George Beknazar-Yuzbashev

on the 2026–2027 academic job market

I run field experiments on social media platforms to study how toxic content, advertising, and ranking shape engagement, political behavior, welfare, and mental health.

applied microeconomics
political economics
behavioral economics

job market paper

Social Media Toxicity and Mental Health

What happens to mental health when toxic content is removed from social media?

We randomize a cross-platform browser extension that hides toxic posts and comments for six weeks (N = 664). Contrary to intuition, filtering toxicity worsens mental health: a 0.15σ rise in a GAD-7/PHQ-8 symptom index, with loneliness and a diminished relative moral self-view as candidate channels.

with Francesco Capozza, Kylan Rutherford, and Mateusz Stalinski

paper (PDF)

selected work

Toxic Content and User Engagement on Social Media: Evidence from a Field Experiment American Economic Review, conditionally accepted with Jiménez-Durán, Stalinski, and McCrosky
Do Social Media Ads Matter for Political Behavior? A Field Experiment Journal of Public Economics, 2022 with Stalinski included in the 2023 Economic Report of the President

all research