Publications

Research Articles

Robertson, R. E., Green, J., Ruck, D.J., Ognyanova, K., Wilson, C., & Lazer, D. (2023). Users choose to engage with more partisan news than they are exposed to on Google Search. Nature, 1-7. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06078-5.

Chen, A. Y., Nyhan, B., Reifler, J., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2023). Subscriptions and external links help drive resentful users to alternative and extremist YouTube channels. Science Advances. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add8080.

Mejova, Y., Gracyk, T., & Robertson, R. E. (2022). Googling for abortion: Search engine mediation of abortion accessibility in the United States. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 2. DOI: 10.51685/jqd.2022.007.

Metaxa, D., Park, J. S., Robertson, R. E., Karahalios, K., Wilson, C., Hancock, J., & Sandvig C. (2021). Auditing algorithms: Understanding algorithmic systems from the outside in. Foundations and Trends in Human–Computer Interaction 14(4), 272-344. DOI: 10.1561/1100000083.

Ognyanova, K., Lazer, D., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2020). Misinformation in action: Fake news exposure is linked to lower trust in media,higher trust in government when your side is in power. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. DOI: 10.37016/mr-2020-024.

Robertson, R. E., Tran, F. W., Lewark, L. N., & Epstein, R. (2018). Estimates of non-heterosexual prevalence: The roles of anonymity and privacy in survey methodology. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 47(4), 1069-1084. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-017-1044-z

Epstein, R., Robertson, R. E., Lazer, D., & Wilson, C. (2018). Suppressing the search engine manipulation effect (SEME). In Proceedings of the ACM: Human-Computer Interaction, 1(2), Article 42. DOI: 10.1145/3134677

Epstein, R., Ho, M., Hyun, S., Le, C., Robertson, R. E., & Stout, D. (2017). A DSM-5-based online mental health referral inventory: A large-scale validation study. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 35(3), 231-246. DOI: 10.1080/15228835.2017.1356800

Epstein, R., Mejia, J., & Robertson, R. E. (2017). The frequency profile: An informative method for graphing the behavior of individuals post-hoc or in real time. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, 17 (1), 55-73. DOI: 10.1037/bar0000052

Epstein, R., Robertson, R. E., Smith, R., Vasconcellos, T., & Lao, M. (2016). Which relationship skills count most? A large-scale follow-up study. Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, 15 (4), 341-356. DOI: 10.1080/15332691.2016.1141136

Epstein, R. & Robertson, R. E. (2015). The search engine manipulation effect and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (33), E4512-E4521. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1419828112

Epstein, R. & Robertson, R. E. (2014). How to measure sexual orientation range, and why it's worth measuring. Journal of Bisexuality, 14, 392-404. DOI: 10.1080/15299716.2014.933378

Conference Proceedings

Gleason, J., Hu, D., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2023). Google the gatekeeper: How search components affect clicks and attention. In Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM 2023). [Best Paper Award]. DOI: 10.1609/icwsm.v17i1.22142.

Chwe, H., Williams, A., Robertson, R. E. (2023) "Hey Beautiful": Race and gender on Tinder. In Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences [PDF].

Robertson, R. E., Olteanu, A., Diaz, F., Shokoui, M., & Bailey, P. (2021). "I can't reply with that": Characterizing problematic email reply suggestions. In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021). DOI: 10.1145/3411764.3445557.

Jiang, S., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2020). Reasoning about political bias in content moderation. In Proceedings of the 34th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 20). New York, New York, February, 2020. (This is an abbreviated version of the "Bias Misperceived" paper that appeared at ICWSM 2019.) [PDF].

Robertson R. E., Jiang, S., Lazer, D., & Wilson, C. (2019). Auditing autocomplete: Recursive algorithm interrogation and suggestion networks. In Proceedings of the 11th ACM Conference on Web Science (WebSci 2019) (pp. 235-244). DOI: 10.1145/3292522.3326047.

Jiang, S., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2019). Bias misperceived: The role of partisanship and misinformation in YouTube comment moderation. In Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM 2019), 13(01), 278-289. [Outstanding Analysis Award]. [PDF].

Sapiezynski, P., Zeng, W., Robertson, R. E., Mislove, A., & Wilson, C. (2019). Quantifying the impact of user attention on fair group representation in ranked lists. In Companion Proceedings of the 2019 Web Conference (WWW 2019 Companion) (pp. 553-562). DOI: 10.1145/3308560.3317595.

Hu, D., Jiang, S., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2019). Auditing the partisanship of Google Search snippets. In Proceedings of the 2019 Web Conference (WWW 2019) (pp. 693-704). DOI: 10.1145/3308558.3313654.

Robertson, R. E., Jiang, S., Joseph, K., Friedland, L., Lazer, D., & Wilson, C. (2018). Auditing partisan audience bias within Google Search. In Proceedings of the ACM: Human-Computer Interaction, 1(2), Article 1. [Best Paper: Honorable Mention]. DOI: 10.1145/3274417.

Robertson, R. E., Lazer, D., & Wilson, C. (2018). Auditing the personalization and composition of politically-related search engine results pages. In Proceedings of the 2018 World Wide Web Conference on World Wide Web (WWW 2018) (pp. 955-965). DOI: 10.1145/3178876.3186143

Commentary

Lewandowsky, S., Robertson, R. E., & DiResta, R. (2023). Challenges in understanding human-algorithm entanglement during online information consumption. Perspectives on Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/17456916231180809

Robertson, R. E. (2022) Uncommon yet consequential online harms. Journal of Online Trust and Safety, 1 (3). 10.54501/jots.v1i3.87.

Pasquetto, I., Swire-Thompson, B., Amazeen, M.A., Benevenuto, F., Brashier, N. M., Bond, R. M., Bozarth, L. C., Budak, C., Ecker, U. K. H., Fazio, L. K., Ferrara, E., Flanagin, A. J., Flammini, A., Freelon, D., Grinberg, N., Hertwig, R., Jamieson, K. H., Joseph, K., Jones, J. J., Garrett, K., Kreiss, D., McGregor, S., McNealy, J., Margolin, D., Marwick, A., Menczer, F., Metzger, M. J., Nah, S., Lewandowsky, S., Lorenz-Spreen, P., Ortellado, P., Pennycook, G., Porter, E., Rand, D. G., Robertson, R. E., Tripodi, F., Vosoughi, S., Vargo, C., Varol, O., Weeks, B. E., Wihbey, J., Wood, T. J., & Yang, K. C. (2020). Tackling misinformation: What researchers could do with social media data. Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. DOI: 10.37016/mr-2020-49.

Reports

Cryst, E., Schechter, N., Robertson, R. E., & Thiel, D. (2021). Maduro's menagerie: Twitter client usage in a Venezuelan Twitter operation. Stanford Internet Observatory. Report PDF.

Chen, A. Y., Nyhan, B., Reifler, J., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (2021). Exposure to Alternative & Extremist Content on YouTube. Anti-Defamation League. Report PDF.

Lewandowsky, S, Smillie, L., Garcia, D., Hertwig, R., Weatherall, J., Egidy, S., Robertson R. E., O’Connor, C., Kozyreva, A., Lorenz-Spreen, P., Blaschke, Y., & Leiser, M. (2020) Technology and democracy: Understanding the influence of online technologies on political behaviour and decision-making. Joint Research Centre (European Commission). DOI: 10.2760/709177.

Preprints

Robertson, R. E., Green, J., Ruck, D., Ognyanova, K., Wilson, C., & Lazer, D. (2021). Engagement outweighs exposure to partisan and unreliable news within Google Search. Arxiv preprint: ArXiv:2201.00074.

Media Articles

Robertson, R. E., Jiang, S., Joseph, K., Friedland, L., Lazer, D., & Wilson, C. (2018, November 6). Is it the Algorithms or Us?. Medium

Robertson, R. E. (2018, June 4). When will Google defend democracy?. The Conversation

Robertson, R. E. (2018, January 15). The 21st century Skinner box. Behavioral Scientist

Work in Progress

Robertson, R. E., Dunphy, A. & Grossman, S. (forthcoming). Identifying search directives on social media. Journal of Online Trust and Safety.

Gleason, J., Koeninger, A., Hu, D., Teurn, J., Robertson, R. E. & Wilson, C. (under review). Search engine revenue from navigational and brand advertising.

Hu, D., Gleason, J., Abu Bakar Aziz, M., Guggenberger, N., Robertson, R. E., & Wilson, C. (under review). Market or markets? Investigating Google Search's market shares under vertical segmentation.

Hu, D., Robertson, R. E., Hannak, A., & Wilson, C. (under review). Exposure to YouTube videos on- and off-platform.