Jan. 11, 2022

Parents at Risk: Minerva-funded researchers reveal hidden social media machinery that has allowed misinformation to thrive among mainstream users such as parents

In the recent study, “How Social Media Machinery Pulled Mainstream Parenting Communities Closer to Extremes and their Misinformation during COVID-19”, Minerva-funded researchers show how mainstream parenting communities on Facebook have been subject to a powerful, two-pronged misinformation machinery during the pandemic, that has pulled them closer to extreme communities and their misinformation.

Feb. 3, 2021

The "Pandemic Textbook" Must Include Decision-Making

Minerva-funded researcher, Neil D. Shortland and Laurence Alison recent article discusses why good pandemic management requires goal-directed least-worst decision-making. As scientists who study decision-making early on, they realized that what the COVID-19 pandemic required was rapid "least-worst" goal-directed decision-making.

Nov. 5, 2020

Terrorism in time of the pandemic: exploiting mayhem

Arie Kruglanski, a Minerva-funded researcher and colleagues’ international study was recently published in the peer-reviewed Global Security: Health, Science, and Policy. This article illustrates and discuss terrorism trends that have manifest during the COVID-19 pandemic and consider the threat these trends pose to the world’s security.

Aug. 14, 2020

Coronavirus Misinformation is a Global Issue, But There Are Regional Differences

Minerva-funded researcher, Jacob Shapiro in collaboration with the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project and Microsoft Research began cataloguing COVID-19 misinformation to explore the evolution of specific COVID-19 narratives. Shapiro and colleagues identified a unique feature of COVID-19.

July 6, 2020

Machine Learning Can Help Get COVID-19 Aid to Those Who Need it Most

Joshua Blumenstock, a Minerva-funded researcher had a conversation with government officials from the Togolese Republic in West Africa in regards to how big data machine learning might help them to identify households who have been impacted by COVID-19 in order to provide financial assistance.

May 12, 2020

Minerva-funded Researchers on COVID-19

Several of the Minerva-funded researchers are conducting research and initiatives related to COVID-19. As technical experts in their various fields, each of their research helps bring light to the long term social implications of the impact of the virus.

April 16, 2020

New Owl in the Olive Tree post "National Security Implications of the COVID-19 Crisis:The Urgent Need to Build State Capacity"

Minerva-funded researchers, Cynthia Buckley, Ralph Clem, and Erik Herron's Owl in the Olive Tree post "National Security Implications of the COVID-19 Crisis: The Urgent Need to Build State Capacity". Beyond the devastating and widely discussed humanitarian and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the current global crisis also exposes the dangers inherent in governmental shortcomings to provide for their citizens’ welfare adequately. In other words: the downside is almost universally a failure of state capacity. In its broadest sense, state capacity refers to....

April 15, 2020

Minerva-funded Researchers on COVID-19

Several of the Minerva-funded researchers are conducting research and initiatives related to COVID-19. As technical experts in their various fields, each of their research helps bring light to the long term social implications of the impact of the virus.