Blog
Science, Health, Technology
Raffael Heiss
A communication and policy researcher, committed to studying and uncovering strategic interests in health and political communication.
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Raffael Heiss is a professor at the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI) and a founding member of MCI's Center for Social & Health Innovation. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Georgetown University in fall 2022. He received his PhD from the Department of Communication, University of Vienna. Raffael is also associate editor of the European Journal of Health Communication.
Impact-Driven Researcher & Teacher
Raffael publishes his work in leading journals across disciplines and has contributed to securing research funding totaling over a million Euros. He teaches courses in statistics, science communication and health policy, mis- and disinformation, and research management. In both his research and teaching, Raffael is committed to creating societal impact, for example by incorporating practitioners and field work into his teaching, or by involving citizens in the scientific research process (an approach called "citizen science"). He received several competitive awards for his dissertation, research, and teaching. Raffael is also involved in consulting projects, most recently a tendered project for the European Parliament on "How to Reduce the Impact of Disinformation on Europeans' Health?".
PI, Health Influencers on Social Media
Raffael is principal investigator of the project Health Influencers on Social Media (HISM), which receives funding from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). Influencers are strategic communicators who often follow commercial interests. The HISM team creates a typology of these influencers and examines their content. On the demand side, they investigate the epidemiology of influencers in a representative survey, including their reach and young people's engagement with influencers. In addition, HISM develops web-based experiments to assess the attitudinal and behavioral consequences of influencers' health communication. More information on the HISM team, recent results and news from the project can be found on the HISM website.
More Activities & Network
Raffael is working with international partners to tackle one of the key challenges of our time: the spread of dis- and misinformation in digital media.
Developing a new framework on fighting misinformation
Raffael is collaborating with Leticia Bode, Samantha Bradshaw, Ethan Porter and other dedicated misinformation researchers to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework called the Socio-Ecological Responses to Misinformation (SERM) framework. SERM identifies the strategic actors and communicators that can and should support responses to misinformation. It will guide research and policy action to reduce the amount of misinformation on social media.
Addressing social media platforms' influence on academic research
Together with Isabelle Freiling, Raffael is identifying and addressing the challenge of Big Tech's influence on independent academic research and science communication. In particular, they are working on the strategic influence of social media platforms in shaping policy-relevant social media research.
Building research collaborations on influencers and health
Together with Steven Woloshin, Sneha Dave and others, Raffael is currently conducting a scoping review of prescription drug promotion on social media. Find the protocol here.
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Exploring the strategic promotion of health tests on social media
Together with Brooke Nickel, Emma Grundtvig Gram, Patti Shih and others, Raffael is conducting a content analysis of how the strategic promotion of health tests on social media may contribute to overdiagnosis.
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Identifying sources of trust in influencer communication
Together with Kathrin Karsay, Christian von Sikorski, Raffael is working on assessing the trustworthiness of social media influencers, including their perceived credibility and expertise. A workshop is planned for May 31, 2024. The group is also guest editing a special issue on "Social Media Influencers: Content and Effects on Citizens’ Attitudes and Behavior" for the American Behavioral Scientist.
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Developing a tool to support critical appraisal of online content
Together with Ursula Griebler, Bernd Kerschner and others, Raffael is developing a user-friendly, validated tool for assessing the reliability of health information on social media. The team is using a citizen science approach to develop the tool and will then test it through web-based trials.
Tackling health disinformation in the EU
Together with consultants from Milieu Law & Policy Consulting, Raffael is working on a comprehensive report for the European Parliament on "How to Reduce the Impact of Disinformation on Europeans' Health?"
Recent Publications
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​Nickel, B., Moynihan, R., Gram, E. G., Copp, T., Taba, M., Shih, P., Heiss, R., Gao, M., & Zadro, J. R. (2025). Social media posts on Instagram and TikTok about medical tests with potential for overdiagnosis. JAMA Network Open, 8(2), e2461940.
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Heiss, R., Leuprecht, E., Zoller, C., Schütze, D., Sahling, F., Schamberger, L., Überall, M., Gell, S., & Griebler, R. (2025). Does school education enhance children’s health literacy? Zeitschrift für Bildungsforschung.
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Aouati, O., Freguglia, P., Heiss, R., Patras, S., Pavlou, P., Pelsy, F., & Truc, M. (2024). How to reduce the impact of disinformation on Europeans’ health (Study requested by the SANT Subcommittee). Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies, Directorate-General for Internal Policies. European Parliament.
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Heiss, R., Bode, L., Adisuryo, Z. M., Brito, L., Cuadra, A., Gao, P., Han, Y., Hearst, M., Huang, K., Kinyua, A., Lin, T., Ma, Y., Manion, T. O., Roh, Y., Salazar, A., Yue, S., & Zhang, P. (2024). Debunking Mental Health Misperceptions in Short-Form Social Media Videos: An Experimental Test of Scientific Credibility Cues. Health Communication.
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Engel, E., Gell, S., Heiss, R., & Karsay, K. (2024). Social media influencers and adolescents' health: A scoping review of the research field. Social Science & Medicine.
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Heiss, R., Nanz, A., Matthes, J. (2023). Social Media Information Literacy: Conceptualization and Associations with Information Overload, News Avoidance and Conspiracy Mentality. Computers in Human Behavior.​
Visit Google Scholar or ResearchGate for a full list of publications.
Contact
Raffael Heiss
MCI – The Entrepreneurial School
Universitätsstrasse 15
6020 Innsbruck
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