I am a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at University College London, Department of Security and Crime Science. My current research examines the interplay between (social) media/information/communication/technology and hate/(violent) extremism/radicalisation in different permutations. I take an interdisciplinary approach and work in the borderlands of communication science, social psychology, and terrorism studies. I am also passionate about meta-research, improving research methods and analyses procedures in extremism and terrorism studies. In the past, I have studied risk factors of radicalisation more broadly, computer-mediated intergroup contact, and online collective action.

I am keen to translate my research into policy and practice. Doing so, I advise governments (e.g., UK Commission on Countering Extremism, UAE Ministry of Culture and Knowledge Development) and collaborate with civil society organisations, such as Soliya, to conduct impact evaluations.

I serve as the program director of the MSc Countering Extremist Crime and Terrorism. Furthermore, I am the module convenor of the undergraduate course ‘Terrorism’ and the post-graduate module ‘Online Hate Crime and Extremism’.

In 2018, I founded JDI Open, a seminar series on open science practices and innovative statistical methods. Since 2023, I am a co-lead of UCL’s chapter of the UK Reproducibility Network.

See my CV for more information.

Current Research Projects

• Habituation to hate speech online: I examine how design features of social media and counter-speech can be used to attenuate the negative/desensitising impact of exposure to hate speech online
• Perceptions of hate speech online and offline: I assess how hate crime is perceived in different settings as well as how bystander intervention can be encouraged online
• Long-term effects of attitudinal inoculation: I investigate moderators of the persistence of inoculation effects in the context of extremist attitudes
• p-curve analysis: I conduct a p-curve analysis of all published work that explores the effect of terrorism on political attitudes and behaviour
• The mobilising potential of Telegram: I investigate to what extent conversations in Telegram channels mobilised individuals for violent protests

Current Doctoral Students

• First supervisor: Nuraishah Mokhtar (2020-present): Using counter-narratives to prevent violent extremism in Malaysia
• First supervisor: Mary-Ann Cherry (2020-present): Developing a dictionary to assess the role of contempt in terrorist propaganda
• Second supervisor: Maria Vau (2023-present): Using LLMs for influence campaigns
• Second supervisor: Yue Jia (2022-present): The effect of counter-speech on online hate speech
• Second supervisor: Tiago Garrido (2022-present): Preventing hostile behaviour in online gaming communities
• Second supervisor: Sergi Bray (2021-present): Measuring the deepfake porn ecosystem

If you are interested in completing your PhD with me, please get in touch at s.schumann [@] ucl.ac.uk.

Recent Pre-prints

Jia, Y. & Schumann, S. (2023). Tackling the Prevalence and Spread of Hate Speech Online: The Effect of Counter-speech on Subsequent Bystander Reactions. https://doi.org/10.33767/osf.io/9jmza

Schumann, S. & Moore, Y. (2023). Examining Bystanders’ Decisions to Not Intervene in Incidents of Hate Speech Online and Offline. https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/e7q5n/

Recent Publications

2024

Marques, T. G., Schumann, S., & Mariconti, E. (2024). Positive behaviour interventions in online gaming: a systematic review of strategies applied in other environments. Crime Science, 13(1), 14.

Schumann, S., & Barton, M. (2024). Does Attitudinal Inoculation Confer Resistance to Violent Extremist Propaganda? Assessing Mechanisms, Long-term Effects, and the Advantage of Visuals. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology.

Schumann, S., Clemmow, C., Rottweiler, B., & Gill, P. (2024). Distinct patterns of incidental exposure to and active selection of radicalizing information indicate varying levels of support for violent extremism. PLoS one, 19(2), e0293810.

Schumann, S., & Zohny, H. (2024). Does attitude importance moderate the effects of person-first language? A registered report. Plos one, 19(3), e0300879.

2023

Cherry, M. & Schumann, S. (2023). The Role of Emotions in the Radicalisation Process. In: Sociology of Violent Extremism (Eds. S. Lakhani and A. Amarasingam). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Clemmow, C., van der Vegt, I., Rottweiler, B., Schumann, S., & Gill, P. (2024). Crowdsourcing samples for research on violent extremism: a research note. Terrorism and political violence, 36(3), 267-282.

Schumann, S. & Bouhana, N. (in press). The Social Ecology of Radicalization. In: Research Handbook On Radicalization (Ed. K. Braddock). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Schumann, S., & Moore, Y. (2023). The COVID-19 outbreak as a trigger event for sinophobic hate crimes in the United Kingdom. The British Journal of Criminology, 63(2), 367-383.

Schumann, S., & Wolfowicz, M. (2023). Can We Compare Attitudes Towards Crime Around the World? Assessing Measurement Invariance of the Morally Debatable Behavior Scale Across 44 Countries. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 1-29.

2022

Bouhana, N. & Schumann, S. (2022). Are Conceptual Frameworks Of Radicalisation Leading To Involvement In Terrorism ‘Observable’?. Report for the Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats.

Braddock, K., Schumann, S., Corner, E., & Gill, P. (2022). The Moderating Effects of “Dark” Personality Traits and Message Vividness on the Persuasiveness of Terrorist Narrative Propaganda. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.

Breznau, N., Rinke, E. M., Wuttke, A., Nguyen, H. H., Adem, M., Adriaans, J., … & Van Assche, J. (2022). Observing many researchers using the same data and hypothesis reveals a hidden universe of uncertainty. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(44).

Ramos, M. R., Schumann, S., & Hewstone, M. (2022). The role of short-term and longer term immigration trends on voting for populist radical right parties in Europe. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 13(4), 816-826.

Schumann, S., & Moore, Y. (2022). What can be achieved with online intergroup contact interventions? Assessing long‐term attitude, knowledge, and behaviour change. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 22(3), 1072-1091.

Schumann, S., Rottweiler, B., & Gill, P. (2022). Assessing the relationship between terrorist attacks against ingroup or outgroup members and public support for terrorism. Frontiers in Psychology, 13.

Contact

• Email: s.schumann [@] ucl.ac.uk
• Twitter: @Sandy_Research