Objective
Social media was initially expected to generate widespread improvements in individual well-being and to have positive externalities in the political domain. Such optimistic expectations soon gave way to a host of concerns about possible negative effects of social media. At the societal level, many started worrying that social media might exacerbate political polarization and propagate misinformation. At the level of individual users, many became concerned that social media might have detrimental effects on mental health, especially among the youth.
This research proposal has two major goals: first, to fill critical gaps in our knowledge of the causal effects of social media on users and society; second, to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at mitigating the downsides of social media. On the political front, I will deploy a novel empirical strategy to investigate the impact of social media on political engagement and conduct a large-scale field experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention aimed at increasing the quality and reducing the partisanship of the news consumed on social media. On the users front, I will conduct two large-scale field experiments: one aimed at evaluating the impact of an intervention encouraging parents to delay the acquisition of a smartphone for their children on outcomes related to child development; the other aimed at evaluating whether tweaks to the social media environment can mitigate the negative effects of social media on mental health.
The overarching goal of this research project is to generate new scientific knowledge on the use and impact of social media, to highlight potential areas of policy intervention, and to evaluate ecologically valid and scalable remedies to the downsides of social media. The unique blend of cutting-edge causal inference techniques from observational data and large-scale field experiments will generate insights that can benefit researchers, users, and policymakers alike.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications mobile phones
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
20136 Milano
Italy
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.