DESCRIPTION
How do foreign actors try to influence our society through social media?
Over the last decade, foreign governments and non-state actors have invested substantial resources in online disinformation campaigns designed to shape opinions and behaviours in line with their own strategic goals. Quick and effective action is required to protect our societies from this growing threat, which NATO refers to as Cognitive Warfare.
These efforts often take the form of covert social media campaigns that combine the spread of strategic disinformation and persuasive narratives with novel tools such as social media bots powered by large language models. Yet much remains unknown about how these campaigns influence individual thinking and decision-making, making it crucial to better understand the psychological mechanisms at play in order to safeguard our democracies from foreign influence.
In this thesis project, you will have the opportunity to explore the cognitive factors underlying online disinformation campaigns. In particular, you will focus on the effects of individual social media posts and how they shape people’s immediate decisions, attitudes, and behavioural intentions.
Depending on the study’s design and results, there may also be an opportunity to publish the research in an international peer-reviewed journal, with further support available after completion of the thesis.
Research question
How do individual social media posts as part of Cognitive Warfare Campaigns influence individuals attitudes (e.g., political) or behavioural intentions (e.g., sharing posts or voting)? Does repeated exposure to targeted posts from these campaigns strengthen or weaken these effects?
Research questions may be subject to change or adapted to fit the students interests.
TYPE OF Research
Online Experimental Research
An exemplary design could, for example, display a variety of social media posts, differing on dimensions that are aligned with modalities tactically used in cognitive warfare, and investigate how these are related to immediate attitude or behavioural intention ratings.
DATA-ANALySIS
Data Analysis will most likely involve quantitative data gathered via experiments or questionnaires. The use of qualitative data is also possible if the student suggests a fitting design.
INFORMATION
Please contact Lynn Weiher (l.weiher@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment. The assignment is open to two students.
Literature
- Eady, Gregory, Tom Paskhalis, Jan Zilinsky, Richard Bonneau, Jonathan Nagler, and Joshua A. Tucker. “Exposure to the Russian Internet Research Agency Foreign Influence Campaign on Twitter in the 2016 US Election and Its Relationship to Attitudes and Voting Behavior.” Nature Communications 14, no. 1 (2023): 62. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-35576-9.
- Hoyle, Aiden, Charlotte Wagnsson, Helma van den Berg, Bertjan Doosje, and Martijn Kitzen. “Cognitive and Emotional Responses to Russian State-Sponsored Media Narratives in International Audiences.” Journal of Media Psychology, Hogrefe Publishing, January 19, 2023. world. https://econtent.hogrefe.com/doi/10.1027/1864-1105/a000371.
- Hung, Tzu-Chieh, and Tzu-Wei Hung. “How China’s Cognitive Warfare Works: A Frontline Perspective of Taiwan’s Anti-Disinformation Wars.” Journal of Global Security Studies 7, no. 4 (2022): ogac016. https://doi.org/10.1093/jogss/ogac016.
- Sun, Yanqing, and Juan Xie. “Do Heuristic Cues Affect Misinformation Sharing? Evidence From a Meta-Analysis.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, SAGE Publications Inc, October 21, 2024, 10776990241284597. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776990241284597.