How misinformation spreads, and how design can push back.
Ongoing research
Ongoing research
Research on
misinformation and how people encounter it online.
Misinformation Research
Since joining the Institute for Human-Centered Interactive Systems at the University of Lübeck, my work has centered on one question: how do people encounter, judge, and get misled by information online — and what can interface design do about it? My bachelor thesis is the largest piece of that work so far. Alongside it sit smaller explorations, prototypes and studies that don't need a page of their own, but still carry real depth. This page is where they live.
Grounded in the literature
The virality benchmark
Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018). The spread of true and false news online. Science, 359(6380), 1146–1151.
Demonstrated that false political news reaches deeper and faster than any other category online, driven by human novelty-seeking and emotional triggers such as fear and disgust.
Psychological inoculation
Lewandowsky, S., & van der Linden, S. (2021). Countering misinformation and fake news through inoculation and prebunking. European Review of Social Psychology, 32(2), 348–384.
Building on van der Linden and Roozenbeek's earlier "prebunking" work, shows that exposing people to a weakened dose of manipulation techniques builds cognitive resistance to fake news.
The echo-chamber debate
Flaxman, S., Goel, S., & Rao, J. M. (2016). Filter bubbles, echo chambers, and online news consumption. Public Opinion Quarterly, 80(S1), 298–320.
Together with Quattrociocchi and colleagues' work on Facebook echo chambers, explored how algorithmic sorting and confirmation bias isolate online groups — though later consensus finds that misinformation consumers often seek out cross-cutting content too.
Deficit vs. bullshit theory
Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2019). Lazy, not biased. Susceptibility to partisan fake news is better explained by lack of reasoning than by motivated reasoning. Cognition, 188, 39–50.
Established that people often share misinformation not because they lack reasoning skills, but from inattentiveness — a failure to stop and think about accuracy in the moment.
Smaller explorations
2026 · Prototype
Placeholder project one.
Working title, one line.
Working title. Short caption describing this slide's finding or screen.
Second angle. Another short caption — swap for the real slides.
2026 · Study
Placeholder project two.
Working title, one line.
Working title. Short caption describing this slide's finding or screen.
Second angle. Another short caption — swap for the real slides.