Have you ever changed your beliefs because of something you read online?

The online world is filled with information - most true, some not - and our motivations impact whether and how we incorporate that information into our world view. I’m interested in how we can apply models of motivated belief change about other people to information encountered in the online world. In addition, I’m interested in what tools or aspects of the online world can we target to most effectively stop the spread of misinformation.

Across a series of studies, I examined how people perceived artificial intelligence moderators when they moderated misinformation sent in closed group chats. In general, I’m interested in how the nature of online communities - their size, the participant’s relationship to people in it, the engagement features of the platform - as well as the nature of the information - emotionality, the information’s ambiguity - influence belief updating online.

Silver, B.M., Williams-Ceci, S., Naaman, M. (under review). Perceptions of AI as a misinformation moderator: The roles of argument type and group chat size. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/r9aew_v1

Kamdem, A., Bouché, V., Euteneier, J., Freeman, N., Silver, B.M. (in press). Behind the Screen: Online Sex Buyer Networks and the Organized Criminal Promotion of Exploitation. Trends in Organized Crime.

Silver, B.M., Williams-Ceci, S., Naaman, M. Perceptions of AI moderators in private group chats. Flash talk presented at the 6 College Conference. New York, NY.

Silver, B. M., Williams-Ceci, S., & Naaman, M. (2025). AI is Perceived as Less Trustworthy and Less Effective when Using Emotional Arguments to Moderate Misinformation. In CHI EA ‘25: Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Association for Computing Machinery). https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3720008

Silver, B.M., Williams-Ceci, S., Naaman, M. Perceptions of AI moderators and the spread of misinformation in closed group chats. Flash talk presented at the Psychology of Technology conference. Boston, MA. 2024.