Caltech 2024 Election Integrity Project

Information and Misinformation in Elections: 2025 Conference

Baxter Lecture Hall, California Institute of Technology

January 16-17, 2025

Conference organizers: R. Michael Alvarez (Caltech) and Betsy Sinclair (WUSTL)

Join us for thistwo-day research and practitioner conference at the Caltech on January 16-17, 2025, to discuss research regarding information and misinformation in the 2024 U.S. elections and other elections.   Research topics include how campaigns used innovative new approaches to target and persuade voters, how social media influenced voters, what the electorate knew (or did not know) about the candidates and issues, misinformation in the election, election rumors and denialism, rhetoric about election integrity, disinformation dissemination and impact on the election, and conspiracy theories regarding the candidates and the administration of the election.   We will also hear from practitioners during the conferences about their experiences with misinformation in recent elections.

If you have questions about the conference, please email us lcssp@hss.caltech.edu.   

This conference is intended for academic researchers, election practitioners, students, postdocs, and community stakeholders interested and involved in election administration. This event is also open to members from the Caltech community and those from other college and university communities.

This conference is supported by a grant to Caltech from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, as well as support from the Caltech Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy.

The registration deadline is Wednesday, January 8.

Preliminary conference agenda:

January 16

Morning Session: Information and how it mattered in the 2024 election

  • 8:45am - 9:00am. Conference Welcome & Intro: Michael Alvarez (Caltech)

  • 9:00am - 10:00am. How the Economy Shaped the 2024 Election. Lynn Vavreck (University of California, Los Angeles ).

  • 10:00am - 10:15am. Break

  • 10:15am - 11:15am. Election official and stakeholder lightening talks: Information and misinformation problems and solutions from the field. Each panelist will have five minutes to discuss an election information or misinformation problem that they encountered in the 2024 election cycle (and how they mitigated or resolved it.

    • Kim Alexander (President & Founder, California Voter Foundation)

    • Natalie Adona (Clerk-Recorder, Nevada County)

    • Tina Barton (Senior Election Expert, The Elections Group)

    • Tommy Gong (Deputy County Clerk-Recorder at Contra Costa County)

    • Dean Logan (Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, Los Angeles County)

    • Bob Page (Orange County Registrar of Voters)

    • Ed Smith (Vice President, Election Solutions, MTX Group).

  • 11:15am - 12:00pm. Lightning research presentations for poster session participants (3 minutes).

Afternoon Session: Information and voter views of election integrity

  • 1:15pm - 2:15pm. Trust and Integrity in the 2024 Election: The View from the Voters. Charles Stewart III (MIT).

  • 2:15pm - 2:30pm. Break

  • 2:30pm - 3:15pm. Perspectives from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

  • 3:15pm - 3:30pm. Break

  • 3:30pm - 5:00pm. Research presentations

    • 3:30pm - 3:45pm, Talk 1. Emily Beaulieu Bacchus (University of Kentucky), “Institutional Heterogeneity, Information, and Voting Behavior.”

    • 3:45pm - 4:00pm. Talk 2. Christina Farhart (Carleton College), “Partisan Colored Glasses and Tinfoil Hats: Electoral (Il)Legitimacy in the 2020 and 2024 U.S. Presidential Elections.”

    • 4:00pm - 4:15pm. Talk 3. Lisa Bryant (CSU-Fresno), “Election Skepticism and Election Administration: How Misinformation Leads to Administrative Change.”

    • 4:15pm - 4:30pm. Talk 4. Ruth Elisabeth Appel (Stanford University), “How Deceptive Online Networks Reached Millions in the U.S. 2020 Elections.”

    • 4:30pm-4:45pm. Talk 5. Thad Kousser (UCSD), “Field Experimental Evidence of the Impact of a Public Information Campaign on Trut in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.”

    • 4:45pm - 5:15pm. Q&A.

Reception and poster session for conference participants. (5:30pm)

  • Herbert Chang, “Visual Platforms and Generative AI: Effects on Political Discourse and Policy Preference in the 2024 U.S. Elections.”

  • Ross Dahlke, “The Public Sphere in Private Spaces: Exposure to Politics and Misinformation in Personal Messaging Applications During the 2024 Presidential Election.”

  • Jacob Devasier, “Fighting Misinformation in the 2024 Elections: A Case Study on Voting Claims using ClaimsLens.”

  • Connie Emerson, “Bridging the Knowledge Gap: How Effective Communication about Election Audits can Strengthen Voter Confidence.”

  • Aarushi Kalra, “Hate in the Time of Algorithms: Evidence from a Large-Scale Experiment on Online Behavior.”

  • Jennifer Merolla, “Does Information about Post-Election Audits Increase the Public’s Trust in Elections?”

  • Sejin Paik, “How Human? Analyzing the Perceived Humanness of AI_Generated Social Media Content Around the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election.”

  • Melanie L. Phillips, “Tracking the Impact of Misinformation on Public Opinion and Political Polarization During the 2024 Election Cycle.”

  • Joseph Sherlock, “Election Doctors: Who are Effective and Trustworthy Messengers for Election-Related Communications?”

  • Stuart Soroka, “It’s the Mediated Economy (?), Stupid.”

  • Yuehong Cassandra Tai, “Elected Officials' Online Sharing of Misinformation: Institutional and Ideological Checks.”

  • Danielle Lee Tomson, “Evidence Generation Infrastructure for Election Rumors, Left and Right.”

  • Dario Trujano-Ochoa, “The Effect of Feedback on News-Verification Demand: Experimental Evidence.”

  • Zeyu Zhang, “Toward Automated Fact-Checking: Detecting Check-Worthy Factual Claims.”

  • Zhengyuan Zhu, “A Truthfulness Stance Map for 2024 Election-Related Factual Claims.”

January 17

Morning Session: Misinformation, conspiratorial thinking, and disinformation in the 2024 election

  • 8:45am - 9:45am. The Microtargeting Manipulation Machine. Stephan Lewandowsky (University of Bristol).

  • 9:45am - 10:00am. Break

  • 10:00am - 12:00pm. Research presentations

    • 10:00am - 10:20am. Talk 5. Joanne Miller (University of Delaware), “Motivated Misperceptions and Public Opinion about Abortion.”

    • 10:20am - 10:40am. Talk 6. Emilio Ferrara (University of Southern California), “AI & Social Manipulation.”

    • 10:40am - 11:00am. Talk 7. Mitchell Linegar (Caltech), “Prebunking Election Rumors: Artificial Intelligence Assisted Interventions Increase Confidence in American Elections.”

    • 11:00am - 11:20am. Talk 8. Mathieu Lavigne (Dartmouth), “Correction Mismatch? How Inattention and Selective Exposure Limit the Effects of Election Fraud Debunking.”

    • 11:20am - 12:00pm. Q&A

Afternoon Session: Improving the quality of political discourse

  • 1:00pm - 2:30pm. Research presentations

    • 1:00pm - 1:20pm. Talk 9. David Lazer (Northeastern University), “The National Internet Observatory.”

    • 1:20pm - 1:40pm. Talk 10. Jonathan Nagler (New York University), “Evolution of Preferences and Media Consumption.”

    • 1:40pm - 2:00pm. Talk 11. Jennifer Gaudette (UCSD), “Counter-Framing and Persistence of Election Messaging and Trust in American Elections.”

    • 2:00pm - 2:30pm. Q&A and conference wrap-up.