University of Cambridge
Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg
PhD Candidate
Department of Psychology
University of Cambridge
I am a Psychology PhD Candidate in the Social Decision-Making Lab at the University of Cambridge supervised by Professor Sander van der Linden where my work seeks to bridge the fields of social influence and cognitive science.
Broadly speaking, my work examines how social context (e.g., social cues and group dynamics) shapes and impacts individual-level beliefs, behaviours, and judgements of information and messages about topics such as science, climate change and politics. My work seeks to improve current and develop new interventions aimed at reducing misinformation susceptibility and improving resistance to persuasion and coercion. I predominantly work on so-called 'vaccines' against persuasion. The ultimate aim of my research is to improve the public's access to credible information and truth, and to improve their ability to navigate an increasingly complex information environment.
My research is funded by the Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship and the Economic and Social Research Council. I am co-organiser of the Cambridge Social Psychology Seminar Series, which hosts prominent international speakers who give talks on their cutting-edge social psychological research.
I received my MPhil from the University of Cambridge in 2019 under Professor Sander van der Linden where I examined the effect of social cues on susceptibility to online misinformation.
I completed my MSc in Social Cognition in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London in 2017. There, supervised by Dr. Uri Hertz and Dr. Bahador Bahrami, I conducted research at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London on the strategic use of confidence as an influence signal. I also hold a BSc in Marketing with Psychology (First Class Honours) from the University of Lancaster.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Note: Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg was formerly known as Cecilie Steenbuch Olesen.
Traberg, C.S. (2022) Misinformation: broaden definition to curb its societal influence. Nature, 606 (653).
Roozenbeek, J., Traberg, C.S. & van der Linden, S. (2022). Technique-Based Inoculation Against Real-World Misinformation. Royal Society Open Science, 9 (5), 211719.
Traberg, C. S., Roozenbeek, J. & van der Linden, S. (2022). Psychological Inoculation against Misinformation: Current Evidence and Future Directions. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 700, 136-151.
Rathje, Steve., Roozenbeek, J., Traberg. C. S., Van Bavel, J. J. & van der Linden, S. (2022) Letter to the Editors of Psychological Science: Meta-Analysis Reveals that Accuracy Nudges Have Little to No Effect for US Conservatives: Regarding Pennycook et. al (2020). Psychological Science.
Traberg, C S. and van der Linden, S. (2022). Birds of a feather are persuaded together: Perceived source credibility mediates the effect of political bias on misinformation susceptibility. Personality and Individual Differences, 185, 111269.
van der Linden, S., Roozenbeek, J., Maertens, R., Basol, M., Kácha, O., Rathje, S., & Traberg, C. (2021). How Can Psychological Science Help Counter the Spread of Fake News? The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 24, E25. doi:10.1017/SJP.2021.23
Hertz, U., Tyropoulou E., Traberg C. S., Bahrami B. (2020). Self-competence increases the willingness to pay for social influence. Scientific Reports, 10. DOI: doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-74857-5
Piazza, J. R., McLatchie, N. M., & Olesen, C. S. (2018). Are baby animals less appetizing? Tenderness towards baby animals and appetite for meat . Anthrozoos, 31(3), 319-335. DOI: 10.1080/08927936.2018.1455456
Hertz, U., Palminteri, S., Brunetti, S., Olesen, C. S., Frith, C. D., & Bahrami, B. (2017). Neural computations underpinning the strategic management of influence in advice giving. Nature Communications, 8(1). DOI:10.1038/s41467-017-02314-5