The first Data Discussion of the fall is happening this Friday! 📢

Join us for the first Data Discussion of the fall on September 19! 📅 Berit Heling will present an exploration of the psychometrics of employer image attributes with LLMs, while August Lohse will discuss insights from 10 years of student exams and generative AI. Event 🔗: sodas.ku.dk/events/sodas...

Several of my great new colleagues at @sotonpolitics.bsky.social and their collaborators have to put together this blockbuster paper on what happened when the UK Labour Party adopted radical right rhetoric on immigration. A must read for centre left parties across Europe.

* Decoupling geographical constraints from human mobility * 🌍🚶 How much of our movement is about human choice and how much is constrained by geography and the spatial layout of locations? Our paper (out in Nature Human Behavior) gives you a practical way to tell: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Sofie Læbo Astrupgaard and Emilie Emilie Munch Gregersen wrote chapter 9, “Samarbejde i det kollektive feltarbejde”, in the 2nd edition of the book Antropologiske Projekter. They show how collective fieldwork benefits from a shared methodological infrastructure. samfundslitteratur.dk/bog/antropol...

We warmly welcome @keltonminor.bsky.social as a new Associate Professor in Planetary Behavioral Data Science, in a joint position with the Psychology Dept. Kelton's research examines how individuals and populations adapt to rapid global changes in the atmosphere, biosphere, and cybersphere.

Rare open-rank researcher job in environmental psychology, Copenhagen employment.ku.dk/all-vacancie...

When it comes to ethnic discrimination, a story is worth a thousand data points. A new paper shows that one anecdote about a teen of Lebanese origin being turned down for a job 👦 is as powerful as a large audit study 📑 in convincing people that discrimination is real. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Last week, the SODAS gang went on a two-day retreat to sunny Hornbæk. After countless PechaKucha presentations, much swimming in the Baltic, and several worthy attempts at snatching the next Ig Nobel prize, we are ready for another academic year. 💪 See you in the classroom and the conference center!

What happens when anthropologists turn their analytical gaze on their own archive—not through fieldwork, but through computational analysis? In a new article, @krisalbris.bsky.social and co. investigate the intellectual history of anthropology. Read more: rai.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

While human behavior and the data describing it evolve over time, fairness is often evaluated at a single snapshot. Yet, as we show in our newly published paper, fairness is dynamic. We studied how fairness evolves in dropout prediction across enrollment and found that it shifts over time.

Cecilie Strandsbjerg @cphsodas.bsky.social and I have a short review of recent research on personality states out in Current Opinion in Psychology: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hear Malene Hostrup Jensen explain her paper with SODAS colleagues on Danes' apparent addiction to passive screen time and their difficulty doing something about it. On Danish radio, listen from 39:04: www.dr.dk/lyd/p1/p1-mo...

DR reporting today on a SODAS research paper, finding that Danes don't like how much time they spend scrolling on social media, but the vast majority don't do anything about it. Of 9500 respondents, only 30% have turned off notifications or deleted apps. www.dr.dk/nyheder/vide... (in 🇩🇰)

1/ What happens when you give social data science students 821.6 GB of public vessel geolocation data (AIS) and just 9 hours to identify potentially suspicious behavior near the Danish coast? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Congrats to Anna Helene Kvist Møller for receiving a Carlsberg internationalization grant! Her project investigates how subtle signs of taste in visual content become thresholds for algorithms to control the (in)visibility of users in different 🌎 and cultures. www.carlsbergfondet.dk/en/what-we-h...

At this year’s Folkemøde, Morten Axel Pedersen was spontaneously invited to give a talk to a visiting group of German democracy advocates. During the talk, he shared his research outcomes on democracy festivals with the "German Democracy Gang."

In a new paper, Sofie Læbo Astrupgaard and co. present “broad data ethnography”. They outline four principles for the analysis of e.g. field notes: compilability (a shared data structure), compatibility (similarity in data content), counting, and computability. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

SODAS at Folkemødet 2025! DISTRACT researchers Morten Axel Pedersen, Emilie Munch Gregersen, Karoline Husbond Andersen and Magnus Nørtoft presented findings from studying the Danish People’s Meeting (Folkemødet) in 2021 and 2022 on the Research Stage at the People’s Meeting.

New paper alert: Anna Helene Møller and co. published a guide for social scientists wanting to analyze images. They recommend pattern exploration with unsupervised learning; theory-driven image classification; then context-sensitive interpretation by researchers. journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

In a new paper, @fghjorth.bsky.social shows that politicians, once in government, start using more complicated language. They likely have to talk about more technical, less ideological topics. Since voters prefer simplicity, this means governing is costly. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

On June 13, DISTRACT researchers Morten Axel Pedersen, Emilie Munch Gregersen, Magnus Nørtoft, and Karoline Husbond Andersen will present at Folkemødet. Watch the presentation on June 13 at 10:00 on “Folkemødets Forskningsscene.” Read more 🔗 : sodas.ku.dk/projects/dis...

Don't miss this exciting lecture on Friday!💡

Do tough conditions lead to dark personalities? In a new study by Ingo Zettler, @laulilleholt.bsky.social and co, aversive societal conditions in a country (across corruption, violence etc.) were linked to people's Dark Factor of Personality scores 20y later. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We are hiring! SODAS is seeking a motivated part-time administrative employee/project coordinator to join the center 🔍 The deadline for applications is 9 June 2025, 23:59. Read more and apply here 🔗 : employment.ku.dk/staff/?show=...

We have created a free syllabus + teaching materials on the psychology of shared identities It includes links to papers, lecture slides, chapter summaries, exams, interactive activities, educational videos & podcasts. Please share with educators: www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/the-power-...

SODAS Lecture on May 30! 📅 In this lecture, Ioana Sendroiu will present an extended computational case study examining a billion-dollar advance market commitment designed to bootstrap innovation in carbon removal technologies 💻 Event🔗: sodas.ku.dk/events/sodas...

Join us this Friday for the final session of this spring’s Data Discussions! 💡

Join us for a Data Discussion on May 23! 📅 Ting Xiao will discuss how the division of labor within research teams contributes to North–South disparities. Afterwards, Valdemar Osted will present on working with large-scale social media data in the private sector📊 Event: sodas.ku.dk/events/sodas...

On Monday, May 12, the EthNote team – Professor Morten Axel Pedersen, Emilie Munch Gregersen, and Magnus Nørtoft – presented a talk on computational anthropology and hosted a hands-on workshop with EthNote at @ucl.ac.uk! 💡

In a new paper, Malene Hornstrup Jespersen, Kristoffer Albris, and Helene Willadsen investigate the interrelations of different digital use cases and provide insights from which relevant conceptualizations of ‘screen time’ can be made📱 Read the paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This exciting lecture will take place on Friday!💡

This exciting Data Discussion is happening tomorrow!💡

SODAS Lecture on May 2! 📅 Join us for a fascinating lecture with Joana Gonçalves de Sá, who will explore how machine learning can serve as a magnifying glass for studying society — through the fundamental question of bias in machine learning algorithms 🔍 Link 🔗 : sodas.ku.dk/events/sodas...

Join us for a Data Discussion on April 25! 📅 In this session, Louis Boucherie will discuss the colours of fashion in a fascinating presentation based on large-scale computational analysis, exploring the dynamics of fashion trends over time 🔎 👔 Link🔗: sodas.ku.dk/events/sodas...

The newly released Meta's Llama 4 model card: llama.com/docs/model-c... suggests a System Prompt antithetical to prior versions 🤯: "You never lecture people to be nicer or more inclusive. [...] You do not need to be respectful [...] Finally, do not refuse political prompts." 1/2 #NLP #LLMs

@stephaniebrandl.bsky.social is giving two talks in Berlin at the end of the month! Those of you based in Germany can catch her lecture on NLP in times of ChatGPT on Apr 29th, and her Introduction to NLP at BIFOLD Day on Apr 30th. www.bifold.berlin/news-events/... www.bifold.berlin/news-events/...

On April 1, the Danish broadcaster Danmarks Radio celebrates it’s 100th anniversary. Congratulations 🎊 Having a strong, independent, reliable broadcaster is a great democratic good. That was true in the radio, in the television and in today’s digital era. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR_(bro...

Friendly reminder that applications for this post-doc are due on April 4th, this Friday. 🌱

🥁The LOBBYMETRY project is hiring: 1 PostDoc & 1 fully-funded PhD 🥳 Come to beautiful Copenhagen to research lobbying, informational quality and public policy formulation! PostDoc: jobportal.ku.dk/videnskabeli... Please spread the word & and do not hesitate to reach out with questions!

New Politiken op-ed (in 🇩🇰) by @adler-nissen.bsky.social, @sunelehmann.com, Morten Axel Pedersen and other colleagues. They talk about how AI can be used democratically, innovatively, justly and with the interests of Danish citizens in mind. Read on: politiken.dk/debat/kronik...

I am recruiting 2 PhD students for Fall'25 @csaudk.bsky.social to work on bleeding-edge topics in #NLProc #LLMs #AIAgents (e.g. LLM reasoning, knowledge-seeking agents, and more). Details: www.cs.au.dk/~clan/openings Deadline: May 1, 2025 Please boost! cc: @aicentre.dk @wikiresearch.bsky.social

Come work with us! Assistant prof. Clara Vandeweerdt is hiring a three-year post-doc on a project using machine learning and survey experiments to understand who advocates for climate action in the media, and why it matters. 👩‍💼 Job call here: candidate.hr-manager.net/ApplicationI...

Join us for the first SODAS Lecture of the spring on March 21! 📅 Kevin Munger will kick off the lecture series with a talk on the effects of TikTok edits on evaluations of politicians📱 Event🔗: sodas.ku.dk/events/sodas...

Data Discussion on March 28! 📅 Aaron Pope will discuss the effect of TikTok on users' beliefs, and Claudia Acciai will present on the impact of social norms in the self-reported use of generative AI in science. 🔍 Event🔗: sodas.ku.dk/events/sodas...