Survey research is often interpreted as showing that belief in conspiracy theories can be surprisingly widespread, including belief in conspiracy theories that would be astonishing if true. For example, in The Atlantic we learn that “12 million Americans believe lizard people run our country”
Do people really believe Canada has an army of genetically modified super-raccoons, or are they just trolling? 🍁🦝🪖
Our new article explores how “insincere” survey responses may inflate estimates of conspiracy belief. (1/x)
@aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/conspiracy-t...
🧵 Thread: Does the internet threaten democracy? I argue that it does in my latest piece in Science: doi.org/10.1126/scie...
Here's the short version. 1/9
1/10
Social media giants found liable for harming a child – Expert Reaction www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2026/03/26/s...
Bots have made their way to Prolific experiments. Our lab has stopped online testing of adults entirely now for this reason - we want to know if what we study is real. Probably data collected 2-3 years ago are ok, but moving forward we just can't know. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Want to work at the interface of science and journalism - helping make complex topics accessible to the public of Aotearoa New Zealand? Then check out our new job opening here: www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/2026/01/27/w...
You can read the full registered report article, led by @matthewmatix.bsky.social, published in Royal Society Open Science here: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...
More than 400,000 New Zealanders have experienced Long Covid and nearly half are still symptomatic.
Long Covid is a stark reminder of the pandemic’s persistence with real and ongoing health, social, and economic impacts.
So where is the government response?
www.phcc.org.nz/briefing/lon...
Full credit to co-author
@robert-m-ross.bsky.social who came up with the Raccoon Conspiracy as way to index insincere responding, and first applied it in earlier Australian research.
bsky.app/profile/robe...
And thanks to all the other co-authors, including @mdmarques.com who knows everyone's bsky handle!
@matthewmatix.bsky.social @srhastraea.bsky.social @lingtax.bsky.social
@robert-m-ross.bsky.social @eddieclarke.bsky.social (+ Ahnya Martin) bsky.app/profile/mdma...
Rob Ross
John Kerr
Stephan Lewandowsky
David Barner
Science Media Centre NZ
Science Media Centre NZ
John Kerr
John Kerr
John Kerr
Surveys may overestimate belief in conspiracy theories because of trolls and jokers – but genuine believers can still cause real-world harm.
A first-of-its-kind lawsuit in the US has found Meta and YouTube responsible for mental health harm to a young woman. Her lawyers linked the design features of their platforms, such as 'infinite scroll',...
Will democracy survive the internet? Do we need to choose between Facebook’s surveillance capitalism or democracy? Layered lines of evidence can inform questions like these. When considered together, the evidence gives rise to a concerning picture, as summarized in a recent report for the European Commission that I co-led.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
The Science Media Centre (SMC) is looking for a media advisor to join our dedicated team working to improve the reach, relevance and accuracy of news media reporting on science and related topics in Aotearoa...
Long Covid's impacts on health, social, and economic justify a well-coordinated national response focused on prevention, people-centred care, and research.
Survey research is often interpreted as showing that belief in conspiracy theories can be surprisingly widespread, including belief in conspiracy theories that would be astonishing if true. For example, in The Atlantic we learn that “12 million Americans believe lizard people run our country”
Rob Ross
if you're really curious about the true state of reality, click below for the latest from @matthewmatix.bsky.social @scicomguy.bsky.social @srhastraea.bsky.social @lingtax.bsky.social @robert-m-ross.bsky.social @eddieclarke.bsky.social, Martin, and me reported in the @aunz.theconversation.com
mat marques, ph.d.
Surveys may overestimate belief in conspiracy theories because of trolls and jokers – but genuine believers can still cause real-world harm.
