publications

2026

1. Industry Influence in High-Profile Social Media Research

   Joseph Bak-Coleman, Jevin West, Cailin O’Connor, and 1 more author

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.11507, 2026

   arXiv
2. The Case Against Efficiency: Friction in Social Media

   J Garland, Bak-Coleman J, S Benesch, and 12 more authors

   npj complexity, 2026

2025

1. The Risks of Industry Influence in Tech Research

   Joseph Bak-Coleman, Cailin O’Connor, Carl Bergstrom, and 1 more author

   arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.19894, 2025

   arXiv
2. Randomized controlled trials cannot identify social media’s causal effects

   Joseph Bak-Coleman

   Nature Reviews Psychology, 2025
3. AI, peer review and the human activity of science

   Carl T Bergstrom and Joe Bak-Coleman

   Nature, 2025

2024

1. Claims about scientific rigour require rigour

   Joseph Bak-Coleman and Berna Devezer

   Nature Human Behaviour, 2024
2. The International Climate Psychology Collaboration: Climate change-related data collected from 63 countries

   Kimberly C Doell, Boryana Todorova, Madalina Vlasceanu, and 8 more authors

   Scientific data, 2024
3. Addressing climate change with behavioral science: A global intervention tournament in 63 countries

   M. Vlasceanu\textsuperscript^†, K. Doell, J. Bak-Coleman, and 1 more author

   Science Advances, 2024
4. Toolbox of Interventions Against Online Misinformation and Manipulation

   Anastasia Kozyreva, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Stefan M Herzog, and 8 more authors

   Nature Human Behavior, 2024

2023

1. Collective decision strategies in the presence of spatio-temporal correlations

   Claudia Winklmayr, Albert B Kao, Joseph B Bak-Coleman, and 1 more author

   Collective Intelligence, Feb 2023

   Abs

   Background: Models of collective decision-making typically assume that individuals sample information independently and decide instantaneously. In most natural and sociological settings, however, d...

2022

1. Both prey and predator features predict the individual predation risk and survival of schooling prey

   Jolle Wolter Jolles, Matthew M.G. Sosna, Geoffrey P.F. Mazué, and 4 more authors

   eLife, Jul 2022

   Abs

   Predation is one of the main evolutionary drivers of social grouping. While it is well appreciated that predation risk is likely not shared equally among individuals within groups, its detailed quantification has remained difficult due to the speed of attacks and the highly dynamic nature of collective prey response. Here, using high-resolution tracking of solitary predators (Northern pike) hunting schooling fish (golden shiners), we not only provide insights into predator decision-making, but show which key spatial and kinematic features of predator and prey predict the risk of individuals to be targeted and to survive attacks. We found that pike tended to stealthily approach the largest groups, and were often already inside the school when launching their attack, making prey in this frontal ‘strike zone’ the most vulnerable to be targeted. From the prey’s perspec-tive, those fish in central locations, but relatively far from, and less aligned with, neighbours, were most likely to be targeted. While the majority of attacks were successful (70%), targeted individuals that did manage to avoid being captured exhibited a higher maximum acceleration response just before the attack and were further away from the pike‘s head. Our results highlight the crucial interplay between predators’ attack strategy and response of prey underlying the predation risk within mobile animal groups.

2. Collective wisdom in polarized groups.

   J. Bak-Coleman, C. Tokita, D. Morris, and 2 more authors

   Collective Intelligence, 2022
3. Combining interventions to reduce the spread of viral misinformation

   J. Bak-Coleman, I. Kennedy, M. Wack, and 5 more authors

   Nature Human Behavior, May 2022

2021

1. Stewardship of Global Collective Behavior

   J. Bak-Coleman, M. Alfano, W. Barfuss, and 12 more authors

   PNAS, 2021
2. How to mislead with statistics

   K. Lum, N. Kabir, and J. Bak-Coleman

   Significance, 2021
3. Reply to Cheong and Jones: The role of science in responding to collective behavioral threats

   Joseph B Bak-Coleman and Carl T Bergstrom

   Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021

2020

1. Rheotaxis revisited: Multi-behavioral and multisensory frameworks for understanding how fish orient to flow.

   S. Coombs, J. Bak-Coleman, and J. Montgomery

   The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2020
2. The wisdom of stalemates: consensus and clustering as filtering mechanisms for improving collective accuracy

   C. Winkylmayr, A. Kao, and J. Bak-Coleman

   Proceedings B, 2020
3. Vortex phase matching as a strategy for schooling in robots and in fish

   L. Liang, M. Nagy, J. Graving, and 3 more authors

   Nature Communications, 2020

2019

1. Structural encoding of perceived risk in fish schools

   M. Sosna, C. Twomey, J. Bak-Coleman, and 4 more authors

   PNAS, 2019
2. Information gerrymandering in social networks skews collective decision-making

   Carl T Bergstrom and Joseph B Bak-Coleman

   2019

2018

1. Counteracting estimation bias and social influence to improve the wisdom of crowds.

   A. Kao, A. Berdahl, A. Hartnett, and 5 more authors

   Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2018

2015

1. Rheotaxis performance increases with group size in a coupled phase model with sensory noise: The effects of noise and group size on rheotaxis

   A. Chicoli, J. Bak-Coleman, S. Coombs, and 1 more author

   European Physical Journal: Special Topics, 2015
2. The lateral line is necessary for blind cavefish rheotaxis in non-uniform flow

   M. Kulpa, J. Bak-Coleman, and S. Coombs

   The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2015
3. Going with, then against the flow: Evidence against the optomotor hypothesis of fish rheotaxis

   J. Bak-Coleman, D. Smith, and S. Coombs

   Animal Behaviour, 2015

2014

1. Sedentary behavior as a factor in determining lateral line contributions to rheotaxis

   J. Bak-Coleman and S. Coombs

   The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2014
2. The effects of flow on schooling Devario aequipinnatus: school structure, startle response and information transmission

   A Chicoli, S Butail, Y Lun, and 3 more authors

   Journal of Fish Biology, 2014

2013

1. The spatiotemporal dynamics of rheotactic behavior depends on flow speed and available sensory information.

   J. Bak-Coleman, A. Court, D. Paley, and 1 more author

   The Journal of Experimental Biology, 2013