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Matthew Facciani

@matthewfacciani.bsky.social

24K followers 1.4K following 1.6K posts

Social Scientist @NotreDame. Studies misinformation, media literacy, & AI. Author of Misguided: https://mybook.to/MisguidedBook https://matthewfacciani.substack.com www.matthewfacciani.com

mybook.to

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · Jun 16

After five years of work, I finally held a copy of my book Misguided—a surreal moment and long-time dream come true. The book explores the psychology of misinformation and is now available for preorder; I’m also booking podcast interviews and talks to support the launch. #BookSky #Misguided

The First Copy of Misguided Arrived—Here’s What Comes Next

Preorders for my new book are live, events are coming, and I’m booking interviews.

matthewfacciani.substack.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 4h

“And that’s what makes this movement so smart. Grandparents have the lived experience. Grandchildren still have the capacity to listen. Together, they cut through the noise.”
open.substack.com/pub/theunbia...

Grandma Knows Best: The Generation That Survived Polio Has Something to Say About Vaccines

67 million grandparents remember what we’ve been lucky enough to forget

open.substack.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 4h

“the Trump administration will launch a program next year to find out how much money an artificial intelligence algorithm could save the federal government by denying care to Medicare patients”
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

AI Will Soon Have a Say in Approving or Denying Medicare Treatments - KFF Health News

A pilot program testing the use of artificial intelligence to expand prior authorization decisions in Medicare has providers, politicians, and researchers questioning Trump administration promises to ...

kffhealthnews.org

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 5h

Excited to speak at the RISE AI conference at The University of Notre Dame! Here is Sriram Raghavan, Vice President of IBM Research for Al speaking about GenAI apps. Later I’ll be talking about how AI impacts our information ecosystem.

Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 5d

Thank you so much! I hope you enjoy it :)

Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 5d

“Millions of children are unable to access COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program because federal health officials have not finalized recommendations on who should get vaccinated.”
publications.aap.org/aapnews/news...

Pediatricians express frustrations over delay in COVID vaccines for children in federal program

Millions of children are unable to access COVID-19 vaccines through the Vaccines for Children program because federal health officials have not finalized recommendations on who should get vaccinated.

publications.aap.org

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 5d

“Through a critical review of the current literature, we demonstrate that (a) the prevalence of misinformation is nonnegligible if reasonably inclusive definitions are applied and that (b) misinformation has causal impacts on important beliefs and behaviors”
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

APA PsycNet

psycnet.apa.org

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 5d

Here is a cool paper that dives into the complexity of measuring the spread of misinformation
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

The complexity of misinformation extends beyond virus and warfare analogies - npj Complexity

npj Complexity - The complexity of misinformation extends beyond virus and warfare analogies

www.nature.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 6d

This was exactly what I was worried that could happen, and this new study (although not peer-reviewed yet) confirms what I would have predicted.

Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 6d

New study finds that overly agreeable & validating AI chatbots make people more extreme in their beliefs. They essentially function as your own personalized echo chamber.
osf.io/preprints/ps...

OSF

osf.io

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 8d

“research suggests that this approach to vaccines is entirely logical in a culture that insists that health is the result of hard work and informed consumer decisions and too often sees illness as a personal failure.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/o...

Opinion | What 20 Years of Listening to Vaccine-Hesitant Parents Has Taught Me

www.nytimes.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 9d

A review of 58 college syllabi that focus on critical thinking showed that these courses often focus on pseudoscience, paranormal claims, and conspiracy theories, relying heavily on active learning methods to help students learn how to separate science from pseudoscience and make better decisions.

Weird, Fantastic, and Fringe: Undergraduate Courses Designed to Teach Critical Thinking Through Refutation

Critical thinking is widely accepted as a goal of higher education. However, students are graduating from college with a multitude of false beliefs indicating current strategies are inadequate. We ...

www.tandfonline.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 10d

I’m excited to be speaking with the Group of Informed Voices in NYC this November! They host free public lectures (with meals!) to make education accessible, foster community, and bring people together across differences.

If you’d like to support their mission, consider donating here:

Group of Informed Voices Inc.

www.groupofinformedvoicesinc.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 11d

This paper describes a fun media literacy classroom activity where students form groups to create and present media literacy solutions, each secretly weaving in either facts, emotional appeals, or misinformation, while a panel of peers judges their work.
www.proquest.com/docview/3251...

www.proquest.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 11d

Thank you so much Laura! Great to connect on here and I'm looking forward to speaking with your group! :)

Reposted by Matthew Facciani

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 13d

NEW: Share of *all* US adults who regularly get news on each site
2% Bluesky
2% Truth Social
3% Threads

6% Nextdoor
9% Reddit
12% X

20% TikTok
35% YouTube
38% Facebook

TikTok supplies news to about 10x more American adults than Bluesky does!

Chart shows share of all US adults who say they regularly get news on each social media site.

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 13d

“allowing ourselves to traverse a range of ideas and to learn from other people’s experiences, may be both more enjoyable and productive.”
www.scientificamerican.com/article/good...

Good Conversations Don’t Require Everybody to Agree, Neuroscience Shows

Brain imaging is illuminating the patterns linked to productive, positive dialogue, and those insights could help people connect with others

www.scientificamerican.com

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Reposted by Matthew Facciani

Renee DiResta @noupside.bsky.social · 13d

When I say that being anti-vaccine is a political identity now I mean literally. Look at the divide between MAGA and non-MAGA Republicans.

During COVID the Virality Project documented the extent to which political influencers who’d never commented on 💉 before got deep into the topic on all shots.

Many Parents Express Doubt Over Childhood Vaccine Recommendations and Safety, Including Larger Shares of Younger Parents and Republican Parents

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 14d

New study finds that "employees are using AI tools to create low-effort, passable looking work that ends up creating more work for their coworkers."
hbr.org/2025/09/ai-g...

AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity

Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI. One possible reason is because AI tools are being used to produce “workslop”—content that appea...

hbr.org

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 14d

I lost my research funding this summer, and since then I’ve been figuring out what a career in science communication looks like outside academia.

In my latest Substack post, I share how a year of writing, teaching, and consulting has shaped that path, and where I hope to go next.

Life After Academia: Building a Career in Science Communication

The future of Misguided, and how I’m turning research, courses, and consulting into a new path forward

matthewfacciani.substack.com

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 14d

After the wild press conference, Dr. Oz says Tylenol is still “probably your best option” for fighting fevers during pregnancy. What a world we live in, where Dr. Oz is the most reasonable health official in the Trump administration.
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...

Dr. Oz publicly breaks from Trump on Tylenol

‘Tylenol ... probably your best option’, declares Oz after Trump’s wild press conference

www.independent.co.uk

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 14d

New poll finds that most American parents have kept up to date with their children's vaccines. However, 25% of MAGA Republican parents report delaying or skipping some vaccines.
www.kff.org/public-opini...

KFF/The Washington Post Survey of Parents | KFF

The KFF-Washington Post partnership Survey of Parents explores experiences and views pertaining to childhood vaccines. The Survey of Parents also sheds light on school vaccination requirements, views ...

www.kff.org

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 15d

It’s important to understand statistical concepts like ‘correlation does not equal causation,’ but it’s just as important to have an awareness of our own biases, so we don’t apply it selectively only to information that challenges our prior beliefs.

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 15d

Beyond the false claims linking Tylenol to autism, it is especially gross to see extremely wealthy men shaming women for not ‘toughing it out’ during pregnancy.

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 15d

New study finds that AI chatbot "DeepSeek favors Western leaders but rates Xi Jinping of China higher relative to other models, especially in simplified Chinese."
misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/do-l...

Do language models favor their home countries? Asymmetric propagation of positive misinformation and foreign influence audits | HKS Misinformation Review

As language models (LMs) continue to develop, concerns over foreign misinformation through models developed in authoritarian countries have emerged. Do LMs favor their home countries? This study audit...

misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu

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Matthew Facciani @matthewfacciani.bsky.social · 15d

A massive 2024 study analyzing the outcomes of 2.5 million children found no evidence that acetaminophen use during pregnancy increases the risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability once sibling comparisons are taken into account.
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children’s Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability

This nationwide cohort study with sibling control analysis examines the association of acetaminophen use during pregnancy with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability.

jamanetwork.com

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