Description of impact
Vian Bakir is contributing to 2 international, cross-disciplinary, comparative workshop for both academic and public policy experts to explore questions around the broad area of trust and how research in this area can better inform policy, improve public trust, and have positive societal impact. This is for the US-based Social Science Research Council and the UK's Economic and Social Research Council, who have recognised the need to further explore theoretical, analytical, methodological, and empirical challenges surrounding trust in democratic institutions.Description of the underpinning research
Bakir's written workshop 'reflections' piece draws wholly from her co-authored book (with Andrew McStay) on Optimising Emotions, Incubating Falsehoods (Springer 2022 in preparation). This book takes a global view to understand how the process of optimising emotions on social media and in more emergent forms of emotional AI encourages the spread of disinformation and misinformation worldwide. It then assesses multi-stakeholder solutions to this problem, and looks to near horizon futures, distilling a core principle to inform all future regulation, legislation, and industry innovation in this area.Beneficiaries and reach of impact
Workshop participants include the ESRC, SSRC, US State Department, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Foundation, and esteemed professors from UK and US universities.| Impact status | Ongoing |
|---|---|
| Impact date | 5 Feb 2022 → 22 Mar 2022 |
| Impact level | Engagement |