Elena Gadjanova
@elliegadjanova.bsky.social
Political scientist at Exeter. Ethnic politics, political communication, and social media in Africa. Writing a book on cross-ethnic outreach in highly diverse states. British Academy Innovation fellow 2025-2026.
Pinned
New research will analyse the spread of misinformation in Africa and the continent’s growing digital divides
Major new research will help experts to counter the spread of misinformation in Africa and understand the causes and consequences of the continent’s growing digital divides. The project, by researcher...
news.exeter.ac.uk
So this is what I'm up to this year - news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-h...
Hugely grateful to @britishacademy.bsky.social for making this possible through an Innovation Fellowship award.
@uniofexeternews.bsky.social @cais-exeter.bsky.social
Hugely grateful to @britishacademy.bsky.social for making this possible through an Innovation Fellowship award.
@uniofexeternews.bsky.social @cais-exeter.bsky.social
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
Far too much credibility is being given to the new ‘Trump peace plan’ that would be tantamount to Ukraine’s capitulation. Here I explain why this new plan is far less than it seems and is unlikely to lead to anything. (£/free trial), open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/y...?
Yet another peace plan?
What's going on with leaked proposals for a new US/Russia deal
open.substack.com
November 20, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Far too much credibility is being given to the new ‘Trump peace plan’ that would be tantamount to Ukraine’s capitulation. Here I explain why this new plan is far less than it seems and is unlikely to lead to anything. (£/free trial), open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/y...?
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
spread Samir Zitouni’s name far and wide
November 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
spread Samir Zitouni’s name far and wide
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
Notable in today's YouGov that the centre/left bloc - Lab/Green/LD/SNP are on 54%. With Reform/Tories on 43%. That's the biggest differential in a long time.
I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.
I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.
November 4, 2025 at 10:23 AM
Notable in today's YouGov that the centre/left bloc - Lab/Green/LD/SNP are on 54%. With Reform/Tories on 43%. That's the biggest differential in a long time.
I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.
I think useful to track blocs given instability between parties at the moment.
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
The sheer greasy desperation from these bastards that any violent crime is committed by an immigrant so they can continue their grift. Even when they know it isn't true. Foul.
Matt Goodwin attributes a crime that he now knows appears to have been committed by people born in Britain in the early 1990s to "mass uncontrolled immigration"
November 2, 2025 at 12:06 PM
The sheer greasy desperation from these bastards that any violent crime is committed by an immigrant so they can continue their grift. Even when they know it isn't true. Foul.
Well this bodes well for all the tech bros who never read sci-fi novels till the end 🙄
“‘When it comes to AI, the [Dunning-Kruger effect] vanishes,’ study senior author Robin Welsch, a professor at Aalto University, said in a statement about the work. ‘In fact, what’s really surprising is that higher AI literacy brings more overconfidence.’”
AI Is Causing a Grim New Twist on the Dunning-Kruger Effect, New Research Finds
New research shows how AI tools is making a Dunning-Kruger specimen out of everyone that uses them, no matter how smart.
futurism.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Well this bodes well for all the tech bros who never read sci-fi novels till the end 🙄
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
That's literally one of the main components of the social distance scale - a key measure of racism.
He's basically saying it's totally reasonable and acceptable for people to be racist.
He's basically saying it's totally reasonable and acceptable for people to be racist.
Vance says it is "totally reasonable and acceptable" for people to not want to live next door to people who speak a different language than they do
October 29, 2025 at 4:17 PM
That's literally one of the main components of the social distance scale - a key measure of racism.
He's basically saying it's totally reasonable and acceptable for people to be racist.
He's basically saying it's totally reasonable and acceptable for people to be racist.
People who stand by the door on a packed rush hour train: I’m judging you. I’m judging you hard. I don’t care that you need to get out at the next stop 🤬
October 28, 2025 at 6:55 PM
People who stand by the door on a packed rush hour train: I’m judging you. I’m judging you hard. I don’t care that you need to get out at the next stop 🤬
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
Public health is under attack by a deluge of misinformation. We offer a consensus report from the American Psychological Association summarizing what we know & what interventions are effective in countering it. We provide 8 concrete recommendations. Open-access - awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/202...
October 23, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Public health is under attack by a deluge of misinformation. We offer a consensus report from the American Psychological Association summarizing what we know & what interventions are effective in countering it. We provide 8 concrete recommendations. Open-access - awspntest.apa.org/fulltext/202...
We see this with the Gen Z protests too: politicisation lowers participation
🔔 New paper with @susanszky.bsky.social in Social Science Quarterly: The Effect of Politicization on Protest Participation in Non-Democracies: The Case of Hungary 🔔
We test whether politicization mobilizes or demobilizes partization in an autocratizing context
Paper: doi.org/10.1111/ssqu...
We test whether politicization mobilizes or demobilizes partization in an autocratizing context
Paper: doi.org/10.1111/ssqu...
The Effect of Politicization on Protest Participation in Non‐Democracies: The Case of Hungary
Politicization—the expansion of conflict in the political system—is often assumed to be associated with high levels of participation. Yet, this is not necessarily the case, especially in contexts of.....
doi.org
October 23, 2025 at 1:21 PM
We see this with the Gen Z protests too: politicisation lowers participation
Yes, and it won’t get better
October 23, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Yes, and it won’t get better
From @ldfreedman.bsky.social’s analysis this morning on why a summit might not happen.
I aspire to this level of foresight.
I aspire to this level of foresight.
October 21, 2025 at 5:34 PM
From @ldfreedman.bsky.social’s analysis this morning on why a summit might not happen.
I aspire to this level of foresight.
I aspire to this level of foresight.
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
🚨 out at @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🚨
➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms
hopeful findings👇🏽
➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms
hopeful findings👇🏽
October 15, 2025 at 3:33 PM
🚨 out at @apsrjournal.bsky.social 🚨
➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms
hopeful findings👇🏽
➡️ We ran a large media literacy experiment to fight misinformation
➡️ 13,500 students, 583 villages in Bihar, India
➡️Created custom misinfo curriculum of 4 months
➡️Partnered w the government to roll it out as an official course in classrooms
hopeful findings👇🏽
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
The increasing use of AI to surveil people’s emotions endangers not only privacy but also personal autonomy—the bedrock of democracy, writes Oznur Uguz. Newly emerging AI laws fail to provide adequate safeguards, she says.
How AI-Powered Emotional Surveillance Can Threaten Personal Autonomy and Democracy | TechPolicy.Press
If we do not regulate emotional AI surveillance now, we might soon have to fake how we feel to protect our privacy, writes Oznur Uguz.
buff.ly
October 11, 2025 at 5:01 PM
The increasing use of AI to surveil people’s emotions endangers not only privacy but also personal autonomy—the bedrock of democracy, writes Oznur Uguz. Newly emerging AI laws fail to provide adequate safeguards, she says.
Yeah, that's not how autocracy works.
Mary mother of Christ, these people are overpaid fools.
October 10, 2025 at 10:54 AM
Yeah, that's not how autocracy works.
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
"We document the participation of women in European academia [from the year 1000 to 1800]. A total of 108 women taught at universities or were members of academies of arts and sciences. Comparing them with 58,995 male scholars, we find that they were on average better."
doi.org/10.1093/ereh...
doi.org/10.1093/ereh...
October 10, 2025 at 9:58 AM
"We document the participation of women in European academia [from the year 1000 to 1800]. A total of 108 women taught at universities or were members of academies of arts and sciences. Comparing them with 58,995 male scholars, we find that they were on average better."
doi.org/10.1093/ereh...
doi.org/10.1093/ereh...
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
🚨🚨 Some hope: media and information literacy trainings - modules providing crucial skills to better consume information - in classroom settings appears to move the needle, and to have positive externalities!
Check out the (open-access) results of our large field-experiment in India.
Check out the (open-access) results of our large field-experiment in India.
#OpenAccess from @apsrjournal.bsky.social -
Countering Misinformation Early: Evidence from a Classroom-Based Field Experiment in India - https://cup.org/4mZR3Em
- @priyadarshi-amar.bsky.social, @sumitra.bsky.social, @simonchauchard.bsky.social & FLORIAN SICHART
#FirstView
Countering Misinformation Early: Evidence from a Classroom-Based Field Experiment in India - https://cup.org/4mZR3Em
- @priyadarshi-amar.bsky.social, @sumitra.bsky.social, @simonchauchard.bsky.social & FLORIAN SICHART
#FirstView
October 9, 2025 at 11:39 AM
🚨🚨 Some hope: media and information literacy trainings - modules providing crucial skills to better consume information - in classroom settings appears to move the needle, and to have positive externalities!
Check out the (open-access) results of our large field-experiment in India.
Check out the (open-access) results of our large field-experiment in India.
This is really significant. It shows fundamental and unsurmountable limits to applicability and scalability.
"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits."
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
www.computerworld.com/article/4059...
OpenAI admits AI hallucinations are mathematically inevitable, not just engineering flaws
In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limi...
www.computerworld.com
September 21, 2025 at 12:59 PM
This is really significant. It shows fundamental and unsurmountable limits to applicability and scalability.
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
New school year, new paper! Drawing on research in Ghana @gabriellelynch.bsky.social and I argue that spreading campaign misinformation can backfire and will, under certain conditions, be avoided.
September 2, 2025 at 3:18 PM
New school year, new paper! Drawing on research in Ghana @gabriellelynch.bsky.social and I argue that spreading campaign misinformation can backfire and will, under certain conditions, be avoided.
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.
September 15, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Written by a doctor at St Thomas' Hospital, London after the Tommy Robinson march on 13/9.
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
“Rightwing populists all over Europe want to destroy the ability of the UK and the EU to regulate large tech platforms — a move that might threaten their disinformation campaigns with genuine political debate.”
www.ft.com/content/62b1...
www.ft.com/content/62b1...
Protecting Big Tech, not free speech
Trump and Farage are using censorship as a cloak for disinformation
www.ft.com
September 8, 2025 at 9:03 AM
“Rightwing populists all over Europe want to destroy the ability of the UK and the EU to regulate large tech platforms — a move that might threaten their disinformation campaigns with genuine political debate.”
www.ft.com/content/62b1...
www.ft.com/content/62b1...
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
The takeaway:
👉 Accommodating the radical right on immigration doesn’t win back voters.
👉 It alienates the progressive base.
👉 And it raises the salience of the very issue the radical right owns.
In short: it’s electoral self-harm.
👉 Accommodating the radical right on immigration doesn’t win back voters.
👉 It alienates the progressive base.
👉 And it raises the salience of the very issue the radical right owns.
In short: it’s electoral self-harm.
September 5, 2025 at 6:50 AM
The takeaway:
👉 Accommodating the radical right on immigration doesn’t win back voters.
👉 It alienates the progressive base.
👉 And it raises the salience of the very issue the radical right owns.
In short: it’s electoral self-harm.
👉 Accommodating the radical right on immigration doesn’t win back voters.
👉 It alienates the progressive base.
👉 And it raises the salience of the very issue the radical right owns.
In short: it’s electoral self-harm.
Reposted by Elena Gadjanova
Just a random work experience: I fed it several PDF reports that we publish to extract statistics. No matter what I told it to do, it repeatedly hallucinated data points that were not in those reports. It also attributed stats to resources that were not cited. Completely untrustworthy.
September 3, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Just a random work experience: I fed it several PDF reports that we publish to extract statistics. No matter what I told it to do, it repeatedly hallucinated data points that were not in those reports. It also attributed stats to resources that were not cited. Completely untrustworthy.
New school year, new paper! Drawing on research in Ghana @gabriellelynch.bsky.social and I argue that spreading campaign misinformation can backfire and will, under certain conditions, be avoided.
September 2, 2025 at 3:18 PM
New school year, new paper! Drawing on research in Ghana @gabriellelynch.bsky.social and I argue that spreading campaign misinformation can backfire and will, under certain conditions, be avoided.