Alberto Acerbi

Recent Posts

Can’t you just stop annoying them? They have good intentions!

How we can be cultural animals beside copying others?

Some content spreads better in social media, but how can we know if it is because of social media?

Cultural traditions can be supported in many ways.

Focusing on making reliable information more trusted and engaging could be better.

Recent Publications

In this paper, we perform a text analysis of Adam Smith’s two books, the Theory of Moral Sentiments and the Wealth of Nations, to …

The role of nature documentaries in shaping public attitudes and behaviour towards conservation and wildlife issues is unclear. We …

The diffusion of digital technologies triggered a radical departure from previous modalities of cultural transmission but, at the same …

Alarmist narratives about the flow of misinformation and its negative consequences have gained traction in recent years. If these fears …

Alarmist narratives about online misinformation continue to gain traction despite evidence that its prevalence and impact are …

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Una narrativa molto diffusa sostiene che la disinformazione sia abbondante nei social media, sia avvantaggiata nella circolazione …

A current widespread narrative states that misinformation is abundant on social media, it has a relative advantage with respect to true …

A current widespread narrative states that misinformation is abundant on social media, it has a relative advantage with respect to true …

In my talk, I will explore how cultural evolution can provide a useful framework to understand the production, transmission, and …

Selected media

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What the misinformation scare reveals about faith in democracy

The Washington Post covers our research on third-person effect and perceived danger of misinformation.

New research highlights the misinformation about misinformation research

A paper published in the journal Social Media + Society identifies six misconceptions about misinformation.

Se battre contre la désinformation ou pour l’information?

An article on Futura Science (in French) on our model showing that focusing on engagment with true news is more productive than …

Should we spend less time fighting misinformation and more time fighting for information?

Nieman Lab reports on our model on fighting misinformation VS fighting for information.

Populisme, vaccination. Pourquoi surestime-t-on le phenomene des Fake News

An article from Les Echos on online misinformation and its overestimation.

The Dissenter - Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age

I have been interviewed in the podcast ‘The Dissenter’ on my research.

Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age interview

An interview for Cultured Scene, the magazie of the Early Career Social Learning Researcher’s Society.

Heaven knows pop’s miserable now

The Times covers our research on cultural evolution of emotions in song lyrics.

Tout ce que vous pensiez savoir d’Internet est (sans doute) faux

An excellent review (in french) of Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age.

Why are pop songs getting sadder than they used to be?

A piece for Aeon on our research on the cultural evolution of emotion in pop song lyrics.

How digital’s defining culture

Press release of Brunel University for the publication of Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age.

Les vraies raisons du succès des infox

An article on my research on cognitive attraction and misinformation (in french).

Perché le fake news ci attraggono? Un contributo dall’antropologia cognitiva ed evoluzionistica

A summary of my research on cognitive attraction and misinformation (in italian).

Dedicated Followers (After a Fashion)

I have been interviewed by a marketing magazine about fake followers and similar. I am sceptical about their effects.

The Trouble with Cultural Evolution

Philosopher Massmio Pigliucci discusses our If we are all cultural darwinians, what is the fuss about? on Plato’s Footnotes.

How much is that doggie from the movie?

The New York Times reports on our research on the effect of movies on dog breeds popularity.

The Lassie effect. Movies drive our preference for certain dog breeds

Our paper on how movies impact on dog breeds popularity is featured in Science.

Why hard times make for miserable books

CNN on our Books average previous decade of economic misery.

Information is power

An interview (in italian) with Radio3 Scienza (I start around min. 18). Click to download the podcast.

Literature gloom mirrors economic misery, study finds

The Guardian reports on our research on economy and emotions in books.

The History of Our Emotions in Millions of Books

I wrote a piece for the Huffington Post on our paper on emotions in 20th century books.

Text mining uncovers British reserve and US emotion

Nature features our paper The expression of emotions in 20th century books.

Aiuto, i nostri romanzi hanno perso le emozioni

Our research on emotions in 20th century books featured by la Repubblica (in italian).

Planck, Elusive Giant Squid, Emotive words

I have been interviewed by Adam Rutherford for BBC4 Material world on our research on emotions in 20th century books.

Teaching

I am currently (2022/2023 - term 2) involved in the following modules (material at the links available only to University of Trento staff/students!):

  • Cultural analytics - module leader (Corso di Laurea Magistrale in Sociology and Social research)

CV

Here is my CV.

Contact