Scott. In @plos.bsky.social: journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

In a new article in Political Communication, @mattgraham.bsky.social and I study how to increase readership of fact-checks. It's hard! Social pressure, civic duty and small payments help; leveraging Party ID doesn't. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Ungated: osf.io/preprints/os...

The Trump assassination attempt *did not* increase support for political violence in the U.S. according to this new paper-- in fact, Republicans expressed *less* support for political violence against Democrats after the event: prlpublic.s3.amazonaws.com/reports/Poli...

A sadly timely article that nonetheless has elements of hope--we show that a simple intervention, highlighting the testimony of a Jewish person who experienced antisemitism, has some success at reducing antisemitic attitudes and behaviors [2/2]

"Combating Hateful Attitudes and Online Browsing Behavior: The Case of Antisemitism” has won the Rebecca Morton Best Article Award from @JEPS_ed! www.cambridge.org/core/journal... w/ @catiebailard.bsky.social, @mattgraham.bsky.social, @rebekahtromble.bsky.social and Kim Gross [1/2]

For a great review of corrections, see this piece by @ethanvporter.bsky.social & @thomasjwood.bsky.social (out in this same themed issue in COPSYC): www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...