Research

My research focuses on influence and information seeking, and aims to help us better understand the intersection of user choice, algorithmic curation, and choice architecture in online platforms. This has been published in top journals, including Nature, Science Advances, PNAS, and in top computer science conference proceedings, such as the Proceedings of the ACM: Human-Computer Interaction (CSCW), the Proceedings of the Web Conference (WWW), and the Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM).

A list of my research outputs is available in my:
- Curriculum Vitae
- Google Scholar
- Open Researcher and Contributor ID (ORCID)
- DBLP Computer Science Bibliography

Impact

According to Sage Policy Profiles, a website that tracks policy citations, my work has been cited in over 100 policy documents from over 20 countries. Details on these policy citations are available on my profile page. According to Altmetric, a website that tracks mentions of research outputs, my work has been mentioned in over 300 news stories, across five social media sites, and in several patents and Wikipedia pages. An overview of these mentions, with details by paper, is available in this Altmetric report. Sage profiles are free to create, but generating your own Altmetric report requires paid access via your current institution.

Gallery

Data voids and warning banners on Google Search Preprint Data voids and warning banners on Google Search Ronald E. Robertson, Evan M. Williams, Kathleen M. Carley, David Thiel arXiv2025 Google Search Advertising After Dobbs V. Jackson Conference Google Search Advertising After Dobbs V. Jackson Yelena Mejova, Ronald E. Robertson, Catherine A. Gimbrone, Sarah McKetta 10th International Digital Public Health Conference (DPH)2025 Searching for Elected Officials: Google's Prioritization of Political Information Article Searching for Elected Officials: Google's Prioritization of Political Information Allison Wan, Zhen Guo, Ronald Robertson, David Lazer, Burak Ozturan Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media2025 The Goldilocks Zone: Finding the right balance of user and institutional risk for suicide-related generative AI queries Article The Goldilocks Zone: Finding the right balance of user and institutional risk for suicide-related generative AI queries Anna R. Van Meter, Michael G. Wheaton, Victoria E. Cosgrove, Katerina Andreadis, Ronald E. Robertson, Gaurav Laroia PLOS Digital Health2025 Market or Markets? Investigating Google Search's Market Shares under Vertical Segmentation Conference Market or Markets? Investigating Google Search's Market Shares under Vertical Segmentation Desheng Hu, Jeffrey Gleason, Muhammad Abu Bakar Aziz, Alice Koeninger, Nikolas Guggenberger, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media2024 Perceptions in Pixels: Analyzing Perceived Gender and Skin Tone in Real-world Image Search Results Conference Perceptions in Pixels: Analyzing Perceived Gender and Skin Tone in Real-world Image Search Results Jeffrey Gleason, Avijit Ghosh, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the ACM on Web Conference 20242024 Search Engine Revenue from Navigational and Brand Advertising Conference Search Engine Revenue from Navigational and Brand Advertising Jeffrey Gleason, Alice Koeninger, Desheng Hu, Jessica Teurn, Yakov Bart, Samsun Knight, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media2024 U. S. Users' Exposure to YouTube Videos On- and Off-platform Conference U. S. Users' Exposure to YouTube Videos On- and Off-platform Desheng Hu, Ronald Robertson, Aniko Hannak, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the 16th ACM Web Science Conference2024 Hey Beautiful": Race and gender on Tinder Conference Hey Beautiful": Race and gender on Tinder Hanyu Chwe, Apryl Williams, Ronald Robertson Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences2023 Challenges in understanding human-algorithm entanglement during online information consumption Article Challenges in understanding human-algorithm entanglement during online information consumption Stephan Lewandowsky, Ronald E. Robertson, Renee DiResta Perspectives on Psychological Science2023 Google the gatekeeper: How search components affect clicks and attention Conference Google the gatekeeper: How search components affect clicks and attention Jeffrey Gleason, Desheng Hu, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media2023 Identifying Search Directives on Social Media Article Identifying Search Directives on Social Media Ronald E. Robertson, Amy Dunphy, Shelby Grossman, Renée DiResta, David Thiel Journal of Online Trust and Safety2023 Subscriptions and external links help drive resentful users to alternative and extremist YouTube channels Article Subscriptions and external links help drive resentful users to alternative and extremist YouTube channels Annie Y. Chen, Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson Science Advances2023 Users choose to engage with more partisan news than they are exposed to on Google Search Article Users choose to engage with more partisan news than they are exposed to on Google Search Ronald E. Robertson, Jon Green, Damian J. Ruck, Katherine Ognyanova, Christo Wilson, David Lazer Nature2023 Googling for Abortion: Search Engine Mediation of Abortion Accessibility in the United States Article Googling for Abortion: Search Engine Mediation of Abortion Accessibility in the United States Yelena Mejova, Tatiana Gracyk, Ronald E. Robertson Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media2022 Subscriptions and external links help drive resentful users to alternative and extremist YouTube videos Preprint Subscriptions and external links help drive resentful users to alternative and extremist YouTube videos Annie Y. Chen, Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson arXiv2022 Uncommon yet consequential online harms Article Uncommon yet consequential online harms Ronald E. Robertson Journal of Online Trust and Safety2022
An Interdisciplinary Examination of Partisanship in Web Search Thesis An Interdisciplinary Examination of Partisanship in Web Search Ronald E. Robertson 2021
Auditing Algorithms: Understanding Algorithmic Systems from the Outside In Article Auditing Algorithms: Understanding Algorithmic Systems from the Outside In Danaë Metaxa, Joon Sung Park, Ronald E. Robertson, Karrie Karahalios, Christo Wilson, Jeff Hancock, Christian Sandvig Foundations and Trends® in Human-Computer Interaction2021 Engagement Outweighs Exposure to Partisan and Unreliable News within Google Search Preprint Engagement Outweighs Exposure to Partisan and Unreliable News within Google Search Ronald E. Robertson, Jon Green, Damian Ruck, Katya Ognyanova, Christo Wilson, David Lazer arXiv2021 Exposure to Alternative & Extremist Content on YouTube Report Exposure to Alternative & Extremist Content on YouTube Annie Y. Chen, Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson The Belfer Fellowship Series2021 Maduro's Menagerie: Twitter Client Usage in a Venezuelan Twitter Operation Report Maduro's Menagerie: Twitter Client Usage in a Venezuelan Twitter Operation Elena Cryst, Noah Schechter, Ronald E. Robertson, David Thiel 2021 “I Can't Reply with That”: Characterizing Problematic Email Reply Suggestions Conference “I Can't Reply with That”: Characterizing Problematic Email Reply Suggestions Ronald E Robertson, Alexandra Olteanu, Fernando Diaz, Milad Shokouhi, Peter Bailey Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems2021 Misinformation in action: Fake news exposure is linked to lower trust in media, higher trust in government when your side is in power Article Misinformation in action: Fake news exposure is linked to lower trust in media, higher trust in government when your side is in power Katherine Ognyanova, David Lazer, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review2020 Tackling misinformation: What researchers could do with social media data Article Tackling misinformation: What researchers could do with social media data Irene Pasquetto, Briony Swire-Thompson, Michelle A. Amazeen, Fabrício Benevenuto, Nadia M. Brashier, Robert M. Bond, Lia C. Bozarth, Ceren Budak, Ullrich K. H. Ecker, Lisa K. Fazio, Emilio Ferrara, Andrew J. Flanagin, Alessandro Flammini, Deen Freelon, Nir Grinberg, Ralph Hertwig, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Kenneth Joseph, Jason J. Jones, R. Kelly Garrett, Daniel Kreiss, Shannon McGregor, Jasmine McNealy, Drew Margolin, Alice Marwick, FiIippo Menczer, Miriam J. Metzger, Seungahn Nah, Stephan Lewandowsky, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Pablo Ortellado, Gordon Pennycook, Ethan Porter, David G. Rand, Ronald Robertson, Francesca Tripodi, Soroush Vosoughi, Chris Vargo, Onur Varol, Brian E. Weeks, John Wihbey, Thomas J. Wood, Kai-Cheng Yang Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review2020 Technology and Democracy: Understanding the influence of online technologies on political behaviour and decision-making Report Technology and Democracy: Understanding the influence of online technologies on political behaviour and decision-making Stephan Lewandowsky, Laura Smillie, David Garcia, Ralph Hertwig, Jim Weatherall, Stefanie Egidy, Ronald E. Robertson, Cailin O'Connor, Anastasia Kozyreva, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Yannic Blaschke, Mark Leiser 2020
WebSearcher: Tools for Auditing Web Search Conference WebSearcher: Tools for Auditing Web Search Ronald E Robertson, Christo Wilson Proceedings of Computation + Journalism Symposium (C+J '20)2020
Auditing autocomplete: Suggestion networks and recursive algorithm interrogation Conference Auditing autocomplete: Suggestion networks and recursive algorithm interrogation Ronald E. Robertson, Shan Jiang, David Lazer, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the 10th ACM Conference on Web Science - WebSci '192019 Auditing the partisanship of Google Search snippets Conference Auditing the partisanship of Google Search snippets Desheng Hu, Shan Jiang, Ronald E. Robertson, Christo Wilson The World Wide Web Conference2019 Bias misperceived: The role of partisanship and misinformation in YouTube comment moderation Conference Bias misperceived: The role of partisanship and misinformation in YouTube comment moderation Shan Jiang, Ronald E Robertson, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media2019 Quantifying the impact of user attention on fair group representation in ranked lists Conference Quantifying the impact of user attention on fair group representation in ranked lists Piotr Sapiezynski, Wesley Zeng, Ronald E Robertson, Alan Mislove, Christo Wilson Companion Proceedings of The 2019 World Wide Web Conference on - WWW '192019 Auditing partisan audience bias within Google Search Conference Auditing partisan audience bias within Google Search Ronald E. Robertson, Shan Jiang, Kenneth Joseph, Lisa Friedland, David Lazer, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction2018 Auditing the personalization and composition of politically-related search engine results pages Conference Auditing the personalization and composition of politically-related search engine results pages Ronald E. Robertson, David Lazer, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the 2018 World Wide Web Conference2018 Estimates of non-heterosexual prevalence: The roles of anonymity and privacy in survey methodology Article Estimates of non-heterosexual prevalence: The roles of anonymity and privacy in survey methodology Ronald E. Robertson, Felix W. Tran, Lauren N. Lewark, Robert Epstein Archives of Sexual Behavior2018 A DSM-5-Based Online Mental Health Referral Inventory: A Large-Scale Validation Study Article A DSM-5-Based Online Mental Health Referral Inventory: A Large-Scale Validation Study Robert Epstein, Megan Ho, Seojin Hyun, Christopher Le, Ronald E. Robertson, Dayna Stout Journal of Technology in Human Services2017 Suppressing the search engine manipulation effect (SEME) Conference Suppressing the search engine manipulation effect (SEME) Robert Epstein, Ronald E. Robertson, David Lazer, Christo Wilson Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction2017 The frequency profile: An informative method for graphing the behavior of individuals post hoc or in real time. Article The frequency profile: An informative method for graphing the behavior of individuals post hoc or in real time. Robert Epstein, Jonathan Mejia, Ronald E. Robertson Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice2017 Which relationship skills count most? A large-scale replication Article Which relationship skills count most? A large-scale replication Robert Epstein, Ronald E. Robertson, Rachel Smith, Tyler Vasconcellos, Megan Lao Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy2016 The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections Article The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections Robert Epstein, Ronald E. Robertson Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences2015 How to measure sexual orientation range and why it's worth measuring Article How to measure sexual orientation range and why it's worth measuring Robert Epstein, Ronald E. Robertson Journal of Bisexuality2014