Cameron Martel, PhD

Cameron Martel is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. His research investigates why people believe and share misinformation, what forces shape online social networks, and which content moderation interventions are effective for improving information quality online. 

He uses a variety of methods to examine these topics, including online survey experiments, social media field experiments, behavioral economic games, and computational social science analytics. He joined Carey in 2025 after receiving a PhD in Management Science from MIT Sloan School of Management. Additional information on research and publications is available at martelcameron.com.

Education

• PhD, Management Science, MIT Sloan School of Management / S.M., Management Research, MIT Sloan School of Management / B.S., Cognitive Science, Yale University

Research

Selected publications

• Martel, C., Berinsky, A. J., Rand, D. G., Zhang, A. X., & Resnick, P. (2025). Perceived legitimacy of layperson and expert content moderators. PNAS Nexus, 4(5), pgaf111.
• Martel, C.*, Mosleh, M.*, Yang, Q., Zaman, T., & Rand, D. G. (2024). Blocking of counter-partisan accounts drives political assortment on Twitter. PNAS Nexus, 3(5), pgae161.
• Martel, C. & Rand, D. G. (2024). Fact-checker warning labels are effective even for those who distrust fact-checkers. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(10), 1957-1967.
• Martel, C., Rathje, S., Pennycook, G., Clark, C., Van Bavel, J. J., Rand, D. G., & van der Linden, S. (2024). On the efficacy of accuracy prompts across party lines: An adversarial collaboration. Psychological Science, 35(4), 435-450.
• Mosleh, M.*, Martel, C.*, & Rand, D. G. (2024). Psychological underpinnings of partisan bias in tie formation on social media. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
• Martel, C., Allen, J., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2023). Crowds can effectively identify misinformation at scale. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 19(2), 477-488.
• Martel, C., Pennycook, G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Reliance on emotion promotes belief in fake news. Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications, 5, 1-20.

Working papers

"Political motives help rather than hinder crowdsourced fact-checking" (with Jennifer Allen*, Gordon Pennycook, & David G. Rand)

Teaching

Current

Marketing research

Honors and Distinctions

• MIT Sloan Doctoral Research Forum Thesis Prize, 2025
• Meta Foundational Integrity Research Award (with Mohsen Mosleh, David G. Rand), 2023 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, 2020-2025 

In the media

• Why social media is the new frontier for misinformation, and what we can do about it (with Mohsen Mosleh; 2025, March)
• The Oxford Internet Institute Pod cast
• Fact-checker warnings are surprisingly effective even for skeptics (2025, February) 
  Character & Context - Society for Personality and Social Psychology
• We need content moderation: Meta is out of step with public opinion (with David G. Rand; 2025, January) The Hil I Believing false news: A crime of passion? (2021, March) 
  Character & Context - Society for Personality and Social Psychology