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Social Sciences and Humanities
Switzerland
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Social Sciences and Humanities

D-Index
70
Citations
35671
World Ranking
750
National Ranking
4

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in Switzerland Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in Switzerland Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Social Sciences and Humanities in Switzerland Leader Award

Overview

Eszter Hargittai is affiliated with the University of Zurich in Switzerland, specializing primarily in Social Sciences with an emphasis on Sociology and Political Science, Communication, Demography, Information Systems, and Statistical and Nonlinear Physics. Their research spans multiple subfields and topics related to the social implications of digital technology and communication.

Their recent publications address issues of digital communication, inequality, and public trust during periods of crisis, particularly focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic. Notable papers include "Changes in Digital Communication During the COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Implications for Digital Inequality and Future Research" (2020) published in Social Media + Society, "Staying connected while physically apart: Digital communication when face-to-face interactions are limited" (2021) in New Media & Society, and "Digital inequality in communication during a time of physical distancing: The case of COVID-19" (2021) in Computers in Human Behavior. Additional works include "Who Doesn't Trust Fauci? The Public's Belief in the Expertise and Shared Values of Scientists in the COVID-19 Pandemic" (2020) in Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World and "Black box measures? How to study people's algorithm skills" (2020) in Information Communication & Society.

The scholar has collaborated frequently with colleagues such as Minh Hao Nguyen, Aaron Shaw, Amanda Hunsaker, Elissa M. Redmiles, and Jaelle Fuchs, indicating a network of co-researchers actively engaged in related areas of study.

Contributions to academic literature also extend to book publications, including titles such as Connected in Isolation (2022) published by The MIT Press and Research Exposed (2020) by Columbia University Press.

They regularly publish in venues that focus on social sciences and technology, with a history of multiple works in outlets such as Harvard Dataverse, Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich), Social Media + Society, Information Communication & Society, and Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World.

Their research covers a range of topics including:

  • Social Media and Politics
  • Impact of Technology on Adolescents
  • Misinformation and Its Impacts
  • Technology Use by Older Adults
  • COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing
  • Privacy, Security, and Data Protection
  • Sharing Economy and Platforms

Best Publications

  • Social Implications of the Internet

    Paul DiMaggio;Eszter Hargittai;W. Russell Neuman;John P. Robinson

  • Digital Na(t)ives? Variation in Internet Skills and Uses among Members of the “Net Generation”*

    Eszter Hargittai

  • Whose Space? Differences Among Users and Non-Users of Social Network Sites

    Eszter Hargittai

  • Second-Level Digital Divide: Differences in People's Online Skills

    Eszter Hargittai

  • Digital Inequality Differences in Young Adults' Use of the Internet

    Eszter Hargittai;Amanda Hinnant

  • Second-level digital divide

    Eszter Hargittai

  • Digital Inequality: From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use

    Paul Dimaggio;Eszter Hargittai;Coral Celeste;Steven Shafer

  • The participation Divide: Content creation and sharing in the digital age

    Eszter Hargittai;Gina Walejko

  • Differences in Actual and Perceived Online Skills: The Role of Gender*

    Eszter Hargittai;Steven Shafer

  • Digital Distinction: Status-Specific Types of Internet Usage

    Nicole Zillien;Eszter Hargittai

  • Weaving the Western Web: explaining differences in Internet connectivity among OECD countries

    Eszter Hargittai

  • A review of Internet use among older adults

    Amanda Hunsaker;Eszter Hargittai

  • Survey Measures of Web-Oriented Digital Literacy

    Eszter Hargittai

  • The disability divide in internet access and use

    Kerry Dobransky;Eszter Hargittai

  • Facebook privacy settings: Who cares?

    danah boyd;Eszter Hargittai

  • The Digital Divide and What to Do About It

    Eszter Hargittai

  • From internet access to internet skills: digital inequality among older adults

    Eszter Hargittai;Anne Marie Piper;Meredith Ringel Morris

  • Trust Online: Young Adults' Evaluation of Web Content

    Eszter Hargittai;Lindsay Fullerton;Ericka Menchen-Trevino;Kristin Yates Thomas

  • Cross-ideological discussions among conservative and liberal bloggers

    Eszter Hargittai;Jason Gallo;Matthew Kane

  • Facebook and academic performance: Reconciling a media sensation with data

    Josh Pasek;eian more;Eszter Hargittai

  • From Unequal Access to Differentiated Use: A Literature Review and Agenda for Research on Digital Inequality

    Paul DiMaggio;Eszter Hargittai;Coral Celeste;Steven Shafer

Frequent Co-Authors

Paul Dimaggio
Paul Dimaggio New York University
John P. Robinson
John P. Robinson University of Maryland, College Park
Jeremy Freese
Jeremy Freese Stanford University
danah boyd
danah boyd Microsoft (United States)
Alice E. Marwick
Alice E. Marwick University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Daniel G. Goldstein
Daniel G. Goldstein Microsoft (United States)
William H. Dutton
William H. Dutton University of Oxford
Mark Graham
Mark Graham King's College London
Jessica Vitak
Jessica Vitak University of Maryland, College Park

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