The Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab has received the prestigious WhatsApp Research Award for Social Science and Misinformation from WhatsApp (Facebook).We are honoured to receive this award and look forward to partnering with the WhatsApp Research Team to tackle the spread of misinformation in society.
Official Announcement
https://www.whatsapp.com/research/awards/announcement/
"We understand misinformation to be a complex problem that lies at the intersection of human psychology, civil society, and technology. Awardees represent the highest quality projects across several relevant research areas. The goal of these research awards is to facilitate high quality, external research on these topics by academics and experts." - WhatsApp
Investigators
The Principal Investigator on the award is Lab Director Dr. Sander van der Linden with co-investigator Jon Roozenbeek and PhD Gates student Melisa Basol. Jon Roozenbeek is currently @ Facebook in Palo Alto, receiving the award on behalf of our team.
"There is a clear link between the (mis)information that people receive from trusted sources in their WhatsApp groups and their inclination to act on that information" - Dr. Sander van der Linden, Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab
“WhatsApp is looking forward to working with the research team from the University of Cambridge. The consequences of misinformation are real and we know this is a long term challenge that requires action from civil society, government, and technology companies. The independent research conducted by the Cambridge Social DecisionMaking Lab will make a meaningful contribution to how we build WhatsApp for the years to come.” - Mrinalini Rao, WhatsApp Research Team