Sacha Altay is a postdoctoral research fellow working on misinformation and (mis)trust.

Before coming to Oxford, Sacha completed a PhD in experimental psychology at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Fascinated by (apparently) irrational beliefs, he tried to understand why despite people’s cognitive abilities to resist misinformation, some false beliefs are so widespread. Sacha also tested novel communication techniques to correct people’s misperceptions and fight misinformation. He draws inspiration from theories in social psychology, media studies, and evolutionary psychology. So far, most of his work falls at the intersection of communication and reputation management.

Sacha is a dedicated science communicator. He frequently gives talks to the general public and enjoys writing science popularization articles for journals or scientific blogs. For ethical and epistemic reasons, Sacha is a strong advocate of open science practices.

His research has been published in academic journals such as Nature Human Behaviour, New Media & Society, Digital Journalism, Evolution & Human Behavior and Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Sacha holds a bachelor in sociology from Paris Diderot University and a master in Cognitive Science from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.