Pew Research Center’s Data Labs team uses data science tools and techniques to produce original research. The team contributes to the Center’s reputation for experimentation and tells interesting stories about the behaviors and life experiences of the public.
As modern life has become increasingly digitized, researchers now have access to many new types of data for understanding broader social trends. Data Labs uses these sources to study topics like:
- How influential voices on social media are shaping the information landscape for topics like news or health and wellness.
- Who posts on social media and the types of accounts U.S. adults follow there.
- How tools like AI search summaries are changing people’s online behaviors.
- How the country’s geography is changing in response to trends like marijuana legalization or the data center boom.
- How different institutions are using mass media to spread their messages to the public.
We often link our findings with the Center’s survey data. This lets us tell more cohesive stories about how people’s behaviors and environments tie together with their attitudes and opinions.
In addition to conducting public-facing research, Data Labs helps manage the Center’s computing infrastructure; sets standards for collaborative, replicable data analysis; and develops rigorous, transparent processes for automating research tasks like content classification.