Sophia Melanson Ricciardone

I am a researcher and Postdoctoral Fellow with expertise in social psychology and media psychology with a background in communication and media studies. My research focuses on the intersection of social media and children's social and emotional development, employing empirical research methods including quantitative and mixed methods approaches. For my dissertation, I investigated the social psychological influence of Twitter-bots on how people think about important political topics, thus shaping political ideologies and the spread of disinformation. My research found that our social psychological predispositions contribute significantly to the ways we frame political information disseminated by Twitter-bots. My interdisciplinary background in social science and extensive experience with studying social media data has enriched my understanding of the complex interactions between technology and human behaviour.