MIT political analyst Adam Berinsky has been appointed to the 2025 cohort of Andrew Carnegie Fellows, a prestigious accolade for academics engaged in inquiries within the social sciences and humanities.
The fellowship is granted by The Carnegie Corporation of New York. Berinsky, the Mitsui Professor of Political Science, along with 25 other fellows, was chosen from over 300 candidates. Each will be awarded stipends of $200,000 for research aimed at comprehending the reasons behind societal polarization and identifying ways to enhance cohesive forces that will bolster our democracy.
“Through these fellowships, Carnegie is leveraging the exceptional intellectual resources of our universities to help us decipher how our society has become so divided,” states Carnegie President Louise Richardson. “Our future funding initiatives will be shaped by the insights we gain from these scholars as we strive to alleviate the damaging consequences of political polarization.”
Berinsky expressed that he feels “immensely privileged to be designated an Andrew Carnegie Fellow for the upcoming year. This fellowship will provide me with the opportunity to address significant issues in the current political landscape.”
Throughout his term as a Carnegie Fellow, Berinsky intends to undertake a project titled, “Cultivating a Reliable Information Ecosystem to Alleviate Polarization in the United States.”
“For a thriving democracy, it is crucial that citizens share a foundational understanding of common facts,” Berinsky remarks. “Yet, in today’s politically divisive atmosphere, ‘alternative facts’ and various forms of misinformation — from political gossip to conspiracy theories — distort individuals’ perceptions of reality and harm our societal cohesion.”
“For the past 15 years, I have investigated the reasons individuals accept misinformation and strategies to counteract misperceptions. Nevertheless, there is still much work ahead. My project aims to confront the serious issue of misinformation in the United States by uniting existing methods in innovative, more effective ways. I hope that the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts.”
Berinsky has been part of the MIT faculty since 2003. He is the author of “Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Combat It” (Princeton University Press, 2023).
Other MIT faculty members who have been awarded the Carnegie Fellowship in recent years include economists David Autor and Daron Acemoglu, as well as political scientists Fotini Christia, Taylor Fravel, Richard Nielsen, and Charles Stewart.