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CDC disinformation about the link between autism and vaccines

The CDC updated its vaccine page to claim "vaccines do not cause autism" is "not evidence-based" and studies were "ignored." This is an outrage. Decades of research have found no link. This isn't science, it's RFK Jr. using the CDC as propaganda. Children will die because of this.

Submission link for the Italian Conference on Computational Social Science is LIVE!

We welcome abstract submissions on #computerscience #netsci #complexsystems #sociology #economics #politics #cognitivesci #psychology and more

Deadline: Jan 15
cs2italy.org

Alt-text: The cover of The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology, & Women’s Health which features artwork of a woman curled around, holding her abdomen due to pain from endometriosis. The world map is visible in the background. Copyright: Cover image by Elizabeth Sanduvete Chaves.

Endometriosis affects around 190 million women and girls globally. Despite progress, the exact causes remain unknown.

The latest issue of @lancetobgyn-wh.bsky.social features articles on advancements & the research still needed.

🔗 : tinyurl.com/4by2evfs

This research is part of the UnMiSSeD project supported by the European Media & Information Fund (EMIF), and examined how science and misinformation interact in online debates.

What a 400-Million-Tweet study revealed about the “War on Science” The European project “Understanding Misinformation and Science in Societal Debates” (UnMiSSeD) aims at understanding the overlap between science and misinformation with a particular focus on the COVID...

Our study of 400 million tweets shows that the “war on science” is far more complex than a simple clash between truth and falsehood.

🔍 read more in our latest article

magazine.fbk.eu/en/news/what...

@ricgallotti.bsky.social
@chub-fbk.bsky.social
@vtraag.bsky.social

Our work on the dynamics of urban expansion just got published in the Physical Review Letters ! journals.aps.org/prl/abstract...

Mapping the interaction between science and misinformation in COVID-19 tweets During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific knowledge evolved rapidly, accompanied by a surge of misinformation, labelled an infodemic by the WHO. In this context, we study the interaction between scienc...

Mapping the interaction between science and misinformation in COVID-19 tweets arxiv.org/abs/2507.01481

Illustration of the Matthew effect and the early-career setback effect. An academic, say Alice, first applies for early-career funding in 2015. She received early-career funding, and goes on to reapply for later-career funding in 2020. According to the Matthew effect, the chances of Alice receiving later-career funding is higher when she received early-career funding. Alice showed a high Mean Field Citation Rate (MFCR) before receiving her early-career funding, and similarly a high MFCR in between the early-career and later-career applications. According to the early-career setback effect, had she instead not received funding, her "Between" MFCR would have been higher. We not only study the "Between" MFCR, we also study the MFCR after the early-career application ("Post (early)") and after the later-career application ("Post (later)").

📢 New reviewed preprint, published by @elife.bsky.social at doi.org/10.7554/eLif.... We study two effects in science funding across 14 different funding programmes from 6 research funders across Europe and North America: (1) The Matthew effect; and (2) and the early-career setback effect.

🧵1/8

These results show that cooperation depends strongly on context, incentives, and social dynamics. The model captures these nuances and offers a framework to explore how policies—or even AI-driven systems—might promote collective welfare in society 🤖

3️⃣ Finally, when decisions are made under time pressure, both people and our model respond less cautiously. This leads to a short-term increase in cooperation—suggesting that intuitive, fast decisions may favor collective over self-interested behavior.

2️⃣ We also find that modifying the payoff structure strongly affects outcomes. Rewarding cooperation or punishing defection both increase cooperative behavior, but punishment proves particularly effective at sustaining it over repeated interactions.

The results:

1️⃣ Our model replicates key patterns of human cooperation in multiplayer social dilemmas. Cooperation typically declines over time, as individuals learn that defection can be more rewarding. Yet, when groups are reshuffled, cooperation rises again—reflecting a temporary reset of trust.

We applied it to a multiplayer Prisoner’s Dilemma, where players repeatedly choose whether to cooperate or defect. Linking model parameters to social factors like rewards, group composition, and time pressure revealed how cooperation evolves over time.

🎯 To study how people make these choices, we used the Drift Diffusion Model—a neurocognitive framework describing how the brain gradually accumulates evidence before deciding.

💭Human decision-making is shaped by emotions, biases, and social pressures. When choices involve others, they become social decisions—whether to cooperate, compete, or conform. Cooperation is vital for trust and progress, yet fragile when personal incentives favor defection.

Predicting human cooperation: sensitizing drift-diffusion model to interaction and external stimuli | Journal of The Royal Society Interface Human cooperation arises naturally and is essential for the development of successful societies. This study aims to identify which aspects of the interaction influence societal cooperation and defection. Specifically, we investigate human cooperation ...

🚨 Finally our paper

"Predicting human cooperation: sensitizing drift-diffusion model to interaction and external stimuli"

is out 🤩 doi.org/10.1098/rsif...

Laura Ferrarotti, Bruno Lepri and @ricgallotti.bsky.social

@mobs-fbk.bsky.social
@chub-fbk.bsky.social

New pre-print out ! Work led by @eleandre.bsky.social, in collaboration with M. Napolitano and @ricgallotti.bsky.social. Using Foursquare data from Bologna, we find that the distribution of POIs follows a clear power-law pattern at the city scale. To explain this, we introduce a framework where ...

Comparing the effectiveness of ring and block-vaccination strategies on networks Author summary Infectious diseases such as measles and Ebola have shown how quickly outbreaks can spread and how essential vaccination is to protect individuals. In our work, we investigate a spectrum...

📣🚨 New work out on @plos.org Computational Biology!

Excited and proud to have provided the world with more maps of Puglia🕷️

Thank you all @luzuzek.bsky.social Oriol Artime @ricgallotti.bsky.social @mtizzoni.bsky.social

journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
💊main results below👇

Our latest work with @martonkarsai.bsky.social, David Sánchez and José Ramasco just got published! (and open access)

Here's a short thread to give you our main results ⏬

🚀Job loss disrupts individuals’ mobility and their exploratory patterns🚀
Thanks to a great collaboration with @marcodena.bsky.social, @marcotonin.bsky.social, Bruno Lepri and @lorenzolucchini.bsky.social our latest study is finally out in iScience!

Mapping the interaction between science and misinformation in COVID-19 tweets During the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding related to the topic evolved rapidly. Along with scientific information being discussed widely, a large circulation of false information, labelle...

Mapping the interaction between science and misinformation in COVID-19 tweets arxiv.org/abs/2507.01481

So excited to see this come together! 🎉

Our latest study explores the interplay between science and misinformation in public debates during COVID-19 🔍 arxiv.org/abs/2507.01481

👇Take a look

Absolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban

Cocktails in Paris 🥂
Thanks @sunbelt2025paris.bsky.social for this amazing view ✨🇫🇷

@ricgallotti.bsky.social
@tlouf.bsky.social @luzuzek.bsky.social @annabertani.bsky.social

🚨If you're around Paris come to see @tlouf.bsky.social talking today about the structure and dynamics of information flow on Telegram at @sunbelt2025paris.bsky.social and @css-fr.bsky.social

🎙️Busy morning today at @sunbelt2025paris.bsky.social for CHuB talking about mis/disinformation on Twitter and Mastodon

@ricgallotti.bsky.social
@kaveh-kadkhoda.bsky.social
@annabertani.bsky.social

Universal roughness and the dynamics of urban expansion We present a new approach to quantify urban sprawl using tools from surface growth physics. Analyzing built-up area expansion in 19 cities (1985-2015), we uncover anisotropic growth with branch-like e...

How do cities expand?
Using surface growth physics, we found a unique exponent governing their local geometry. Instead, their dynamics range from smooth diffusion to abrupt coalescence, with demographic pressure driving where each city lands on that spectrum.

arxiv.org/abs/2506.10656

Summer vibes in Trento ☀️

perfect for a CHuB-day at the Caldonazzo lake ⛰️🏖️

@ricgallotti.bsky.social @luzuzek.bsky.social @tlouf.bsky.social @andreaguizzo.bsky.social @ulyssemarquis.bsky.social