My research investigates what drives belief in inaccurate information, why certain individuals are predisposed to refrain from belief change even in the face of good corrective evidence, and how corrections can be designed to maximize impact.
Publications
Swire-Thompson, B. DeGutis, J., & Lazer, D. (in press). Searching for the backfire effect: Measurement and design considerations. pdf
Peterson, J.S., Swire-Thompson, B. & Johnson, S.B. (in press). What’s the alternative? Responding strategically to cancer misinformation, Future Oncology.
Swire-Thompson, B. & Lazer, D. (2020). Public health and online misinformation—Challenges and recommendations. Annual Review of Public Health. pdf
Swire-Thompson, B., Ecker, U.K.H., Swire, B., Lewandowsky, S., & Berinsky, A. J. (2020). They might be a liar but they’re my liar: Source evaluation and the prevalence of misinformation. Political Psychology. pdf
Joseph, K., Swire-Thompson, B., Baum, M., & Lazer D. (2019). Polarized, together: Comparing partisan support for Trump’s tweets using survey and platform-based measures. International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media.
Grinberg, N., Joseph, K., Friedland, L., Swire-Thompson, B. , & Lazer, D. (2019). Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 US presidential election. Science, 363(6425), 374-378.
Swire, B. & Ecker, U. K. H. (2018). Misinformation and its correction: Cognitive mechanisms and recommendations for mass communication. In. B. Southwell, E. A. Thorson, & L. Sheble. (Eds), Misinformation and Mass Audiences. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. pdf
Aird, M. J., Ecker, U. K., Swire, B., Berinsky, A. J., & Lewandowsky, S. (2018). Does truth matter to voters? The effects of correcting political misinformation in an Australian sample. Royal Society Open Science, 5(12), 180593. pdf
Swire, B., Ecker, U. K. H. & Lewandowsky, S. (2017). The role of familiarity in correcting inaccurate information, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. pdf
Swire, B., Berinsky, A., J., Lewandowsky, S., & Ecker, U. K. H. (2017). Processing political misinformation—Comprehending the Trump phenomenon, Royal Society Open Science. pdf
Ecker, U. K. H., Swire, B., & Lewandowsky, S. (2014). Correcting misinformation—A challenge for education and cognitive science. In D. N. Rapp & J. Braasch. (Eds.), Processing Inaccurate Information: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives from Cognitive Science and the Educational Sciences. (pp. 13-38). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. pdf
Ecker, U. K. H., Lewandowsky, S., Swire, B., & Chang, D. (2011). Correcting false information in memory: Manipulating the strength of misinformation encoding and its retraction. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 18, 570-578. pdf
