Chris Bail
@chrisbail.bsky.social
Duke Professor directing https://scai.duke.edu, https://sicss.io & https://polarizationlab.com. Author of Breaking the Social Media Prism.
Reposted by Chris Bail
🚨Out in PNAS🚨
Examining news on 7 platforms:
1)Right-leaning platforms=lower quality news
2)Echo-platforms: Right-leaning news gets more engagement on right-leaning platforms, vice-versa for left-leaning
3)Low-quality news gets more engagement EVERYWHERE - even BlueSky!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Examining news on 7 platforms:
1)Right-leaning platforms=lower quality news
2)Echo-platforms: Right-leaning news gets more engagement on right-leaning platforms, vice-versa for left-leaning
3)Low-quality news gets more engagement EVERYWHERE - even BlueSky!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 14, 2025 at 2:35 PM
🚨Out in PNAS🚨
Examining news on 7 platforms:
1)Right-leaning platforms=lower quality news
2)Echo-platforms: Right-leaning news gets more engagement on right-leaning platforms, vice-versa for left-leaning
3)Low-quality news gets more engagement EVERYWHERE - even BlueSky!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Examining news on 7 platforms:
1)Right-leaning platforms=lower quality news
2)Echo-platforms: Right-leaning news gets more engagement on right-leaning platforms, vice-versa for left-leaning
3)Low-quality news gets more engagement EVERYWHERE - even BlueSky!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Chris Bail
What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma.
It's *scientific publishing*.
We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...
Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇
It's *scientific publishing*.
We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...
Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇
November 12, 2025 at 10:31 AM
What is the most profitable industry in the world, this side of the law? Not oil, not IT, not pharma.
It's *scientific publishing*.
We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...
Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇
It's *scientific publishing*.
We call this the Drain of Scientific Publishing.
Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Background: doi.org/10.1162/qss_...
Thread @markhanson.fediscience.org.ap.brid.gy 👇
The ENSAE-CREST is hiring a computational sociologist -- Assistant or Associate Professor.
Date of appointment: September 2026.
Details here : www.css.cnrs.fr/assistant-or...
Date of appointment: September 2026.
Details here : www.css.cnrs.fr/assistant-or...
www.css.cnrs.fr
October 24, 2025 at 11:48 PM
The ENSAE-CREST is hiring a computational sociologist -- Assistant or Associate Professor.
Date of appointment: September 2026.
Details here : www.css.cnrs.fr/assistant-or...
Date of appointment: September 2026.
Details here : www.css.cnrs.fr/assistant-or...
Reposted by Chris Bail
This is absolutely wild. I’m on a cross country flight. We are being diverted midway through to Denver. The reason? Some dude is sitting in the exit row who didn’t pay the $155 fee and he refuses to move back to his seat.
October 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM
This is absolutely wild. I’m on a cross country flight. We are being diverted midway through to Denver. The reason? Some dude is sitting in the exit row who didn’t pay the $155 fee and he refuses to move back to his seat.
$10 million for a computer scientist who is interested in building a lab that creates new technology to increase civil discourse-- really looking forward to working with the Laude Institute on this new "moonshot" program: moonshots.laude.org
Laude Institute | Moonshots
Seed funding and multi-year labs for proven academic researchers using AI to tackle species-level challenges. Apply for Moonshot funding in civic discourse, scientific acceleration, frontline healthca...
moonshots.laude.org
October 10, 2025 at 11:22 AM
$10 million for a computer scientist who is interested in building a lab that creates new technology to increase civil discourse-- really looking forward to working with the Laude Institute on this new "moonshot" program: moonshots.laude.org
Reposted by Chris Bail
Stanford Sociology is fortunate to have an open senior search this year! More info in the job announcement here: facultypositions.stanford.edu/cw/en-us/job...
Stanford | Faculty Positions: Details - Senior appointment in the Department of Sociology at the rank of Associate Professor or Professor
facultypositions.stanford.edu
September 30, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Stanford Sociology is fortunate to have an open senior search this year! More info in the job announcement here: facultypositions.stanford.edu/cw/en-us/job...
Reposted by Chris Bail
🚨New WP!🚨
Structured AI Dialogues Can Increase Happiness and Meaning in Life
In a preregistered RCT, four psychology-grounded #AI chatbots improved well-being across several outcomes.
Co-authors: Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, Aadesh Salecha, Sonja Lyubomirsky
🧵👇
Structured AI Dialogues Can Increase Happiness and Meaning in Life
In a preregistered RCT, four psychology-grounded #AI chatbots improved well-being across several outcomes.
Co-authors: Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, Aadesh Salecha, Sonja Lyubomirsky
🧵👇
October 7, 2025 at 7:04 PM
🚨New WP!🚨
Structured AI Dialogues Can Increase Happiness and Meaning in Life
In a preregistered RCT, four psychology-grounded #AI chatbots improved well-being across several outcomes.
Co-authors: Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, Aadesh Salecha, Sonja Lyubomirsky
🧵👇
Structured AI Dialogues Can Increase Happiness and Meaning in Life
In a preregistered RCT, four psychology-grounded #AI chatbots improved well-being across several outcomes.
Co-authors: Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, Aadesh Salecha, Sonja Lyubomirsky
🧵👇
Junior and senior faculty positions in computational social scientists at Bocconi, one of the world's best universiites: Assistant Prof: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu?id=841
Associate/Full Prof: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu?id=843
Associate/Full Prof: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu?id=843
Job Market - Bocconi University
Recruiting, Faculty, Post-doc Grant, Collaboration Contracts
jobmarket.unibocconi.eu
October 7, 2025 at 10:43 PM
Junior and senior faculty positions in computational social scientists at Bocconi, one of the world's best universiites: Assistant Prof: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu?id=841
Associate/Full Prof: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu?id=843
Associate/Full Prof: jobmarket.unibocconi.eu?id=843
New jobs for computational social scientists at UNC and USC: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307... amd uscjobs.sc.edu/postings/194...
Assistant Professor
This Assistant Professor position will teach graduate and undergraduate courses, conduct research in the field of Sociology, participate in departmental service, and mentor graduate students.
unc.peopleadmin.com
October 7, 2025 at 10:32 PM
New jobs for computational social scientists at UNC and USC: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/307... amd uscjobs.sc.edu/postings/194...
Really great discussion of political violence in the U.S. today featuring political scientist Sean Westwood: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
What we get wrong about political violence in the U.S.
Podcast Episode · Apple News Today · 09/27/2025 · 27m
podcasts.apple.com
September 28, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Really great discussion of political violence in the U.S. today featuring political scientist Sean Westwood: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
New dataset that describes social media activity of a very large group of US elected officials: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - The digitally accountable public representation database: online communication by U.S. officials
www.nature.com
September 28, 2025 at 5:10 PM
New dataset that describes social media activity of a very large group of US elected officials: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
One of the most perplexing things about the decrease in federal funding for research in universities is that Republicans have historically led the way on this (at least between 1980-2020) according to this fascinating new analysis from Dashun Wang's team): www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Partisan disparities in the funding of science in the United States
Republican lawmakers consistently provided robust federal funding, often exceeding Democrats
www.science.org
September 19, 2025 at 6:05 PM
One of the most perplexing things about the decrease in federal funding for research in universities is that Republicans have historically led the way on this (at least between 1980-2020) according to this fascinating new analysis from Dashun Wang's team): www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Chris Bail
How much did Elon's takeover reshape Twitter/X? How did the partisan tilt of social media use change from 2020 to 2024?
The ANES 2024 data is out — and this thread answers all your burning questions! 🔥
The ANES 2024 data is out — and this thread answers all your burning questions! 🔥
September 16, 2025 at 11:20 AM
How much did Elon's takeover reshape Twitter/X? How did the partisan tilt of social media use change from 2020 to 2024?
The ANES 2024 data is out — and this thread answers all your burning questions! 🔥
The ANES 2024 data is out — and this thread answers all your burning questions! 🔥
New Anthropic paper suggests LLMs have “personality vectors”: arxiv.org/pdf/2507.21509
arxiv.org
September 5, 2025 at 11:32 AM
New Anthropic paper suggests LLMs have “personality vectors”: arxiv.org/pdf/2507.21509
A new Open-Source LLM from ETH Zurich just came out: ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
Apertus: a fully open, transparent, multilingual language model
EPFL, ETH Zurich and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) released Apertus today, Switzerland’s first large-scale, open, multilingual language model — a milestone in generative AI for trans...
ethz.ch
September 2, 2025 at 2:53 PM
A new Open-Source LLM from ETH Zurich just came out: ethz.ch/en/news-and-...
1/ 🚨 Big news 🚨 today we’re launching Tech for Open Minds (TOM) at @DukeU— a global program exploring how technology shapes open-mindedness, humility & polarization 🌍🧠
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
August 29, 2025 at 4:06 PM
1/ 🚨 Big news 🚨 today we’re launching Tech for Open Minds (TOM) at @DukeU— a global program exploring how technology shapes open-mindedness, humility & polarization 🌍🧠
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
Open Research (OpenAI-linked research outfit) just put out a new report on using LLMs for public opinion polling that suggests they may improve response rates substantially: www.openresearchlab.org/findings/ai-...
Can Conversational AI Improve Survey Research? | Findings
Early Insights from Testing a Chat-Based Survey
www.openresearchlab.org
August 27, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Open Research (OpenAI-linked research outfit) just put out a new report on using LLMs for public opinion polling that suggests they may improve response rates substantially: www.openresearchlab.org/findings/ai-...
Over the last 30 years, people a) walk faster in urban spaces; and b) linger less often according to an AI-Assisted study of video footage in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org
July 29, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Over the last 30 years, people a) walk faster in urban spaces; and b) linger less often according to an AI-Assisted study of video footage in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
My uncle Darius has been one of the most important people in my life-- constantly inspiring me with his generous spirit. Now his life depends on the generosity of a stranger who might be willing to donate an organ. Please help my family spread the word! nkr.org/XAX634
Darius Jonathan Needs a Kidney | Can You Help?
Darius Jonathan Needs a Kidney | Can You Help?
nkr.org
July 16, 2025 at 3:41 PM
My uncle Darius has been one of the most important people in my life-- constantly inspiring me with his generous spirit. Now his life depends on the generosity of a stranger who might be willing to donate an organ. Please help my family spread the word! nkr.org/XAX634
www.science.org/content/arti... NIH will reinstate 900 grants in response to court order | Science | AAAS
NIH will reinstate 900 grants in response to court order
Projects touching on sensitive topics such as DEI had been illegally terminated, judge found
www.science.org
June 27, 2025 at 1:23 PM
www.science.org/content/arti... NIH will reinstate 900 grants in response to court order | Science | AAAS
Reposted by Chris Bail
🧵1/
Just wrapped up the 3rd edition of #SICSS AMU/Law – a summer school on using AI & computational social science to study law and human rights. This year, we leveled up. Big time. ⬇️
Just wrapped up the 3rd edition of #SICSS AMU/Law – a summer school on using AI & computational social science to study law and human rights. This year, we leveled up. Big time. ⬇️
June 22, 2025 at 1:04 PM
🧵1/
Just wrapped up the 3rd edition of #SICSS AMU/Law – a summer school on using AI & computational social science to study law and human rights. This year, we leveled up. Big time. ⬇️
Just wrapped up the 3rd edition of #SICSS AMU/Law – a summer school on using AI & computational social science to study law and human rights. This year, we leveled up. Big time. ⬇️
It's #SICSS O'clock!!!! Hundreds of students all over the world are learning about computational social science *for free* thanks to the hard work of so many brilliant young scholars who dedicated their time this summer to train the next generation-- from Colombia to Kenya! sicss.io
June 20, 2025 at 3:37 PM
Excited to announce we are launching a Graduate Certificate in Society-Centered AI at Duke w/coursework in computer science, social science, and philosophy/ethics and provide support to 12 current Duke students each year thanks to a new $2.4 million grant interdisciplinary.duke.edu/news/equippi...
Equipping Graduate Students to Tackle Emerging Challenges | Office of Interdisciplinary Studies
The Office of the Provost and The Graduate School have chosen three faculty-led proposals to establish new Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Collaboratives focusing on
interdisciplinary.duke.edu
June 18, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Excited to announce we are launching a Graduate Certificate in Society-Centered AI at Duke w/coursework in computer science, social science, and philosophy/ethics and provide support to 12 current Duke students each year thanks to a new $2.4 million grant interdisciplinary.duke.edu/news/equippi...
Reposted by Chris Bail
Christ's sake, Chicago, I'm just trying to go for a walk.
June 14, 2025 at 12:50 AM
Christ's sake, Chicago, I'm just trying to go for a walk.