EXPERIMENTALIST STUDYING NETWORKED MEDIA AND GROUP DYNAMICS

Hunter Priniski, PhD

Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLA

I'm a data scientist and experimental psychologist studying how the internet, AI, and digital media shapes people's learning and social interactions. My research integrates psychology experiments on individuals and networked groups, computational models of human behavior, open-source software development, and large-scale analyses of social media to understand how psychological mechanisms and networked interactions give rise to shared understanding and group coordination.

I apply this research to develop digital and physical interventions that foster shared narratives and actively advocate for technology and urban development that harnesses — rather than limits — individual and collective agency.

Below are selected research projects highlighting my data science methods, experiments, and theoretical work. This Python notebook on measuring narrative alignment demonstrates the core methodology. Visit the Research Portfolio for additional themes. Full publications on Google Scholar. Reach out: priniski@ucla.edu

Research Highlights

PNAS 2026
Network Structure Shapes Consensus Dynamics
Network experiment overview

How shared narratives emerge in decentralized online networks — network topology and narrative complexity jointly determine whether groups converge or fragment.

PNAS Network Science Experiments
ONGOING
Faithscape
New Sage Press — Faithscape publication

Interdisciplinary research on religion as a system of narrative, belief, and community building — applying data science, urban design, and cognitive psychology.

Religion Urban Design Community
CogSci 2018–2020
Crowdsourcing Effective Educational Interventions
Interactive data narrative on racial inequity

Data mined from Reddit's Change My View, repurposed into persuasive educational interventions tested on thousands of Americans, demonstrating belief change at scale.

NLP Experiments Belief Change

Selected Publications