David G. Rand | Lightnews

David Rand

@dgrand.bsky.social

32K followers 1.7K following 300 posts

Prof at Cornell studying how human-AI dialogues can correct inaccurate beliefs, why people share falsehoods, and ways to reduce political polarization and promote cooperation. Computational social science + cognitive psychology.
https://www.DaveRand.org/ .. more

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David G. Rand is the Erwin H. Schell Professor and Professor of Management Science and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Source: Wikipedia

Political science 25%

Sociology 23%

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David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · Dec 16

🚨In Science🚨
Conspiracy beliefs famously resist correction, ya?
WRONG: We show brief convos w GPT4 reduce conspiracy beliefs by ~20%!
-Lasts over 2mo
-Works on entrenched beliefs
-Tailored AI response rebuts specific evidence offered by believers
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
1/
[X->BSky repost]

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 3d

It's also basically impossible from a practical perspective bc there's no way to have a human expert available on the fly to answer any possible conspiracy theory a participant describes. I'm sure somebody will do something like this at some point, but it's not the direction I'm pursuing

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 3d

We looked at what happens if you label the AI as an expert vs an AI (doesn't make it any less persuasive to call it an expert). But havent tried actual humans - almost certainly humans will do much worse bc they dont have easy access to all the relevant facts etc academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Dialogues with large language models reduce conspiracy beliefs even when the AI is perceived as human

Abstract. Although conspiracy beliefs are often viewed as resistant to correction, recent evidence shows that personalized, fact-based dialogues with a lar

academic.oup.com

Reposted by David G. Rand

Nick Byrd, Ph.D. @byrdnick.com · 3d

🧠🏔️ Below I'll share mine and others' presentations from the Society for Judgment and Decision Making conference in #Denver.

Did you attend a session I missed?
Did I fail to tag a presenter?
Feel free to add to the thread!

Long live #openAccess conferencing.

#SJDM #SJDM25 @sjdm-tweets.bsky.social

Byrd, N. (2025, July). Map My Words—Using Waitlist Controlled Trials To Test Whether Argument Mapping Improves Individuals’ Persuasive Writing or Critical Thinking. Experimental Argument Analysis, University of East Anglia. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/390977878

Abstract. Argument mapping is the practice of diagraming the logical relationships between each proposition in an argument, including objections and counter-objections. Some studies find that courses that teach students how to map arguments exhibit better critical thinking and persuasive writing than students in other courses. These promising results are sometimes from surveyors of argument mapping goods and services, and they garner plenty of attention in fields that champion careful thinking and communication. However, the total evidence is mixed, null results are often never published, and many promising studies have not controlled for known confounds. Two waitlist control trials (N = 83) attempted to address these issues; they detected no benefits of argument map training within or between groups (p > 0.13). Rather, variance in outcomes was explained by enrollment in the instructor’s other courses, prior academic achievement, and — most robustly — engagement in flipped classroom activities. These findings raise questions about whether benefits previously attributed to argument mapping in less controlled studies were caused by other factors that were already known to produce such benefits. Implications for pedagogy, course assessment, and the science of learning are discussed.

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 4d

For a deeper dive, check out this 20 minute talk youtu.be/qVjjcw4w6-Q and try the bot yourself at www.DebunkBot.com

Hats off to lead author Nat Rabb, joint senior @tomcostello.bsky.social and collabs @gordpennycook.bsky.social @adamberinsky.bsky.social Alexander Levontin

Debunking Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories using AI - David Rand

YouTube video by David Rand

youtu.be

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Gordon Pennycook, Brendan Nyhan , and 1 more Lisa W. Fazio, Gordon Pennycook, Brendan Nyhan, Adam J. Berinsky

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 4d

🚨New WP🚨
Dialogues with our AI DebunkBot:
✔️Reduced belief in antisemitic conspiracy theories among believers
✔️Effect durable at 1+ month
✔️Improved attitudes towards Jews among initially negative participants

🟰Debunking works for deeply rooted, identity-linked conspiracies
osf.io/preprints/ps...

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 5d

I'll be at SJDM in Denver today through Sunday (I'm presenting on AI political persuasion on Sat @ 230pm). Let me know do you'd like to chat!

Reposted by David G. Rand, Laia Balcells

Polling USA @usapolling.bsky.social · 7d

"Do you think that Trump was involved in crimes allegedly committed by Jeffrey Epstein?"

All:
Yes: 42%
No: 34%

Yes Among:
DEM: 79%
IND: 43%
GOP: 7%

YouGov / Nov 17, 2025

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 11d

In Jan 2024, yes X was certainly more ideologically diverse than BlueSky

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 11d

Well, this data is from Jan 2024. Unclear what it would look like today...

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 11d

Interestingly, it's more about some notable high-quality outlets underperforming on engagement, rather than low-quality outlets overperforming:

Reposted by Garry Peterson

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 11d

It's actually more about some notable high-quality outlets underperforming, rather than low-quality outlets overperforming:

Reposted by David G. Rand

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 11d

Preprint w/ (rapid) analysis of Grokipedia, showing it to be “highly derivative of Wikipedia”, but differing, often on controversial topics, in that Grokipedia includes content/cites from low quality (hyper partisan & conspiracy laden) sources like Stormfront & Infowars. arxiv.org/pdf/2511.09685

arxiv.org

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 12d

The paper, in figures:
F1=Cross-platforms Corr b/w partisan lean and quality
F2=Corr between lean and engagement varies cross-platform, s/t dominant-lean news gets more engagement
F3=Neg corr between quality and engagement across all platforms!
Led by @mmosleh.bsky.social w @jennyallen.bsky.social

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Sander van der Linden, Will Jennings , and 8 more Lisa W. Fazio, Sander van der Linden, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan, Garry Peterson, Gordon Hodson, Steve Peers, William J. Brady, Laia Balcells, Mohsen Mosleh, Allison Eden

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 12d

🚨Out in PNAS🚨
Examining news on 7 platforms:
1)Right-leaning platforms=lower quality news
2)Echo-platforms: Right-leaning news gets more engagement on right-leaning platforms, vice-versa for left-leaning
3)Low-quality news gets more engagement EVERYWHERE - even BlueSky!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Reposted by David G. Rand, Brendan Nyhan, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 13d

Updated paper

www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/mjih7...

Reposted by David G. Rand

Ethan Porter @ethanvporter.bsky.social · 15d

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...

The Reputational Penalty: How Fact-Checking Can Penalize Those Who Spread Misinformation - Political Behavior

Whether or not political leaders pay a price for spreading misinformation has profound implications for democracy. In this paper, we identify the conditions under which corrections of misinformation c...

link.springer.com

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 16d

I'm trying to understand what this means and I haven't succeeded yet. Any chance you'd want to break to down more for us bskyers?

Reposted by David G. Rand

Jeff Greene @jeffgreene.bsky.social · 16d

Adults who were required to use #GenAI to answer LSAT questions did better than a no-AI control group, but the GenAI group also exhibited greater metacognitive inaccuracy. I'd like to see some conceptual replications before drawing firm conclusions. #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky

AI makes you smarter but none the wiser: The disconnect between performance and metacognition

Optimizing human–AI interaction requires users to reflect on their performance critically, yet little is known about generative AI systems’ effect on …

doi.org

Reposted by David G. Rand, Mohsen Mosleh

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 21d

"While high-quality content is posted more and receives more total engagement across platforms...a given author attracts higher levels of engagement when they post lower-quality content"

"pattern we find seems to be driven more by an underperformance of particularly popular high-quality outlets"

Divergent patterns of engagement with partisan and low-quality news across seven social media platforms | PNAS

In recent years, social media has become increasingly fragmented, as platforms evolve and new alternatives emerge. Yet most research studies a sing...

www.pnas.org

David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · Oct 21

For me, the point of Multiverse analysis is when there are multiple ways of analyzing the data that all seem reasonable. So it's not that you just throw in any possible model and drown out the reasonable models in the specified ones, but rather that you show robustness among reasonable models

Reposted by David G. Rand

Behavior Change for Good Initiative @bcfginitiative.bsky.social · Oct 21

Directions of Polarization, Social Norms, and Trust in Societies—a workshop organized by Team Scientist @dgrand.bsky.social, BCFG collaborator Eugen Dimant & colleagues—is now open for registration.

Register before October 30th: sites.google.com/view/polariz...

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Joanna Bryson, Jan W. Mueller , and 2 more Anne Applebaum, Joanna Bryson, Jan W. Mueller, David G. Rand, Susan Hyde

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · Oct 9

Regrettably relevant research today

Disguised Repression: Targeting Opponents with Nonpolitical Crimes to Undermine Dissent
www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Kori Schake, Anna O. Law , and 7 more Jonathan Portes, Kori Schake, Anna O. Law, Richard S.J. Tol, David G. Rand, Gordon Pennycook, Nathan Nunn, David L. Ortega, Amy W. Ando, Mark Rice

Justin Wolfers @justinwolfers.bsky.social · Sep 22

Serious scholars have examined what happens when we change the number of H1-B visas issued.

Cities that get more H1-B immigrants subsequently see the wages of natives *rise* substantially.

Skilled immigrants bring new ideas, fill labor shortages and make us all more productive.

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