Cailin O'Connor, UC Irvine, and University of Washington's Joseph Bak-Coleman, Jevin West, and Carl T. Bergstrom
  • January 20, 2026

  • Study - featured in Science and coauthored by Cailin O'Connor, UC Irvine, and University of Washington's Joseph Bak-Coleman, Jevin West, and Carl T. Bergstrom - finds industry-linked studies were also more likely to focus on particular topics, suggesting these ties may be skewing the field

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From Science: "Researchers studying the impact of social media on society—everything from effects on teenagers’ mental health to the spread of misinformation—often work with the companies that run these platforms. But these ties evidently run much deeper than the scientific record acknowledges.

A new preprint reports that in nearly one-third of studies on social media appearing in major interdisciplinary journals, the authors have ties to industry that should be disclosed but aren’t. Some received funding from a social media company, others previously co-authored work with industry employees. These ties may be skewing the research, the authors say. The industry-linked studies appear more likely to focus on topics such as why individuals share misinformation than on the role of the platforms and their algorithms."

Continue reading, courtesy Kai Kupferschmidt in Science: https://www.science.org/content/article/nearly-third-social-media-research-has-undisclosed-ties-industry-preprint-claims

Full study available online: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11507

 

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