Adam Berinsky

Adam Berinsky is the Mitsui Professor of Political Science at MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he directs the Political Experiments Research Lab (PERL) and serves as a Faculty Affiliate at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS). He earned his PhD from the University of Michigan in 2000 and joined the MIT faculty in 2003. With over 25 years of experience in survey design and analysis, Berinsky specializes in the fields of political behavior and public opinion. His research focuses on the political behavior of ordinary citizens, questions of representation and the communication of public sentiment to political elites, the continuing power of ethnic and racial stereotypes, the effects of voting reforms, survey research methodology, public opinion concerning foreign policy, and particularly political rumors and misinformation, which he has studied intensively for the last 15 years to understand why individuals accept unsubstantiated claims and how to counter misperceptions effectively.

Berinsky is the author of influential books including Political Rumors: Why We Accept Misinformation and How to Fight It (Princeton University Press, 2023), which won the Goldsmith Book Prize from Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center in 2025; In Time of War: Understanding American Public Opinion from World War II to Iraq (University of Chicago Press, 2009); and Silent Voices: Public Opinion and Political Participation in America (Princeton University Press, 2004). He has published extensively in journals such as Political Analysis, Political Behavior, and PS: Political Science and Politics, with notable articles like "The Science of Fake News?" (2018), "Evaluating Online Labor Markets for Experimental Research: Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk" (Political Analysis, 2012), and "Rumors and Health Care Reform: Experiments in Political Misinformation" (2017). Berinsky has received multiple National Science Foundation grants, a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship for his project "Fostering an Accurate Information Ecosystem to Mitigate Polarization in the United States," and the 2024 Miller Prize for a co-authored paper. He co-edits the Chicago Studies in American Politics book series at University of Chicago Press and has briefed officials from the U.S. State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and governments of Finland and Sweden on misinformation strategies. Berinsky has delivered public lectures to academic, professional, and public audiences, including tech companies and MIT alumni groups.

Professional Email: berinsky@mit.edu