Research Projects

Duration: 2024-2026
Project funded by the DOC Fellowship Programme of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Melanie Saumer

Duration: 2023-2024
Project funded by Circle U. – European University Alliance
Project Partners: University of Belgrade (Serbia), the Université Paris Cité (France), Aarhus University (Denmark)
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Alice Binder

Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, refers to a technology, which delivers fast and comprehensive information about all aspects of human life, including health. People may use generative AI to inform themselves about health topics, to get advice or interact with AI about their concerns, or to diagnose/treat diseases. Generative AI is considered to have large disruptive potential, necessitating new understandings of potential risks and benefits. Drawing on humanities, business, social sciences, and public health research, our aim is to establish a comprehensive understanding of the health-related risks and benefits of generative AI. We particularly focus on implications for inequality, with respect to gender, age, and minority status, looking at variations by country.

Duration: 2022-2024
Project funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG)
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Kevin Koban

In recent years, the confrontation with immigration and violent crime as well as, most recently, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukrainian War have shaped Austrian's sense of security and, in the process, made various concerns, fears, and related social tendencies more salient. Traditional media have always played a central role in people’s sense of security. Having said that, social media and the proliferation of smartphones have fundamentally changed the dissemination, reception, and discussion of security-related information, thus challenging established practices of efficient security communication that is supposed to be effective in both the short and long term. Research has not sufficiently accounted for these changing media landscapes, such that the influence of smartphones and social media has thus far been examined only to a limited extend. The project will obtain detailed data on the reception of safety-related topics in light of individualized media habits, which will be assessed holistically for their temporal relationship with people's sense of security in Austria. Additionally, we will examine the causal influence of social media and their opinion leaders in order to determine how public security communication within the available social media channels can (and should) look.

Duration: 2020-2024
Project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Kevin Koban

Social media sites such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram have become an integral part of adolescents' lives due to the high availability of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. In this context, adolescents increasingly use social media in parallel with other activities, e.g., while talking to friends or family, or even during school classes. These activities lead to the phenomenon of being permanently online and constantly connected to others. The ongoing and diverse social media use entails a number of positive aspects such as reinforcing friendships or self-disclosure, but also poses many risks, such as communication stress or becoming a target of cyberbullying. Given the multiple uses of social media, a one-sided focus on positive or negative consequences for adolescents' well-being falls short, as they may occur simultaneously.

Therefore, the central hypothesis of this project states that social media use has both positive and negative influences on adolescents' psychological, social, and physical well-being. To test this assumption we developed an innovative theoretical model. For the first time, we integrate positive and negative consequences of social media use in three key areas of adolescents' lives—information management, relationship management, and identity management—and simultaneously examine their influence on adolescents' well-being. We will investigate six underlying processes as well as different influence factors such as individual predispositions, parental, and peer influences. This approach is a unique attempt to shed new light on how and under which circumstances social media use influences well-being in adolescence.

To that end, we propose an innovative multi-method research design, which combines qualitative interviews with quantitative longitudinal surveys and momentary assessments. The proposed research design therefore allows for an in-depth understanding of social media use and its consequences for adolescents' well-being. In addition, the implementation of longitudinal research designs allows explaining the directionality of the proposed relationships, which can help explain contradicting findings in previous research. Overall, this project guides future research and has important implications for society at large.

Empowering Youth and Cocreating Social Innovations and Policymaking Through Youth-Focused Citizen Social Science

Duration: 2021-2024
Project funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Program for Research and Innovation
Contact: Jörg Matthes

In Europe, and globally, substantial numbers of young people are at risk of social exclusion, and there is therefore a pressing need to develop more knowledge and innovation to create more inclusive and youth-friendly societies. Citizen social science might contribute to these needs, but the actual outcomes of citizen social science and its innovative potential is uncertain. YOUCOUNT will therefore, through cocreative youth citizen social science (Y-CSS) including youths in the age of 15-29 years as citizen scientists, produce new knowledge of positive drivers for social inclusion of youth at risk of exclusion, and cocreate innovations and policymaking. Moreover, to provide evidence of the actual outcomes of Y-CSS through hands on citizen science activities.

Duration: 2021-2023
Project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Contact: Jörg Matthes

Duration: 2018-2022
Project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Contact: Jörg Matthes

The increasing use of social media has spurred hopes that social media may have the power to increase political participation, even among those who used to tune out of the political world. Research findings in the field indeed suggest a positive relationship between social media use and various forms of political participation, such as protesting and political expression. However, there is a lack of theorizing about the precise psychological processes behind this relationship. Hence, we still don't know why and under which circumstances social media may increase participation. One problem is that research in the field is dominated by cross-sectional surveys, which measure social media use and participation for only one point in time. Long-term analyses and experimental studies, which are better suited to explain psychological mechanisms and causal effects, are yet a scarce phenomenon. Drawing on the Social Media Political Participation Model, this project aims at filling this pressing research gap.

Duration: 2021
Project funded by The Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Alice Binder

Duration: 2021
Project funded by the Wiener Linien (Viennese Public Transport Operator)
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Alice Binder

Duration: 2021
Project funded by the Austrian Health Insurance Fund (Österreichische Gesundheitskasse – ÖGK)
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Alice Binder

Perception and Effects of Disclaimer Labels in Social Media

Duration: 2018
Project funded by the Vienna Municipal Department of Women's Affairs (MA 57)
Contact: Kathrin Karsay • Brigitte Naderer

Long Term Effects, Activation and Attention Allocation, as well as Effective Presentations

Duration: 2018-2020
Project funded by the Anniversary Fund of the Austrian National Bank (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, OeNB)
Contact: Jörg Matthes

Duration: 2017-2019
Project funded by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy
Program: Sparkling Science
Contact: Jörg Matthes

Duration: 2017-2018
Project funded by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy
Program: Top Citizen Science
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Alice Binder

Duration: 2015-2017
Project funded by the Anniversary Fund of the Austrian National Bank (Oesterreichische Nationalbank, OeNB)
Contact: Jörg Matthes • Alice Binder

Duration: 2014-2017
Project funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy
Program: Sparkling Science
Contact: Jörg Matthes

Comprehending the Challenge of Mediated Political Populism for Democratic Politics

Duration: 2014-2018
Project funded by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)
COST Action: IS 1308
Austrian participation project: "Populist Political Communication in Austria. Strategies, Media Attention, and Audience Effects"
Contact for Austrian part project: Jörg Matthes