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Simone Zhang

@sxz.bsky.social
1.9K followers 586 following 14 posts

Assistant Professor of Sociology at NYU. Classification, prediction, and AI in decision-making, social policy, and law. www.simonezhang.com

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Reposted by Simone Zhang
Christopher Barrie @cbarrie.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Very pleased to have been on the leadership team for this paper! LLMs are already being used all over behavioural science. But it is often pretty hard to work out exactly what has been done, and therefore how much confidence to place in the results. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A reporting checklist for large language models in behavioural science - Nature Human Behaviour
Large language models offer new opportunities for behavioural science, but their rapid evolution poses challenges for research rigour. We introduce a consensus-based reporting checklist to improve tra...
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Reposted by Simone Zhang
Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I’m excited to share a new paper in Nature that shows how large language models launder the strategic rhetoric of authoritarian states. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... A thread.
nature.com
State media control influences large language models - Nature
Government-controlled media influences the output of large language models via their training data, and models queried in the languages of countries with lower media freedom show a stronger ...
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Reposted by Simone Zhang
Kathleen Broussard @kbroussard.bsky.social · 08/09/2025
TWO new Assistant Professor positions in Sociology at USC! Seeking candidates with expertise in the following: 1) Institutions & Inequalities and 2) Socially Informed AI and/or Data Science (links to job ads below👇). Happy to talk about what it's like to work/live here! #sociology (1/3)
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Reposted by Simone Zhang
Tanay Katiyar @adigitaltanay.bsky.social · 29/08/2025
On Prolific, "we estimate that about 34% of online study participants use LLMs to answer open-ended questions atleast some of the time..." Seems like a very timely paper for behavioural scientists using online samples: osf.io/preprints/so... ; We really need more papers on this issue
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 30/08/2025
Thanks so much for sharing!! The published version is also out now at doi.org/10.1177/0049...
doi.org
Generative AI Meets Open-Ended Survey Responses: Research Participant Use of AI and Homogenization - Simone Zhang, Janet Xu, AJ Alvero, 2025
The growing popularity of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools presents new challenges for data quality in online surveys and experiments. This study e...
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Reposted by Simone Zhang
Thomas Davidson @thomasdavidson.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
I’m delighted to share that the August 2025 special issue of Sociological Methods & Research on Generative AI is out now. Along with my co-editor, Daniel Karell, we put together this issue to build on the conference we organized last year. Here's a thread on each of the ten papers:
A screenshot of the Sociological Methods & Research website showing the special issue title
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Big thank you to many people who've provided feedback and supported this project!
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Paper (open access) available here: sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...
sociologicalscience.com
Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education
Article: Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education | Sociological Science | Posted May 16, 2025
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents, we find that most parents view algorithms as fairer than status quo methods like lotteries, counselor discretion, parent requests, and admin. rules. But there's polarization: higher-SES, liberal parents are more supportive of algorithms.
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
New paper with Rebecca Johnson (@rebeccaj.bsky.social) on parental perceptions of using algorithms to allocate scarce resources in schools, now out in Sociological Science (@sociologicalsci.bsky.social):
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Reposted by Simone Zhang
Sociological Science @sociologicalsci.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
NEW: Rebecca A. Johnson, Simone Zhang, "Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education." sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...
sociologicalscience.com
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Many thanks to our RAs, reviewers, and terrific special issue editors @thomasdavidson.bsky.social and Danny Karell. Special thank you to the incredible community resource that is the Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS) program @jeremyfreese.bsky.social @mocraig.bsky.social
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
You can also check out this great write-up of our paper here: www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/ai-...
gsb.stanford.edu
AI-Generated Survey Responses Could Make Research Less Accurate (And a Lot Less Interesting)
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Paper here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... Preprint version here: osf.io/preprints/so...
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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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Do you field online surveys and experiments? Ever get back text responses that look unusually diplomatic and polished? In this paper, now out at Sociological Methods & Research, we study the emerging use of AI among online study participants.
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
Thanks for sharing Hakeem! Our project started when we too were piloting open-ended questions for a study and noticed unusually long/typo-free/diplomatic responses. Others reported similar experiences. Latest version of the paper here: osf.io/preprints/so...
osf.io
OSF
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
This is an emerging challenge! My colleagues and I have a working paper on this issue: osf.io/preprints/so...
osf.io
OSF
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
Very cool! I laughed out loud when I reached that sentence on false positive hosts because I immediately heard "hey, Ryan Reynolds here"
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
I'd also love to be added, thank you!
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Simone Zhang @sxz.bsky.social · 04/10/2023
It's COMPASlicated is such a great paper 🙂
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