Queens, NY
Joe Bak-Coleman
Collective behavior from fish to fascists.
NowResearch Scientist at UW · drafting Of Fish and Fascists · reading The Buffalo Hunter HunterJul 2026
About
I’m a computational social scientist whose research explores how collectives make decisions in the face of uncertainty, focusing on the impact of digital technologies on collective behavior. Currently, I am a research scientist at the University of Washington, an External Applied Complexity Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute, an external affiliate at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center and a Collaboration Partner at the University of Konstanz’s Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour. My work spans topics such as misinformation, polarization, and the development of evidence-based tech policy, with work in Nature, Science Advances, and PNAS. I have a forthcoming book, Of Fish and Fascists, set for release in 2027 by Princeton University Press.
Before my current role, I served as a Consulting Expert for the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Reports Office, and an Associate Research Scholar at Columbia University’s Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security. I earned my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University in 2020, where I worked with Iain Couzin and Dan Rubenstein, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public. Over the past decade, my research has examined decision-making in human and animal collectives, from fish schools and zebra herds to social media users and scientists.
News
All newsOur preprint on industry influence in social media research was covered by Science: Nearly one-third of social media research has undisclosed ties to industry.
Gave the CITP Seminar at Princeton on Scientific Barriers to Evidence-Based Tech Policy — watch the recording.
New preprint on The Risks of Industry Influence in Tech Research, with Cailin O’Connor, Carl Bergstrom, and Jevin West.
Taught as faculty at the Santa Fe Institute’s Complexity Global School for Emerging Political Economies in Bogotá, Colombia.
UNDP released Development at Risk: Protecting Gains and Unleashing Opportunities Amid Crisis. I served as a Consulting Expert.
The UNDP’s flagship Human Development Report 2025, A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI, was released, for which I served as a Consulting Expert.
Selected publications
All publicationsRandomized controlled trials cannot identify social media’s causal effects