iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Tobias Werner

Brynn Sherman @brynnsherman.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

After noticing another (significant!) drop in data quality this morning, I saw that Prolific is now recommending that participants be paid $48/hr

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Economics at Southampton @sotonecon.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

🎓 Great internal seminar this week with our colleague Adrian Chadi, who presented “ #Television and the #LaborMarket: Evidence from Natural Experiments in West and East #Germany.” Insightful discussion on media exposure and labour outcomes. #econtwitter #LaborMarket #applied #econsky

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 12/03/2026

Wrapped up a great week of regulatory outreach! Presented to the @CMAgovUK and @NZComCom on how human-machine market interactions can dampen competition. Thanks to Rajssa Mechelli & David Shaharudin Shahar-Yu for hosting!

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 15/01/2026

Considering outsourcing my ARC Raiders inventory management to Claude Cowork

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 23/12/2025

bsky.app/profile/tfwe...

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 23/12/2025

LLMs and agents are reshaping the landscape of social science research. Our preprint on "LLM Pollution" is featured in @ScienceMagazine's new piece on how Al is upending online studies. www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

AI may upend online studies critical to social science

Sophisticated bots risk contaminating surveys, games, and other approaches designed to shed light on human behavior

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

Georg Weizsäcker @georgweizsaecker.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Our dept is hiring an associate professor in microeconomics / competition theory. It is a wonderful department - do get in touch. The job ad is in German but we teach more and more in English, so we‘re flexible. www.hu-berlin.de/en/universit...

hu-berlin.de

W2-Professur für „Wettbewerbspolitik“ - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 29/11/2025

The Streuselkuchen is alright in this club! ;)

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

Economics at Southampton @sotonecon.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

Huge shout-out to our PhD students presenting their research at the @unisouthampton.bsky.social ’s Doctoral Research Poster Showcase this week! 🎓 #PhDLife #ResearchExcellence #PhD #DoctoralResearch #Southampton #AcademicShowcase

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

Economics at Southampton @sotonecon.bsky.social · 27/11/2025

Our department hosted a great seminar this week by my colleague @tfwerner.com titled "Experimental Evidence That Conversational AI Can Steer Consumer Behavior Without Detection". Eye-opening insights into conversational AI and consumer choices! #AIResearch #BehavioralEconomics #AcademicResearch

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/11/2025

🔧 Why? (2/2): In RECOMMENDATION, adoption is high, but adherence is low. Participants frequently override the AI's advice, resulting in longer price wars than in the baseline.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/11/2025

🔧 Why? (1/2): In OUTSOURCING, non-adopters often use a cyclic-deviation strategy (repeatedly undercutting the AI). This is not profitable, but it punishes adopters & discourages delegation. Our evidence suggests that this is driven by spite towards AI, not myopia.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/11/2025

📉 Result 2 (Prices): Pro-competitive effects of AI! We thought the collusive AI would raise prices. However, by the end, prices are significantly lower in both AI treatments than in the human-only BASELINE.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/11/2025

📈 Result 1 (Adoption): Participants delegate a lot. But control matters. Adoption is significantly higher when participants can override the AI (RECOMMENDATION).

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/11/2025

We ran a lab experiment with 3 conditions: 1️⃣ BASELINE: Humans only. 2️⃣ OUTSOURCING: Full delegation to a collusive AI. 3️⃣ RECOMMENDATION: AI advice, but humans can override it .

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/11/2025

Most work on AI collusion simulates AI vs. AI and simply assumes firms use them. This overlooks the (human) decision to adopt. So we ask: Will firms delegate to a collusive AI? And how does this strategic choice change market outcomes?

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/11/2025

📣 New paper! "Delegate Pricing Decisions to an Algorithm? Experimental Evidence" with @normann.bsky.social, Nina Rulié, & @ostypa.bsky.social We study what happens when humans delegate to a collusive algorithm, and AI pricing adoption becomes a strategic choice! arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2510.27636

arxiv.org

Delegate Pricing Decisions to an Algorithm? Experimental Evidence

We analyze the delegation of pricing by participants, representing firms, to a collusive, self-learning algorithm in a repeated Bertrand experiment. In the baseline treatment, participants set prices ...

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 22/09/2025

The fact that fries/chips are just normally sold at Chinese restaurants in Ireland should be studied. But still: spice bag is the best fast food invention since ???

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 01/09/2025

And yes: I thought before leaving Berlin I had to go full Berlin and get a bleached buzzcut

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 01/09/2025

First day in the office! Excited to join the University of Southampton as an Assistant Professor/Lecturer

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 10/08/2025

I like the new robot 'personality' feature of ChatGPT. Although it's probably just a tweak to a system message, it's much more to the point and less wordy. Just weird that, out of the blue, it sometimes ends with things like, 'I am synthesized and not embodied.'

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

Institute for Replication @i4replication.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

We have our first games ever in Ireland next month. The event will be at the University of Galway as part of CERIS’s Annual Workshop on September 26th. Virtual participation is possible and coauthorship to a meta paper is granted. Register here: www.surveymonkey.ca/r/Replicatio...

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 06/08/2025

With the release of Gemini Live / OpenAls Operator, we started working o perspective piece on how to tackle the growing threat these systems pose to online behavioural research and its validity. We hope this helps move the conversation forward. Paper: arxiv.org/abs/2508.01390

arxiv.org

Recognising, Anticipating, and Mitigating LLM Pollution of Online Behavioural Research

Online behavioural research faces an emerging threat as participants increasingly turn to large language models (LLMs) for advice, translation, or task delegation: LLM Pollution. We identify three int...

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 06/08/2025

Absolutely! That's part of the solution, but online studies also offer key advantages, like more representative samples + larger N. Hopefully, we'll see more cross-lab collaborations.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

If you run studies online or use platforms like Prolific, MTurk, or CloudResearch, this impacts you! We hope this paper encourages discussion, collaboration, and improved safeguards. 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2508.01390

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

At the end of the day, this isn't just a researcher's problem. Platforms that advertise "100% human" samples must be held accountable. Researchers need tools and transparency to protect their work, and in some cases, it may be time to go back to the physical lab!

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

We propose a layered defence strategy, but let's be clear: this is already an arms race. Some measures: - reCAPTCHA and Cloudflare - Multimodal instructions (images, audio) - Input restrictions (no paste, voice answers) - Behavioural logging - Platform enforcement

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

LLM Pollution scrambles your data: 🧠 Dampens variance 📈 Inflates effects 📊 Mocks WEIRD norms 🔍 Obscures who your participants really are … all while staying nearly undetectable!

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

In a recent Prolific pilot, 45% of participants copied/pasted open-ended items or showed signs of AI-generated content, with responses starting like "As an artificial entity…" This is contamination, not noise!

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

We map three invasion paths for LLMs: 1. Partial Mediation: LLM assists with rephrasing or answering. 2. Full Delegation: Agents like OpenAI Operator handle everything. 3. Spillover: Humans act differently due to bot expectations. (See figure below.)

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

This isn't sci-fi. Tools like OpenAI's Operator and open-source browser agents can now read surveys, click consent, and answer your questions, all without a human. LLM Pollution is not hypothetical. It is happening now. We map three variants in the paper 👇

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 05/08/2025

🚨New paper alert! "Recognising, Anticipating & Mitigating LLM Pollution of Online Behavioural Research" Online experiments are being polluted by LLMs. We map the threat and fixes🧵 w/ Raluca Rilla, @hiromu1996.bsky.social, @iyadrahwan.bsky.social & Anne-Marie Nussberger arxiv.org/abs/2508.01390

arxiv.org

Recognising, Anticipating, and Mitigating LLM Pollution of Online Behavioural Research

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 02/08/2025

Sitting on the beach, sipping cherry cola (sin azúcar), just won three straight games of Uno against my wife. Life is good.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 31/07/2025

Last day of my postdoc with some of the best colleagues I could have hoped for.

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

Jean-François Bonnefon @jfbonnefon.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Mengchen Dong @iyadrahwan.bsky.social and I report data from 3,000+ people (incl. welfare claimants) showing how much accuracy they're willing to sacrifice to get faster AI decisions for social benefits. it's very hard for non-claimants to understand claimants. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

Heterogeneous preferences and asymmetric insights for AI use among welfare claimants and non-claimants - Nature Communications

Governments use AI to speed up welfare decisions, raising concerns about fairness and accuracy. Here, the authors find that welfare claimants are more averse to AI and their preferences less understoo...

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 08/07/2025

I'll stay affiliated with the Center for Humans and Machines @mpib-berlin.bsky.social b-berlin.bsky.social as an Associate Research Scientist. It’s a great place to work on human-AI interaction in markets and beyond. Rumor has it they might be looking for new economists soonish 👀

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 08/07/2025

I actually accepted the job some time ago, but could only sign now because of delays with the UK visa process (thanks, Brexit 🇬🇧🫠)

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 08/07/2025

Thrilled to share that this September I’ll be joining @sotonecon.bsky.social at @unisouthampton.bsky.social pton.bsky.social as a Lecturer 🎉 I look forward to continuing my research in IO, experimental economics, and human-AI interactions, and to engaging more with the UK econ community.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 08/07/2025

I'll stay affiliated with the Center for Humans and Machines @mpib-berlin.bsky.social as an Associate Research Scientist. It’s a great place to work on human-AI interaction in markets and beyond. Rumor has it they might be looking for new economists soonish 👀

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 08/07/2025

I actually accepted the job some time ago, but could only sign now because of delays with the UK visa process (thanks, Brexit 🇬🇧🫠)

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 03/07/2025

You gotta love German academia. Receiving a letter (yes, an actual letter, not an email) many, many months after applying just to tell you that you won't be considered for the professorship is always quite the experience.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 01/07/2025

We find that remote workers' willingness to volunteer for team tasks does not decline in the team size. This is a surprising result, given classic free-riding concerns. Many decide to volunteer when they believe others will too, even though this can lead to too much volunteering

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 01/07/2025

So happy to see this in print! What began as my Master’s thesis in Bonn 7 years ago is now published in Experimental Economics. With @adrianecon.bsky.social & Fabian Winter doi.org/10.1017/eec....

doi.org

Willingness to volunteer among remote workers is insensitive to the team size | Experimental Economics | Cambridge Core

Willingness to volunteer among remote workers is insensitive to the team size

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 27/06/2025

Does anyone know a paper that specifically looks at the share of online samples (Prolific, MTurk, etc.) relative to lab studies/field studies in recent years? I feel like I saw some stats on that sometime ago on X, but I can’t find it.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 27/06/2025

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 29/05/2025

Nur weil es jetzt woanders schlechter läuft, bietet das deutsche akademische System nicht plötzlich Top-Bedingungen. Die strukturellen Probleme sind massiv. Das darf nicht von der Reformnotwendigkeit ablenken. www.zeit.de/2025/23/wiss...

zeit.de

Wissenschaftsstandort Deutschland: Plötzlich begehrt wie Harvard

Trump vertreibt die klügsten Köpfe aus den USA. Und plötzlich ist Deutschland wieder begehrt. Diese Chance sollten wir nutzen – die Forschung hier hat einiges zu bieten.

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Tobias Werner @tfwerner.com · 22/05/2025

Happy to be flying back to Berlin next week, but proud to be visiting an institution with the courage to stand its ground and fight back.

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

BAIREM @bairem.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

The "Berlin Center for AI Research in Economics and Management" (BAIREM) was founded at TU Berlin. With its work, the center strengthens the interface between technology, business and society - and makes an important contribution to responsible digital transformation. Find us: tu.berlin/wm/bairem

tu.berlin

Berlin Center for AI Research in Economics and Management - TU Berlin

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Reposted by Tobias Werner

Institute for Replication @i4replication.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

We did not want to start the week like this, but here we are. Yet again our chair’s inbox is filled with messages from replicators who have opened “replication” folders only to find names, Social Insurance Numbers, mental-health diagnoses and incomes of study participants. 🧵

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