Research / Online radicalization and misinformation
Radicalization and misinformation
How do movements build their narratives, and how does language change as people move toward extreme positions?
Published work analyses the language of the Querdenken movement during COVID-19. Querdenken (German for “lateral thinking”) is a protest movement that formed in Germany in 2020 against the government's pandemic measures.
For my master's thesis I studied the language of r/Incels, an online forum of men who call themselves “involuntary celibates”, and how users' language changes as they radicalize.
TikTalks studies radical and polarizing content on TikTok and how young adults in Bavaria meet it in their feeds.
Projects
Talks
9 Sep 2026 · Invited presentation at networking meeting of the Bavarian State Ministry for Family, Labour and Social Affairs (radicalization prevention), Munich: The TikTalks project
27 May 2025 · Talk at re:publica 25, Berlin: Gen Z “radicalized through TikTok”: myth or reality? (with Yasmin Al-Douri)
20 Jul 2023 · Talk at IC2S2, Copenhagen: Decoding the discourse: analyzing the linguistic features and strategies behind the Querdenken movement's COVID-19 narrative
Publications
Sobieska, A., Hampel, M., Weidenspointner, R., Pauli, V., Pan, C., Jun, S.-M., & Gutsmiedl, P. (2025). Decoding the discourse: Analyzing the linguistic features and strategies behind the Querdenken movement's COVID-19 narrative. Health Communication, 40(12), 2591–2601.