Gordon Pennycook, University of Regina

Research

disinformation decision making behavioural interventions post-fact world digital citizenship (1) Psychology (2) Judgment (3) Decision Making

Latest papers

Overconfidently Conspiratorial: Conspiracy Believers are Dispositionally Overconfident and Massively Overestimate How Much Others Agree With Them.
Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2026 · first author
Persuading voters using human-artificial intelligence dialogues.
Nature · 2025
Dialogues with large language models reduce conspiracy beliefs even when the AI is perceived as human.
PNAS nexus · 2025 · senior author

All 37 publications

Latest funding

Feeling the gap: Causes and consequences of personal relative deprivation
SSHRC · 2021 · Co-investigator
$45,264
Coronavirus Outbreak: Mapping and Countering Misinformation
CIHR · 2020 · Co-investigator
$305,366
The psychology of online disinformation
SSHRC · 2020 · Principal investigator
$141,574

All 8 grants and awards

37 publications.

01

Overconfidently Conspiratorial: Conspiracy Believers are Dispositionally Overconfident and Massively Overestimate How Much Others Agree With Them.

Pennycook G, Binnendyk J, Rand DG

Personality & social psychology bulletin2026First author

DOI: 10.1177/01461672251338358 PMID: 40411402

02

Persuading voters using human-artificial intelligence dialogues.

Lin H, Czarnek G, Lewis B, White JP, Berinsky AJ, Costello T, Pennycook G, Rand DG

Nature2025

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09771-9 PMID: 41345316

03

Dialogues with large language models reduce conspiracy beliefs even when the AI is perceived as human.

Boissin E, Costello TH, Spinoza-Martín D, Rand DG, Pennycook G

PNAS nexus2025Senior author

DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf325 PMID: 41179846

04

Who benefits from debiasing?

Boissin E, Pennycook G

Cognition2025Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2025.106166 PMID: 40334440

05

On the role of analytic thinking in religious belief change: Evidence from over 50,000 participants in 16 countries.

Stagnaro MN, Pennycook G

Cognition2025Senior author

DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105989 PMID: 39488154

06

Inoculation and accuracy prompting increase accuracy discernment in combination but not alone.

Pennycook G, Berinsky AJ, Bhargava P, Lin H, Cole R, Goldberg B, Lewandowsky S, Rand DG

Nature human behaviour2024First author

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-02023-2 PMID: 39496772

07

Accuracy prompts protect professional content moderators from the illusory truth effect.

Lin H, Savio MT, Huang X, Steiger M, Guevara RL, Szostak D, Pennycook G, Rand DG

PNAS nexus2024

DOI: 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae481 PMID: 39564570

08

Toolbox of individual-level interventions against online misinformation.

Kozyreva A, Lorenz-Spreen P, Herzog SM, Ecker UKH, Lewandowsky S, Hertwig R, Ali A, Bak-Coleman J, Barzilai S, Basol M, Berinsky AJ, Betsch C, Cook J, Fazio LK, Geers M, Guess AM, Huang H, Larreguy H, Maertens R, Panizza F, Pennycook G, Rand DG, Rathje S, Reifler J, Schmid P, Smith M, Swire-Thompson B, Szewach P, van der Linden S, Wineburg S

Nature human behaviour2024

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01881-0 PMID: 38740990

09

On the Disposition to Think Analytically: Four Distinct Intuitive-Analytic Thinking Styles.

Newton C, Feeney J, Pennycook G

Personality & social psychology bulletin2024Senior author

DOI: 10.1177/01461672231154886 PMID: 36861421

10

Author Correction: Understanding and combatting misinformation across 16 countries on six continents.

Arechar AA, Allen J, Berinsky AJ, Cole R, Epstein Z, Garimella K, Gully A, Lu JG, Ross RM, Stagnaro MN, Zhang Y, Pennycook G, Rand DG

Nature human behaviour2023

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01676-9 PMID: 37463989

Feeling the gap: Causes and consequences of personal relative deprivation

Co-investigatorSSHRC2021Insight Grants

Principal investigators: Mishra, Sandeep

Keywords: relative deprivation; inequality; social comparison; individual differences; cooperation and conflict

$45,264

Coronavirus Outbreak: Mapping and Countering Misinformation

Co-investigatorCIHR2020Operating Grant: COVID-19 - Social dynamics, communication and trust

Principal investigators: Caulfield, Timothy A

Keywords: Communication/Public Engagement Strategies; Coronavirus; Misinformation; News Media/Social Media; Policy Recommendations; Policy Response; Public Health; Public Perceptions; Public Representations; Stigma/Fear

$305,366

The psychology of online disinformation

Principal investigatorSSHRC2020Insight Grants

Principal investigators: Pennycook, Gordon S.

Keywords: disinformation; decision making; behavioural interventions; post-fact world; digital citizenship

$141,574

The psychology of online disinformation

Principal investigatorSSHRC2020PCH-SSHRC Initiative for Digital Citizen Research (Insight)

Principal investigators: Pennycook, Gordon R.

Keywords: disinformation; decision making; behavioural interventions; post-fact world; digital citizenship

$20,000

The psychology of online disinformation

Principal investigatorSSHRC2020Insight Grants

Principal investigators: Pennycook, Gordon S.

Keywords: disinformation; decision making; behavioural interventions; post-fact world; digital citizenship

$154,586

Global Journalism Innovation Lab: Revitalizing journalism and accelerating knowledge mobilization from Canadian universities

Co-investigatorSSHRC2019Partnership Grants

Keywords: media innovation; media policy; journalism; knowledge mobilisation; media impact

$1,603,436

Global Journalism Innovation Lab: Revitalizing journalism and accelerating knowledge mobilization from Canadian universities

Co-investigatorSSHRC2018Partnership Grants

Keywords: media innovation; media policy; journalism; knowledge mobilisation; media impact

$868,718

The everyday consequences of analytic thinking

Principal investigatorSSHRC2018Insight Development Grant

Principal investigators: Pennycook, Gordon

Keywords: (1) Psychology; (2) Judgment; (3) Decision Making; (4) Beliefs; (5) Morality; (6) Disinformation; (7) Analytic thinking; (8) Rationality; (9) Intuition; (10) Reasoning

$48,730

From CIHR, NSERC and SSHRC funding decisions: CIHR since 2008, NSERC since 1991 and SSHRC since 1998, including their latest published competition results.

Frequent collaborators

Social Psychology
School of Population and Public Health
Department of Medicine
School of Epidemiology and Public Health
Pediatrics
Other

Co-authors at University of Regina, colored by department. Thicker lines mean more shared papers; select anyone to open their profile and their own map.

Nassim Tabri

Faculty

1 shared papers, latest 2020

Timothy Caulfield

Pediatrics

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Steven Hawken

School of Epidemiology and Public Health

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Kumanan Wilson

Department of Medicine

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Devon Greyson

School of Population and Public Health

1 shared papers, latest 2023

Azim Shariff

Faculty

1 shared papers, latest 2020

Write to this professor

A short, specific email works best. This draft uses one of their recent papers; replace the parts in brackets with your own details before sending.

Applying for

Paper to mentionMention their SSHRC grant from 2020

Subject: Prospective PhD student: disinformation Dear Professor Pennycook, My name is [your name], and I am a [your current degree or role] at [your institution]. I am applying for a PhD position starting in [term and year]. I read your paper "Overconfidently Conspiratorial: Conspiracy Believers are Dispositionally Overconfident and Massively Overestimate How Much Others Agree With Them." (2026), and it connects closely to my own work on [your research topic]. [One or two sentences on what you did and what you learned.] I also saw your SSHRC-funded project "The psychology of online disinformation" (2020), and I would be glad to contribute to work in that direction. Are you accepting new PhD students for [term and year]? I have attached my CV and transcripts, and I would be glad to talk at a time that suits you. Thank you for your time. Kind regards, [your name]