Research

How trust, identity, and networks shape belief.

Research on how people evaluate health information, why misinformation spreads, and what interventions can strengthen public engagement with evidence.

Research Areas

Social networks and belief formation

A central thread of my work examines how social networks shape political and health beliefs. Early research found that network homogeneity predicts political polarization and susceptibility to misinformation. Building on this, my colleagues and I showed that political network composition predicts vaccination attitudes.

Trust in science and health institutions

I study trust in scientists and scientific institutions across social, cultural, and religious contexts. This includes a 68-country study in Nature Human Behaviour and collaborations on healthcare trust and faith and health.

Media literacy and prebunking interventions

I design and evaluate media literacy interventions that build resistance to misinformation before exposure, including Gali Fakta, a prebunking game for Indonesian audiences.

Artificial intelligence and the information ecosystem

My recent work explores the role of AI in information environments, including how citations influence trust in large language model responses and AI-augmented community fact-checking.

Selected academic work.

  • Cologna, V., Mede, N. G., … Facciani, M. (2025). Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries. Nature Human Behaviour, 9(4), 713–730. Link →
  • Facciani, M. (2025). Misguided: Where Misinformation Starts, How It Spreads, and What to Do About It. Columbia University Press. Link →
  • Facciani, M., Huang, Q., & Weninger, T. (2026). Cross-cultural media literacy interventions: comparing Gali Fakta and Harmony Square in Indonesia and the United States. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 13: 288. Link →
  • Facciani, M., Lazić, A., Viggiano, G., & McKay, T. (2023). Political network composition predicts vaccination attitudes. Social Science & Medicine, 328: 116004. Link →
  • Facciani, M. J., Apriliawati, D., & Weninger, T. Playing Gali Fakta inoculates Indonesian participants against false information. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. Link →
  • Ding, Y., Facciani, M., et al. Citations and Trust in LLM Generated Responses. Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 39. Link →
See my full list of publications on Google Scholar →

Teaching

I have held academic positions at the University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt University, and Georgetown University. I've also taught courses at the undergraduate and graduate level on misinformation and polarization (Vanderbilt University, syllabus), the psychology of belief (Antioch University), and psychological statistics (University of South Carolina, five semesters). I completed the Preparing Future Faculty Program and frequently give guest lectures on misinformation, media literacy, and science communication.

I also offer online courses through Substack, making this material accessible to learners outside academia.