Wikipedia

Jason Sattizahn

Jason Sattizahn is an American integrative neuroscientist, user experience (UX) researcher, and whistleblower known for his professional contributions to the video game industry and for his 2025 disclosures regarding troubling safety and integrity practices at Meta Platforms.[1][2]

Jason Sattizahn
Born
Missouri, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Chicago
Known for2025 Meta Platforms whistleblowing disclosures
Scientific career
FieldsIntegrative neuroscience, user experience (UX) research
Institutions
Sian Beilock

Education and early academic research

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Sattizahn was born and raised in Missouri.[3] He attended the University of Chicago, where he earned a PhD in integrative neuroscience from the Psychology department in 2017.[4][5] During his academic tenure, the research he published focused on the limitations and changes of the human mind under anxiety and stress, including how perception impacts education and how hormones interact with mental processing.[3][6][7] His most recent academic work investigated how fluctuating hormone levels and competition outcomes affected working memory and mathematical accuracy.[8] His doctoral adviser was Sian Beilock.[5]

Career

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Video game development

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Sattizahn served as a UX Researcher for Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) in the Worldwide Studios Experience Lab.[9][10][11] His research contributed to several major PlayStation titles, including Horizon: Zero Dawn (2017)[11] and God of War (2018), the 2018 Game of the Year.[12][9][10]

Meta

Between April 2018 and May 2024, Sattizahn worked as a UX researcher at Meta Platforms.[1][13] During his six-year tenure, he held senior roles leading integrity research for Facebook Marketplace, Facebook’s Faith initiative, and ranking.[4] In 2022, he transitioned to the Reality Labs division, where he served as a senior researcher focused on safety & integrity for Virtual Reality (VR) hardware.[1][4]

Whistleblowing

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In September 2025, Sattizahn and five other researchers – comprising both current and past Meta employees – came forward as a group to allege that Meta systematically manipulated, suppressed or erased internal research regarding harms to Meta’s users and children.[14][15] Represented by the legal non-profit Whistleblower Aid, the group filed a detailed disclosure and provided a trove of internal documents to Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).[14][16]

On September 9, 2025, Sattizahn and fellow whistleblower Cayce Savage provided sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law in a hearing titled "Hidden Harms".[4][2][16][17] Their testimony alleged that Meta took severe Legal Intervention against Research at the company following the 2021 release of "The Facebook Files" by Frances Haugen. Testimony detailed that Meta’s legal department intervened in research to "lock down" information[4] through what Sattizahn described as a “funnel manipulation put on research”.[4] Researchers were reportedly instructed to include lawyers in their work so Meta’s Legal team could determine what and how research was performed, how to write research findings (write vaguely, avoiding terms like "illegal" or "not compliant") and protect Meta from potential findings being seen by "adverse parties" via attorney-client privilege.[15]

The testimony provided extensive details regarding Meta's actions, including:

  • Suppression and Deletion of Evidence: Sattizahn testified that Meta "systematically covered up" harms by manipulating and erasing data that Meta deemed unfavorable,[1][16] and that Meta had required researchers to delete data that showed harm to kids occurring on Meta’s platforms.[17]
  • Prioritizing Profits over Safety: Sattizahn stated that Meta “deliberately compromising internal processes, policies, and research to protect company profits over their users,[4] and stated that Meta knowingly ignored child safety because "children drive profits".[18][2] Sattizahn and Savage both testified that Meta lacked adequate data regarding the actual ages of its users, allowing many children under 13 to remain on the platform to maintain high metrics[2][4] and claimed that the company avoided safety measures that would decrease user engagement, monetization, or ad revenue.
  • Hostile Research Environment: Researchers were reportedly told to avoid performing research and work that might produce evidence of child harm.[13][14] Sattizahn also testified that Meta’s legal team threatened their careers in order to get researchers to follow the Meta Legal team’s reportedly inappropriate instructions, stating that one Meta lawyer told him “You wouldn't want to have to testify publicly if this research was to get out, would you?”[17]

References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 "Meta whistleblower rallies against Zuckerberg's teen safety failures before Connect event". Cybernews. 2025-09-18. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Former Meta employees say they saw child abuse in VR before company blocked research". NBC News. 2025-09-10. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  3. 1 2 Maloney, Erin A.; Sattizahn, Jason R.; Beilock, Sian L. (July 2014). "Anxiety and cognition". WIREs Cognitive Science. 5 (4): 403–411. doi:10.1002/wcs.1299. ISSN 1939-5078. PMID 26308653.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Hidden Harms: Examining Whistleblower Allegations that Meta Buried Child Safety Research | United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary". www.judiciary.senate.gov. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  5. 1 2 Sattizahn, Jason Ryan (2017). ERROR-RELATED BRAIN ACTIVITY, ANXIETY AND COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE (Thesis). University of Chicago. doi:10.6082/m17w69bf.
  6. ↑ Sattizahn, Jason R.; Lyons, Daniel J.; Kontra, Carly; Fischer, Susan M.; Beilock, Sian L. (September 2015). "In Physics Education, Perception Matters". Mind, Brain, and Education. 9 (3): 164–169. doi:10.1111/mbe.12085. ISSN 1751-2271.
  7. ↑ Sattizahn, Jason R.; Moser, Jason S.; Beilock, Sian L. (2016-12-01). "A Closer Look at Who "Chokes Under Pressure"". Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. Working Memory in the Wild: Applied Research in Working Memory. 5 (4): 470–477. doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2016.11.004. ISSN 2211-3681.
  8. ↑ Henry, Andrea; Sattizahn, Jason R.; Norman, Greg J.; Beilock, Sian L.; Maestripieri, Dario (2017-06-01). "Performance during competition and competition outcome in relation to testosterone and cortisol among women". Hormones and Behavior. Hormones and Human Competition. 92: 82–92. doi:10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.03.010. ISSN 0018-506X. PMID 28428002.
  9. 1 2 Shanley, Patrick (2019-11-19). "The Game Awards Reveals Full List of Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  10. 1 2 "God of War credits (PlayStation 4, 2018)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  11. 1 2 "Horizon: Zero Dawn credits (PlayStation 4, 2017)". MobyGames. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  12. ↑ Shanley, Patrick (2019-11-19). "The Game Awards Reveals Full List of Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  13. 1 2 "Meta covered up potential child harms, whistleblowers claim". www.bbc.com. 2025-09-10. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  14. 1 2 3 Kerr, Dara (2025-09-08). "Meta hid harms to children from VR products, whistleblowers allege". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  15. 1 2 Silberling, Amanda (2025-09-08). "Meta suppressed children's safety research, 4 whistleblowers claim". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  16. 1 2 3 Harris, Geoff (2025-09-09). "Meta whistleblowers testify on Capitol Hill; allege tech giant manipulated VR research". The National News Desk. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  17. 1 2 3 Hendrix, Justin (2025-09-10). "Transcript: US Senate Hearing on 'Examining Whistleblower Allegations that Meta Buried Child Safety Research'". Tech Policy Press. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  18. ↑ "Instagram says it will make the app more 'PG-13' for teens with a new series of changes". NBC News. 2025-10-14. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
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