Sinan Aral

Papers

Total Citations

8,310

H-Index

About

Sinan Aral is a pioneering computational social scientist whose research lies at the intersection of network science, information diffusion, and digital influence. He is best known for his landmark 2018 study, "The spread of true and false news online," which analyzed over 126,000 stories on Twitter and revealed that falsehoods spread significantly farther, faster, and more broadly than the truth—a finding that has garnered over 8,310 citations and reshaped global conversations about misinformation. Aral’s broader contributions include developing methods to measure peer influence in social networks and quantifying the economic value of social advertising. His work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Lagrange Prize for Complex Systems and the NSF CAREER Award. A professor at MIT and director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Aral also authored the influential book *The Hype Machine*, which examines how social media shapes our decisions and society. His research continues to inform policy, platform design, and public understanding of digital ecosystems.