Research and projects
Research and projects
Publications
Relationships among sustainability dimensions: evidence from an Alpine area case study using Dominance-based Rough Set Approach with Paola Ferretti and Maria Bruna Zolin - Land Use Policy (2020).
European and Chinese Consumers' Attitude for Food with Reduced Use of Chemicals: Results from a Surve with Martina Mazzarolo, Maria Bruna Zolin and Ilda Mannino - Sustainable Development and Energy Transition in Europe and Asia, 9, 197-216 (2020).
Work in progress
The effect of polarised information on social preferences: an experimental approach. Draft here
Rising polarization endangers social cohesion, threatening the maintenance and growth of a healthy society. This study investigates the impact of exposure to polarized articles on social preferences, focusing on how such exposure influences altruism, cooperativeness, and anti-social behavior. The research explores three key channels — emotions, group identity, and expectations about the others — that may drive the deterioration of social preferences in a polarized news environment. I conduct an online experiment, wherein I have participants reading polarized articles and then interacting with other participants whose characteristics are not disclosed. I find that pro-attitudinal and counter-attitudinal articles impact the level of cooperation and altruism: reading pro-attitudinal articles increases cooperation and decreases anti-social behavior. Conversely, reading counter-attitudinal articles decreases altruism and increases anti-social behavior. The impact is asymmetrical among different political supporters, providing the first experimental evidence that polarized articles affect social preferences.
First Impressions Matter: The Lasting Impact of Slanted Media on Attitudes with Federico Innocenti and Marco Minozzo R&R at Economica
We investigate how slanted articles influence attitudes. We implemented a field experiment where university students were randomly assigned to different treatments, reading news articles with either a positive or negative slant on several topics over four weeks. We collected students’ attitudes weekly and in a follow-up survey four weeks later. We find that: a) slanted information significantly shifts attitudes in the intended direction; b) the effect is more substantial for novel topics; c) the first impression about a novel topic shapes attitudes; d) the change in attitudes persists over time; e) different attitudes drive different economic decisions. Our findings highlight that media are more effective when shaping initial attitudes rather than altering existing ones. Thus, our results show the importance of timely information provision, especially in the early stages of public discourse.
Explaining Trust in Information Providers with Federico Innocenti and Tsung-Hsien Li
We study how observable characteristics of information sources shape individuals' evaluations of their content. In an online experiment, we vary source characteristics while holding content constant. We find that disclosing these characteristics does not affect the information's perceived accuracy but substantially governs trust in the source and, through trust, the willingness to share. Highly educated sources are trusted more; disclosing low education, popularity, and Republican affiliation each reduces trust. Participants sort across sources based on observable characteristics even before seeing any content, suggesting that source cues serve as credibility signals that determine who is trusted and heard.
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has awarded us a research grant for this project.
Media Narratives and Climate Technologies: Evidence from UK Coverage of 3-Nitrooxypropanol with Doris Läpple R&R at Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy
This paper examines how media narratives shape public attention to methane-reducing feed additives, focusing on 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP) in the United Kingdom. Using a representative set of articles from newspapers and specialized press (2015–2026), we apply Structural Topic Modeling alongside sentiment and emotion analysis to characterize media portrayals over time and across outlet types. We exploit an increase in attention in late 2024 as a salient breakpoint. Furthermore, we link media narratives to public engagement using Google Trends and Wikipedia views. We document three main findings. First, coverage of 3-NOP increases sharply after late 2024. Second, this period is associated with a shift toward misinformation related narratives, particularly in general interest newspapers, and a decline in environmental and technical coverage. Third, only misinformation related topics are consistently associated with spikes in online information seeking behavior. Overall, the results show that media framing varies systematically across outlets and that misinformation driven narratives play a disproportionate role in capturing public attention. These findings have implications for communication strategies and policies aimed at supporting the adoption of climate-mitigating technologies in the agri-food sector.
Who Gets Watched on TikTok? A Field Experiment on Sender Attributes with Clara Fertonani , Federico Innocenti and Tsung-Hsien Li
We run a field experiment on TikTok to examine how users respond to observable characteristics of video avatars. To this end, we vary three attributes—gender (female vs male), ethnicity (Black vs White) and attire (formal vs casual)—across two content domains (finance and health), yielding 16 gender–ethnicity–attire–topic combinations.
The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) has awarded us a research grant for this project.
Between Climate Culprit and Climate Solution: How German Media Portray Agriculture with Wilken Brunkhorst and Doris Läpple
The relationship between agriculture and climate change is complex. Agriculture contributes to climate change, is also heavily affected by its impact, but can also offer solutions for climate change mitigation. Media coverage influences how this multifaceted relationship is perceived by the public. This study explores how German media portray the relationship between agriculture and climate change, focusing on both the content and tone of reporting. Using a Large Language Model (LLM), we conduct a systematic content analysis of 185 articles from ten major German media outlets. We categorize media outlets as liberal, conservative, and specialist agricultural media, and analyze whether agriculture is depicted as a driver, a victim, or a solution to climate change. Our findings reveal significant variation in tone, thematic emphasis, and solution orientation depending on the political leaning and media type. Liberal media show a more critical stance but also emphasize structural solutions such as dietary change and livestock reduction. Conservative outlets predominantly portray agriculture as a victim of climate impacts, while specialist agricultural media have a mainly positive tone towards agriculture and a focus on adaptation. We also find that the general attitude toward agriculture and the thematic framing within the articles are correlated. Overall, our findings show that media coverage not only reflects but also constructs particular narratives about the relationship between agriculture and climate change. This highlights the need for communication strategies that address all key dimensions of the issue across audiences in ways that reduce polarization and foster climate-aware behavior.