Assistant Professor

Psychology

Dr. Evan Orticio is a developmental psychologist and cognitive scientist. Evan's lab investigates how learners across the lifespan seek evidence and form beliefs, especially in digital contexts. A central aim of this research is to understand how to best support the development of critical thinking and curiosity in an age marked by polarization, distrust, and technological disruption.

Personal website

Assistant Professor of Psychology: 2026-present
First year at Colorado College: 2026

Representative Publications

Shepherd, S. S., Orticio, E., Castañeda Barba, M. I., & Kidd, C. (2026). The Brain Rot Effect: The case for adaptive attentional bandwidth. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 48).

Orticio, E., Meyer, M., & Kidd, C. (2024). Exposure to detectable inaccuracies makes children more diligent fact-checkers of novel claims. Nature Human Behaviour, 8(12), 2322-2329.

Orticio, E., Martí, L., & Kidd, C. (2022). Social prevalence is rationally integrated in belief updating. Open Mind, 6, 77-87.

Selected Media Coverage and Science Communication

Scientific American: Even four-year-olds instinctively fact-check for misinformation.
Scientific American’s The Science of Parenting: Kids see a lot more misinformation than we think.