COST-X
​The epistemology of costly communication – offline and online
👷🚧🏗️ [Website currently under construction] 👷🚧🏗️ 

What motivates truthful communication? Do these motivations change in online interactions? We study the social and reputational costs that sustain truthful communication, and how digital technologies can change them and disrupt them.

The Project

COST-X (The epistemology of costly communication – offline and online) is a research project funded by the European Research Council through an ERC Starting Grant (Grant Agreement n. 101164219), running from 2025 to 2030 at the University of Turin.

COST-X aims to investigate what motivates truthful communication by studying the reputational and social costs that sustain honest communication. It will improve our understanding of how communicative norms function, how speakers use linguistic deniability to reduce their exposure to reputational costs, how testimony transmits knowledge, and how digital platforms alter the incentives that keep communication reliable. As such, COST-X will further socially and politically relevant lines of research: it will explore how online communication environments affect the spread of misinformation, providing philosophical foundations for understanding and improving the epistemic health of digital platforms.

Work with us!

We currently have some positions that are open or about to open. Click below for more information about each one. For expressions of interest in future openings, please use the form below.

Visitors

International collaboration is essential to COST-X. Research visits, talks, and joint work with partner institutions are central to the project. Below is a list of scholars who have visited or are planning to visit us.
  • MG Mikkel Gerken

    Mikkel Gerken

    Professor of Philosophy, University of Southern Denmark

    Invited Seminar8 April 2026 - "The Structure of Scientific Recommendations"

  • MG Mitchell Green

    Mitchell Green

    Professor of Philosophy, University of Connecticut

    Research Visit16-17 April 2026

  • DJ Dominik Jarczewski

    Dominik Jarczewski

    Institute of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University, Krakow

    Research Visit20 April - 1 May 2026

  • MA Mark Alfano

    Mark Alfano

    Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University

    Research Visit9-17 June 2026


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​COST-X event are hosted by LLC at the University of Turin.
Information about events (past and future) is available here and here.

Contact Us

Feel free to contact us for any question about the project