I am a computational social scientist at the University of Milan. I study how political beliefs are organised, how they change, and how they shape political behaviour. My work combines survey research with network analysis, psychometrics, and computational methods.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher on LONELY-EU, a Horizon Europe project examining loneliness and its social and political consequences. Previously, I worked on the comparative SUSPECTS project on the supply, demand, and communication of conspiracy theories.

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Research

Political belief systems

I treat political belief systems as relational structures: attitudes, identities, and evaluations are connected rather than isolated. My research develops and compares network methods for describing how these systems are organised, how tightly their elements are connected, and how much people agree on their structure.

Conspiracy beliefs

I study conspiracist beliefs comparatively and examine how they relate to ideology, knowledge, political communication, and public-health attitudes. In my work on Italian vaccine hesitancy, conspiracy beliefs refer specifically to beliefs about the origin of COVID-19 that were considered conspiratorial when the survey was conducted. The study shows that endorsement of these beliefs occupies a central position within a wider system of interconnected predictors of vaccine hesitancy.

Social disconnectedness and political behaviour

Within LONELY-EU, I investigate how loneliness and objective social isolation relate to political attitudes and participation, including voter turnout. I also develop resources for comparative research on loneliness, including the EU Loneliness Explorer.

Selected recent work

• Conspiracy Theories Are Central to the Complex System of Predictors of Italian Vaccine Hesitancy — Italian Political Science (2026). Read the article.
• SUSPECTS: Supply, Demand, and Communication of Conspiracy Theories in Comparative Perspective — Italian Political Science (2026). Read the article.
• Beyond Constraint: Tightness and Consensus of Political Belief Systems — Italian Political Science Review (2025). Read the article.
• Consolidation and Change: Exploring the Impact of Anger and Network Dynamics on Inequality Belief Systems — Network Science (2025). Read the article.

Latest updates

• July 2026: New article on conspiracy theories and Italian vaccine hesitancy published in Italian Political Science.
• 2026: Presented new LONELY-EU research on social isolation, loneliness, and voter turnout in Europe.
• February 2026: Released the LONELY-EU database of loneliness datasets in Europe and published the SUSPECTS project article.
• 2025: Completed my PhD in Political Science and began my LONELY-EU postdoctoral position at the University of Milan.

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