iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Dan Silverman @dmsilverman.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Somehow missed this one. Seems like a pretty relevant and well-done paper!

Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

If you’re at MPSA and like to think about AI politics/biases, hope to see you here (📍Palmer House Lobby Level, Honore Ballroom)

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Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Jon Green @jongreen.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

extremely happy to share that "Political Pundits and the Maintenance of Ideological Coalitions" is conditionally accepted at @polbehavior.bsky.social osf.io/8c3fr/files/...

Title: Political Pundits and the Maintenance of Ideological Coalitions
Authors: Allison Wan and Jon Green
Abstract: Political ideologies help groups advance diverse sets of interests under common agendas. However, it is unclear how these groups maintain their norms regarding what it means to be
a member in good standing in a dynamic information environment. Building on theories of “long” political coalitions, we hypothesize that ideological elites’ rhetorical influence on one another will tend to be concentrated and specialized with respect to specific concepts. We
find support for this expectation using an original dataset of over 1,000 prominent political pundits in the United States, in which we infer coalition membership and the diffusion of novel language over a range of specific concepts. While pundits may discuss many concepts,
they tend to “send” language to other pundits in relatively few, resulting in both concentration and specialization of influence within coalitions. These results clarify conceptual distinctions between political ideologies and political philosophies, and demonstrate real-time dynamics of contemporary ideological coalitions.

Figure 1: Stylized expectations. Each node reflects a hypothetical coalition member, colors denote concepts, and arrows indicate members’ influence on each other. For example, member (a) influences members (b), (c), and (e) with respect to one concept, such as immigration, while member (d) influences members (b), (c), and (e) with respect to a different concept, such as health care. Member (e) acts as a broker, both sending and receiving influence across the coalition. Every member is influential, but influence tends to be concentrated (for any given concept, one member accounts for 3/4 of influence) and specialized (4/5 members are influential on only one concept).

Figure 3: Concentration of influence within concepts, observed network compared to permuted networks. Degree, Community, and Concept denote structural features either are or are not preserved in network permutations.

Figure 4: Specialization of influence within concepts, observed network compared to permuted networks. Degree, Community, and Concept denote structural features either are or are not preserved in network permutations.

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Wrote a paper with Jim Bisbee on economic evaluations - www.cambridge.org/core/journal... We think it's informative to ask respondents about their personal finances; our analysis of daily Gallup data shows such Qs are relatively less contaminated by partisanship than broader Qs about the economy.

cambridge.org

Economic evaluations and partisan faultfinding: when are respondents most likely to answer survey questions honestly? | Political Science Research and Methods | Cambridge Core

Economic evaluations and partisan faultfinding: when are respondents most likely to answer survey questions honestly? - Volume 14 Issue 2

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Peter Damgaard @peterdamgaard.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Fascinating paper on supply-side factors of negativity bias, misinformation and misperceptions. Also interesting measurements of accuracy of reporting and negativity bias of specific media orgs (e.g. CNN, Fox News).

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Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

My first post on my new Peace & Violence Substack: “What Makes Them Tick: Why I Study Psychology & Political Violence” zeitzoff.substack.com/p/what-makes...

zeitzoff.substack.com

What Makes Them Tick

Why I Study Psychology & Political Violence

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Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

You can just research things. New from @jatucker.bsky.social & me at @brookings: Coding agents like Claude Code and Codex will likely accelerate research AND undermine institutional structures we built to support it.

Google Trends chart showing interest in commercial coding agents increasing dramatically in early 2026

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Charles Franklin @pollsandvotes.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Gallup ends presidential approval polling. There are plenty of alternatives but having one firm back the 1930s was a great continuity. Here is my last update of their series. RIP. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

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Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

A lot of smart people have been in denial about AI for understandable reasons: – the people pitching it can be distasteful – there’s been a ton of snake-oil hype – it’s easier not to reckon with a major disruption

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American Friction @americanfric.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

Joe Rogan helped Trump with one thing he always wants more of: male voters. @melinamuch.bsky.social expands in our latest episode ➡️ linktr.ee/americanfriction #JoeRogan #Trump #TrumpElection #USpolitics #AmericanFriction

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Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

*No Option But Sabotage* is out in 10 days. Pre-order links are pinned—thank you for all the support!

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Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

No Option But Sabotage coming 2/16: Draws on 150+ interviews & historical data and it examines: – origins of radical environmentalism – subcultures & mobilization – repression & tactical choice – shrinking space for protest Pre-order (30% off with @academic.oup.com code ASFLYQ6) ⬇️

Physical Picture of No Option But Sabotage

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

> Even the controversial 2003 Iraq War offers a revealing case. For all the war’s many problems and deceptions, the United States abstained from seizing Iraq’s oil. Iraqi oil ultimately remained under Iraqi control, even as U.S. forces occupied the country. goodauthority.org/news/trump-m...

goodauthority.org

Trump made a clear choice: return to petro-imperialism

Trump made a clear choice: return to petro-imperialism. To understand what just happened in Venezuela, look at oil politics and U.S. foreign policy.

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Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 11/01/2026

Second, we need to distinguish between two kinds of nasty rhetoric: A) Rhetoric used by marginal politicians or opposition figures to grab attention when they lack agenda-setting power. B) Rhetoric used by national leaders, and amplified by supporters, to demonize opponents or minority groups.

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Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

I need everyone in the political communications world who found the moral foundations reframing approach promising (which includes me) to read this paper It doesn't replicate in new research. It just doesn't work. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.com

The Poverty of Moral Foundation Messaging

Prominent scholars have argued that reframing political positions and issues in terms of moral foundations that appeal to conservatives or liberals can attract more individual-level support for tho...

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Leticia Bode @leticiabode.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

Please share with all the awesome applicants you know!

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Very cool to read this from @kenzonera.bsky.social and co-authors! From the abstract: "those low in conspiracy mentality not only believed less in conspiracies but also underestimated their prevalence" osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Mechanisms of Europe’s “Death” since I was old enough to read newspapers: - Inability to enact “structural reforms” - Too much public debt - Excessive focus on curbing fiscal deficits (“austerity”) - Populism - Low birth rates - Absence of a European Silicon Valley - Migration - Stagnation

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 29/12/2025

Research shows people dislike and want to block speech they believe is harmful. Wrote for @goodauth.bsky.social about this a few weeks ago: goodauthority.org/news/what-we...

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Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Kristina Gligoric @IC2S2 @gligoric.bsky.social · 19/12/2025

Johns Hopkins Data Science and AI Institute is hiring Postdoctoral Fellows (Deadline Jan 23rd, 2026)! 💫 Reach out and apply if you're interested in working with me! I'm especially excited to work with postdocs on AI for social sciences/human behavior, social NLP, and LLMs.

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 16/12/2025

Maybe the impact of chatbots on truth is actually greater than the impact of deepfakes (for now)

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

My latest for @goodauth.bsky.social goodauthority.org/news/what-we...

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 08/12/2025

This excellent paper is now out - Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Code: github.com/kobihackenbu... A useful summary by @lpargyle.bsky.social: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

github.com

GitHub - kobihackenburg/scaling-conversational-AI

Contribute to kobihackenburg/scaling-conversational-AI development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

.@pettertornberg.com's keynote in Oxford was fantastic. What comes after the traditional model of social media ends? 1) Algorithmic broadcasting platforms (everything turning into TikTok and Instagram reels) 2) Private and semi-private spheres (like group chats) 3) Chatbots and LLMs as new media

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Christopher Wratil 🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine @chriswratil.bsky.social · 10/11/2025

🚨 Job Alert! Postdoc in POLITICAL TEXT ANALYSIS in the MULTIREP project You do quant text analysis? You are interested in political representation? Enjoy working in teams? Would like to live in a great city? Consider joining us in Vienna! ⏱️ Apply by 15/12/2025 wratil.eu/files/MULTIR... 1/4 🧵

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

- Will certain people always continue "just asking questions"? Yes. - But citizens have the right to ask questions and, in a tolerant society, they could ask them without getting mocked - It's a bad case here, because how could anyone prove a negative? (Can't show "we're not altering the weather")

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

Liked this passage in @smotus.bsky.social's book - though there are places were non-confusing design is the exception and a cryptic design is the default...

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 10/10/2025

Latest piece centering scenarios where AI could autonomously develop harmful capabilities like engineering lethal pathogens But lowering the barrier for malicious actors to cause harm is a risk that's real today So, of course we get stories about hypothetical risks: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | The A.I. Prompt That Could End the World

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

On morning Munich commutes, I see surprisingly little tech use. People read newspapers, nap, or chat. Occasionally someone knits, and I watch a bit wistfully. Kids seem perfectly well-adjusted: those in groups chat and tease each other, those commuting alone do homework or use phones.

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

"the crypto lobby is pushing Congress to pass the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, which ... would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing or even piloting a government-issued digital currency ... without congressional approval" www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | We Really Want to Trust Crypto Interests With the Future of Money?

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Reposted by Jan Zilinsky

Dietram A. Scheufele @dietram.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

"Acceptance of the scientific consensus was very high in the sample as a whole (95.1%), but also in every sub-sample (e.g. no trust in science: 87.3%) ... [P]eople are motivated to reject specific scientific beliefs, and not science as a whole." journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

journals.sagepub.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Motivated reasoning (and responding!) is a huge issue for polling - BUT, the magnitude of the problem also depends on what else is asked within a given survey: www.cambridge.org/core/service...

cambridge.org

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 21/09/2025

I thought GPT-5 was supposed to tone down the flattery 😂

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 20/09/2025

A friend’s kid told me in 2015: “I can learn anything I want by finding a tutorial on YouTube.” Did I find it credible? Not quite, but the sentiment was fascinating. Still think about it sometimes and also wonder how many people now use video-sharing platforms as their search engines

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Very cool that people can be open-minded

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 18/09/2025

If you've felt that broadcast news is less informative, you're probably right. Information density of ABC, CBS, and NBC news segments has declined, according to LLM-based classifications: 5harad.com/papers/no-ne...

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Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 14/09/2025

Thanks to the folks at APSA for organizing a great conference, and Vancouver for being a great host city! cc @janzilinsky.bsky.social

Award from the ITP section for my paper with Jan Zilinsky

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Thomas Zeitzoff @zeitzoff.bsky.social · 13/09/2025

Finally, as I found in research my on nasty politics, elite rhetoric matters—especially from national leaders. Republican Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, has sought to reduce the political temperature following the assassination of Charlie Kirk. www.axios.com/local/salt-l...

Axios article headline about Spencer Cox taking a quieter approach

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Ryan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · 10/09/2025

The pretty draft is now online. Link to paper (free): www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/epdf/10.... Our replication package starts from the raw data and we put real work into making it readable & setting it up so people could poke at it, so please do explore it: dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtm...

The social sciences face a replicability crisis. A key determinant of replication success is statistical power. We assess the
power of political science research by collating over 16,000 hypothesis tests from about 2,000 articles in 46 areas of the
discipline. Under generous assumptions, we show that quantitative research in political science is greatly underpow-
ered: the median analysis has about 10% power, and only about 1 in 10 tests have at least 80% power to detect the
consensus effects reported in the literature. We also find substantial heterogeneity in tests across research areas, with
some being characterized by high power but most having very low power. To contextualize our findings, we survey
political methodologists to assess their expectations about power levels. Most methodologists greatly overestimate the
statistical power of political science research.

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 29/08/2025

People in Denmark have varied concerns about tech giants: - Impact on young people's development (83.5% concerned) - Role in spreading misinformation (81%) - Ability to influence public opinion (79.5%) - Economic power (79%) - Collection of personal data (78%) - Impact on social cohesion (75%)

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

So why do most of us rarely switch on the airplane mode? (Not dismissing what the respondents are saying, just wondering what exactly they are telling us about their unhappiness with the current tech)

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Every generation discovers that the latest technology is destroying civilization. Every generation is wrong.

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Jan Zilinsky @janzilinsky.bsky.social · 20/08/2025

Different AI systems are optimized for different tasks. Expecting precise instruction following from current image models shows a misunderstanding of their architecture and training objectives:

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