Social Media

1. How does social media influence political beliefs, polarization, and participation?
Social media is a powerful political force. It affects what people believe, how they vote, and how they engage with democracy. Our research uses field experiments and natural experiments to quantify its effects on polarization, civic engagement, misinformation, and the dynamics of political discourse.

2. How does social media affect mental health, subjective well-being, and welfare?
Constant exposure to curated lives, polarizing content, and endless scrolling can take a toll on users. Our research shows that social media use can reduce mental health and life satisfaction, and that even brief deactivation improves well-being and offline activity.

3. Can toxic content online spill over into real-world harm—and can we prevent it?
Hateful and inflammatory content online can trigger real-world violence. We document how exposure to toxic rhetoric—especially from political elites—drives hate crimes. We also evaluate the effectiveness of content moderation policies and platform interventions in reducing both online toxicity and offline harm.

4. What design choices can make social media better—for individuals and society?
Social media platforms are not neutral—they're designed environments. We study how behavioral nudges, choice architecture, and content algorithms shape what users see and how they act. Our goal is to design scalable interventions that promote healthier media diets and reduce exposure to toxic or misleading content.

Team (work in progress):
• Luca Braghieri (Department of Decision Sciences)
• Sarah Eichermeier (Department of Economics)
• Germain Gauthier (Department of Social and Political Sciences)
• Rafael Jimenez (Department of Economics)
• Carlo Schwartz (Department of Economics)
• Francesco Decarolis (Department of Economics)