Dr. J. Nathan Matias

I study digital governance and behavior change in groups and networks shaped by AI systems. I collaborate with the public in citizen behavioral science, working for a world where digital power is guided by evidence and accountable to the public.

I am a Guatemalan-American assistant professor at the Cornell University Departments of Communication and Information Science, where I lead the Citizens & Technology Lab (full bio here). My research contributes to scholarship in social psychology and computer science.

I am also a co-founder and executive committee member of the Coalition for Independent Technology Research.

Recent News

• Matias, J.N (2024) Contributing to the US National Strategy for STEMM Equity & Excellence 2050. Citizens and Technology Lab.
• Matias, J.N. (2023) Science for Survival and Hope: Receiving the Rise25 Award from Mozilla. Medium

Recent Scientific Research

Here are recent scientific publications, organized by topic (full publication list here).

Human-AI Behavior

• Wright, L., Muenster, R., Vecchione, B., Qu, T., Cai, S., Smith, A., Student Investigators, Metcalf, J., Matias, J.N. (Jan 22, 2024) Null Compliance: NYC Local Law 144 and the Challenges of Algorithm Accountability. ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency.
  • Blog post: Studying how employers comply with NYC’s new hiring algorithm law
  • Cornell award: Matias awarded for community-engaged hiring transparency project
• Matias, J.N. (2023) Humans and algorithms work together — so study them together. Nature.
• Matias, J.N. (2023) Influencing Recommendation Algorithms to Reduce the Spread of Unreliable News by Encouraging Humans to Fact-Check Articles, in a Field Experiment. Scientific Reports (Nature).
  • Blog post: A Rosetta Stone for Socio-Technical Science of Human-Algorithm Behavior

Research Methods and Ethics

• Zong, J., Matias, J.N. (2023) Data Refusal From Below: A Framework for Understanding, Evaluating, and Envisioning Refusal as Design. ACM Journal of Responsible Computing
• Matias, J. N., Munger, K., Aubin Le Quere, M., Ebersole, C. (2021) The Upworthy Research Archive, a time series of 32,487 experiments in U.S. media. Scientific Data (Nature).
• Zong, J., Matias, J.N. (2022) Bartleby: Procedural and Substantive Ethics in the Design of Research Ethics Systems. Social Media + Society.
  • Project Site: Community-Centered Ethics Systems
• Matias, J.N., Pennington, E. Chan, Z.T. (2022) Testing Concerns about Technology’s Behavioral Impacts with N-of-one Trials. ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
  • Blog post: When researchers study average treatment effects, the findings often exclude minority groups

Diversity/Equity/Inclusion in Science

• Matias, J.N., Lewis, N. A., Hope, E. (2022) U.S. Universities Are Not Succeeding in Diversifying Faculty. Nature Human Behavior.
  • Flaherty, Colleen (2022) Study finds true faculty diversity possible by 2050. Inside Higher Ed.
• Matias, J. N. (2019). Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(20), 9785-9789.

Recent Public Writing

• Matias, J.N. (2023) To Hold Tech Accountable, Look to Public Health. WIRED
• Matias, J.N. (2022) How to avoid Social Media Blight. Knight First Amendment Institute, Columbia University
• Matias, J. N., Lewis, N., Hope, E. (2021) Universities Say They Want More Diverse Faculties. So Why is Academia So White?. FiveThirtyEight.
• Matias, J.N. (2020) Why We Need Industry-Independent Research on Tech & Society 🍔. Cornell Citizens & Technology Lab.

Organizations

• Co-founder and executive committee, Coalition for Independent Technology Resarch.
• Board Member, Friends of Global Voices (learn more about Global Voices).

Guide for Journalists & Event Organizers

As someone who regularly gives keynotes, appears on panels, and commits acts of journalism, I do what I can to support high quality conversation on tech and society: as a speaker, as a source, and by helping you find experts. I also collaborate with journalists on data journalism projects related to tech companies, their policies, and online behavior. To invite me to give a talk, see my page about talks and speaking.

Journalists: Reach out if I can help; over the last few years I have supported journalists on background, with suggested sources, statistics feedback, and served as a named source for journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, The Markup, NPR All Things Considered, WIRED, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Boston Globe, Canadian Broadcasting Company, FastCompany, Fortune, Chronicle of Higher Education, Nieman Journalism Review, and the Columbia Journalism Review, to name a few.

To protect the integrity of my public voice, I maintain independence from the technology industry.

For questions related to the Citizens and Technology Lab and my academic work at Cornell, please write me at nathan.matias@cornell.edu.