Robb Willer
@robbwiller.bsky.social
7K followers 1.8K following 100 posts

Professor of Sociology, Psychology, & Org Behavior @ Stanford. Director of Polarization and Social Change Lab (@pascl-stanford.bsky.social), Co-Direct Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Obsessive basketball fan .. more

Robb Willer is an American sociologist and social psychologist whose research has examined American politics, political psychology, moral persuasion, and cooperation.

Source: Wikipedia
Political science 34%
Sociology 23%
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robbwiller.bsky.social
Saturday's No Kings protests were massive, inclusive, and nonviolent. It was an honor to team up with
@owasow.bsky.social to analyze how nonviolent resistance can wins hearts, minds, and elections.

Reposted by Robb Willer

Reposted by Robb Willer

robbwiller.bsky.social
Congrats, Hahrie! This is much deserved and wonderful to see.
atrupar.com
Pritzker: "He wants to militarize major cities because he wants us to get used to the idea of troops on the streets. I believe he's gonna post people outside of polling places and if he needs to in order to control those elections, he'll assume control of the ballot boxes & count the votes himself"

Reposted by Robb Willer

Reposted by Robb Willer

Reposted by Robb Willer

Reposted by Robb Willer

socialmedialab.ca
Wow, that looks seriously bubblicious. The velocity of AI $ is now in a league of its own.

Nvidia and OpenAI tangle web of deals are “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“ www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
chrisbail.bsky.social
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
Job Market - Bocconi University
Recruiting, Faculty, Post-doc Grant, Collaboration Contracts
jobmarket.unibocconi.eu

Reposted by Robb Willer

Reposted by Robb Willer

rahaeli.bsky.social
Also, you can't be simultaneously upset that the ML classifier gets things wrong and be upset at the thought of training on user data, because the two are mutually exclusive. The only way to get more accurate ML models is to retrain with real-world examples.

robbwiller.bsky.social
Major kudos to brilliant post-doc Jonas Schoene, who led this project!

Thanks to co-authors: Johannes Eichstaedt, Aadesh Salecha, Sonja Lyubomirsky

And to: @stanfordhai.bsky.social
@stanfordpacs.bsky.social
@pascl-stanford.bsky.social
@uclaanderson.bsky.social

robbwiller.bsky.social
We find high public interest in using validated well-being chatbots.

In a nationally rep survey (N=3,056), about 1/2 of U.S. adults said they’d use empirically validated well-being chatbots. About 1/4 have already used #generativeAI chatbots for well-being.

robbwiller.bsky.social
Importantly, results generalized to key subpopulations, including those with high baseline levels of anxiety or depressed mood.

robbwiller.bsky.social
Linguistic analyses showed users had diff conversations with each chatbot:

Savoring → Sensory perceptions & positive emotions
Gratitude → Social interactions & positive emotions
Meaning → Reflection on others & cognitive processes
Hero’s journey → Achievement & cognitive processes

robbwiller.bsky.social
Does use tradeoff with human therapy?
Maybe, though initial evidence against: conversations increased willingness to try well-being chatbots again and to seek human therapy, even among those previously reluctant.

robbwiller.bsky.social
RESULTS: All four chatbots…

⚡️Improved happiness, life satisfaction, and meaning,
⚡️Reduced anxiety and depressed mood, relative to control.

Effect sizes exceed or match those from traditional positive psych interventions in @dunnhappylab.bsky.social recent meta-analysis.

robbwiller.bsky.social
#4: The Hero’s Journey Chatbot

Guides the user to reframe their life story in terms of the archetypal Hero’s Journey, highlighting challenges, strengths, and next steps (h/t Ben Rogers,
@kurtjgray.bsky.social, Herrison Chicas)

👉 herobot.cpwbinterventions.xyz/readme

robbwiller.bsky.social
#3: The Meaning Chatbot

Prompts the user to reflect on what gives their life purpose, such as people, activities, and beliefs that are meaningful to them.

👉 cpwbinterventions.xyz/readme

robbwiller.bsky.social
#2: The Gratitude Chatbot

Guides user through a short exercise to express gratitude to a specific person. Encourages the user to notice others’ contributions and articulate what they appreciate.

👉 gratitudebot.cpwbinterventions.xyz/readme

robbwiller.bsky.social
#1: The Savoring Chatbot

Guides user to slow down and reflect on a positive moment from their life in detail, e.g., associated sensations, thoughts, and meaning.

👉 savoringbot.cpwbinterventions.xyz/readme

robbwiller.bsky.social
In a preregistered, randomized experiment (N=2,922), we tested whether four different AI chatbots could improve happiness and feelings of meaning in life.