Alberto Acerbi
Alberto Acerbi

Associate Professor

I am a researcher in the field of cultural evolution. My work is at the interface of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. I am interested in particular to contemporary cultural phenomena, and I use a naturalistic, quantitative, and evolutionary approach with different methodologies, especially individual-based models and quantitative analysis of large-scale cultural data. I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento, and member of the C2S2 - Centre for Computational Social Science and Human Dynamics.

My last book (published in March 2025) is Tecnopanico (il Mulino, in Italian).

Earlier, I wrote a book for Oxford University Press: Cultural evolution in the digital age, and an open access manual: Individual-based models of cultural evolution. A step-by-step guide using R (a physical version is available with Routeldge). I also curate a free substack newsletter (in Italian), with links to material about cultural evolution and digital technologies: Cinque link a settimana.

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News

15 October 2025: Invited seminar at the University of Padova: Methods and Misconceptions: Refining Methods and Narratives in the Behavioral Sciences.

8 October 2025: Invited seminar (online) at the LMS (Language, Mind, Society Center) of University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic.

2 October 2025: New preprint with William Costello: Why Incels Capture Attention: A Cultural Attraction Theory Perspective.

2 October 2025: The website for the Leverhulme project Weaponised Pasts is live.

1 October 2025: The Associazione Italiana Biblioteche had a reading group about Tecnopanico. Here a video where I answer to their questions.

30 September 2025: New preprint with Eliana Fattorini, Massimiano Bucchi, and Enzo Loner: Weapon and Poison: Framing Disinformation in European Commission Speeches, 2016–2024.

Research
Books
Recent Publications
(2025). Tecnopanico. Il Mulino.
(2025). Weak individual preferences stabilize culture. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 122 (8), e2412380122.
(2025). Positive sentiment and expertise predict the diffusion of archaeological content on social media. In Scientific Reports, 15, 2031.
(2023). Machine Culture. In Nature Human Behaviour, 7 (11).
Teaching

Current issues in digital media and politics: MSc-level (laurea magistrale Data Science) module, first term (co-taught with Prof. Elena Pavan).

Cultural analytics: MSc-level (laurea magistrale Sociology and Social Research) module, second term.

Costruire un disegno di analisi dei fenomeni sociali: BSc-level (laurea triennale Sociologia) module, second term.