CII Lecture Series: Five Lessons Learned from Studying Thousands of Years of Falsehoods (9-19-25)

The talk was followed by a book signing. Copies of Dr. Ophir's book were available for purchase.

Misinformation is nothing new. For as long as humans have communicated, they also manipulated information and deceived others to gain power. Nevertheless, scholars, journalists and pundits have recently expressed deep concerns about humanity entering a new “Post-Truth” era, one driven by the collapse of truth and political turmoil. In this talk, Dr. Ophir argues that humans have never been motivated by accuracy, and that the current moment could be better explained by considering unprecedented technological and political developments, and their impact on the information environment and on social life.

Yotam Ophir (PhD, Univ. of Pennsylvania, 2018) is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University at Buffalo. He studies political and science communication , with a focus on media effects, persuasion, misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism. Dr. Ophir’s work was published in journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), American Journal of Public Health (AJPH), and Journal of Communication (JOC). His book Misinformation & Society was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2025. Dr. Ophir is the head of the Media Effects, Misinformation, and Extremism (MEME) lab, is a member of UB’s Center for Information Integrity and the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, and is a distinguished fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2024, he was selected as one of 10 “Early Carrer Scientists to Watch” by Science-News Magazine. In 2023, he received the “Exceptional Scholar: Young Investigator Award” from the University at Buffalo and in 2024 the SUNY's Chancellor’s Horizon Award for Faculty Research and Scholarship.