My research focuses on several challenges that came about with the advancement of digital technologies, such as  misinformation, micro-targeting, online content moderation, AI and LLM's (ChatGPT), and - more broadly speaking - the role of social media in our daily media-diet. I am particularly interested in the extent to which the numerous interventions against these potentially harmful phenomena are effective, but especially to what extent such interventions may cause unintended spill-over effects. 


To give an example, in one project titled 'Elusive Effects of Misinformation and the Media's Attention to it'  I argue that the amount of attention to misinformation in the media (i.e. the media covering misinformation as an issue) may not be in proportion to the magnitude of the problem of misinformation. Using a combination of Experimental and Behavioral Trace Data, I show that such coverage of misinformation may do more harm than misinformation itself by fostering misperceptions and decreasing trust. Relatedly, in another project titled 'Interventions against Misinformation Reduce Misperceptions but Increase Skepticism', I show that fact-checking, media literacy efforts and coverage of misinformation come at a cost. 


My work has been published at leading scopus-indexed peer-reviewed journals, including Scientific Reports, European Political Science Review, European Journal of Political Research and the Journal of Quantitative Description (JQD)


Method-wise, I enjoy designing survey- and field-experiments, and use computational social science approaches leveraging digital trace-data. 


In my free time, you can find me in the swimming pool or behind my piano. 


PUBLICATIONS



Nasr, M. & Hoes., E. (2023). Flipping the Script: Exploring Voter Responses to Sudden Policy U-Turns. Accepted for publication at European Journal of Political Research. 


Alizadeh, M., Hoes, E., & Gilardi, F. (2023). Tokenization of social media engagements increases the sharing of false (and other) news but penalization moderates it. Scientific Reports, 13.

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40716-2 


Hoes, E., Kamphorst, J., & Krouwel, A. (2023). Prominence over Proximity? The Effects of Terrorist Attacks on Party Preferences for Incumbent versus Populist Radical Right Parties. European Political Science Review, 1-19.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S175577392300019X


Alizadeh, M., Gilardi, F., Hoes, E., Klüser, K. J., Kubli, M., & Marchal, N. (2022). Content Moderation As a Political
Issue: The Twitter Discourse Around Trump’s Ban. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 2. https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2022.023


WORKING PAPERS 


(FAKE) NEWS & INTERVENTIONS


Elusive Effects of Misinformation and the Media's Attention To It

Evidence from Experimental and Behavioral Trace Data [together with Bernhard Clemm, Theresa Gessler, Magdalena Wojcieszak, and Sijia Qian] [R&R at the International Journal of Press/Politics] [pre-print on PsyArXiv]


Prominent Misinformation Interventions Reduce Misperceptions but Increase Skepticism [together with Brian Aitken, Tomasz Gackowski, Jingwen Zhang, and Magdalena Wojcieszak] [Funded by the 2021 Facebook Integrity Grant] [R&R at Nature Human Behavior] [pre-print on PsyArXiv]


(Dis)information for Hire?

A computational exploration of the extent to which Social Media Influencers spread or combat misinformation [together with Jonathan Klüser]


Media Literacy or Media Skepticism?

Testing Novel Trust-Inducing Media Literacy Interventions [together with Sacha Altay and Andrea d'Angelis]


The Effect of a Real-World, Long-Term Media Literacy Intervention

A Difference-in-Differences Approach [working paper: pre-registration]


ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE


Leveraging ChatGPT for Efficient Fact-Checking [together with Sacha Altay and Juan Bermeo] [under review] [pre-print on PsyArXiv]


CONTENT MODERATION


Tool for Online Discussions (TOD) 

A New Experimental Research Platform to Examine Live User Interactions on Social Media [together with Jonathan Klüser] [working paper: pre-print on PsyArxiv]  


The Blackbox of Content Moderation on Social Media

A First Look Into a Novel Twitter Dataset [together with Mael Kübli and Natalia Umansky] [working paper: pre-print on SocArXiv


SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS


The Role of Media Coverage in Platform Policy Change [together with Nahema Marchal, Jonathan Klueser, Felix Hamborg, Christian Katzenbach, Meysam Alizadeh & Maël Kubli] [R&R at Political Communication]



CONSPIRACY THEORIES & BELIEFS


The Prevalence of Conspiracy Theories From Web 1.0 to 3.0 [together with Maël Kubli]