Voters across the political spectrum believe it is important for the Justice Department to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign governments. Recent revelations about social media companies tamping down the story in the run-up to the 2020 election have not changed voters’ opinions — just as many feel it […] Read more »
Annenberg Debuts Science and Public Health Knowledge Monitor
The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania is launching a science and health knowledge monitor comprising quarterly survey reports to track national levels of health knowledge and misinformation over time. Building on the Annenberg Science Knowledge (ASK) surveys which since 2016 have been focused on health knowledge […] Read more »
Spy agencies pulled 2020 vote study amid internal dissent
As U.S. spy agencies ramped up their work to catch foreign meddling in this year’s election, a team of CIA experts studied lessons learned from the contentious 2020 vote. Unexpectedly, their report sparked a controversy within parts of the intelligence community. In a rare move, their study was withdrawn shortly […] Read more »
US politicians tweet far more misinformation than those in the UK and Germany
Good ideas/Shutterstock Stephan Lewandowsky, University of Bristol and Jana Lasser, Graz University of Technology Politicians from mainstream parties in the UK and Germany post far fewer links to untrustworthy websites on Twitter and this has remained constant since 2016, according to our new research. By contrast, US politicians posted a […] Read more »
Trump is not the only threat to democracy
The investigations into the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill insurrection reveal how close America came to overturning its democratic system. The peaceful transfer of power that has long characterized U.S. history was threatened last year and it took considerable effort on the part of many individuals to survive the challenges […] Read more »
The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change
Thirty years ago, a bold plan was cooked up to spread doubt and persuade the public that climate change was not a problem. The little-known meeting – between some of America’s biggest industrial players and a PR genius – forged a devastatingly successful strategy that endured for years, and the […] Read more »