Are you Chicago-bound for SPSP 2026? Quick plug to the Politics & Social Change Lab affiliates presenting talks & posters on coalitions, issue advocacy, media framing, inequality, social media & well-being, and other topics. Very proud of them and their work! 😀 Details below 👇

🎉 Congratulations 🎉 to our lab director @robbwiller.bsky.social who has been honored by @spspnews.bsky.social for his work applying social/behavioral science to public policy through collaborations w/ @whitehouse-47.bsky.social COVID response team, US DOJ, & @natlgovsassoc.bsky.social, among others!

Thanks @pnasnexus.org for sharing our new work on AI authorship labeling and persuasion...check out their post to learn more! Paper link: ow.ly/KXeE50YhHag Isabel O. Gallegos, Chen Shani, @shi-weiyan.bsky.social, Federico Bianchi, Izzy Gainsburg, @jurafsky.bsky.social, @robbwiller.bsky.social

Check out this super exciting work showing that AI-supported voter guides can be designed to be trustworthy and have a host of pro-democratic outcomes! @jsmernyk.bsky.social @jonnekamphorst.bsky.social @adambonica.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social

Thanks @gsb.stanford.edu for covering our work in their piece "How to Talk About Climate Change Across Political Divides" stanford.io/4jQi2Ct Amazing work from Jan Voelkel @nmalhotra.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social & many others! Original article in Nature Climate Change: rdcu.be/e1cbZ

Honored that our field experiment w Nat'l Governors Assoc won a 2025 Expy Award from Analyst Institute! Congrats to @chagaiweiss.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social and Don Green! WP: osf.io/preprints/os... Join Analyst Group to build more effective strategies for greater impact bit.ly/ExpyJoin

Huge thanks to @cydneydupree.bsky.social for an insightful presentation of her work investigating how White Americans’ use of values-based language shapes cross-racial affiliation! @robbwiller.bsky.social

Big thanks to Sarah Constantino for sharing her exciting research on social tipping points and climate change solutions with the lab this past Tuesday! @robbwiller.bsky.social

Thank you to @myra.bsky.social for her recent insightful presentation on how sycophantic AI can reduce people’s willingness to take responsibility and repair interpersonal conflicts! @robbwiller.bsky.social

Thank you to Kasey Rhee for an exciting recent presentation on her work analyzing how party registration has shifted across demographic groups using an unprecedented dataset of six billion voter records! @robbwiller.bsky.social

Proud to have our very own Ben Kinder present his undergraduate thesis research in our lab, focusing on pragmatic biases and strategic discrimination in American voting preferences. Excited to see where this work goes!

Thank you to @joshcjackson.bsky.social and Dan Medvedev for a fascinating recent lab presentation on how attitudes toward the rich vary globally! Innovative methods and fascinating findings, all around. @robbwiller.bsky.social

Big thanks to @kobihackenburg.bsky.social for sharing his comprehensive research program on the capacity of AI-Human conversation to facilitate attitude change. Really exciting stuff!

Awesome work by Jiayi Geng leading this preprint investigating then question, "Do LM assistants change their beliefs as context accumulates?"

Thanks to Paul Lendway for presenting his work on sermon rhetoric and what it tells us about Evangelical alignment with the Republican Party. Looking forward to reading the book that comes out of this research! @robbwiller.bsky.social

🚨New WP!🚨 Structured AI Dialogues Can Increase Happiness and Meaning in Life In a preregistered RCT, four psychology-grounded #AI chatbots improved well-being across several outcomes. Co-authors: Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, Aadesh Salecha, Sonja Lyubomirsky 🧵👇

Very cool to see @robbwiller.bsky.social quoted in the @wsj.com talking about our work (led by @chagaiweiss.bsky.social) testing the effects testing the #DisagreeBetter ads: www.wsj.com/politics/min...

Last night's @60minutes.bsky.social with Governor Spencer Cox offers a great chance to learn about the #DisagreeBetter campaign, an effort to encourage respectful and constructive political disagreement: www.cbsnews.com/video/928202...

Many wise insights from Gov Spencer Cox & @ezraklein.bsky.social Gov Cox rightly notes his 2020 video w Chris Peterson was among most impactful in Strengthening Democracy Challenge, a striking example of cross-party engagement. Grateful for their commitment. Hear it: 👇 youtu.be/WJB87niNCk0

It is great to see Gov Spencer Cox stepping up to turn the temperature down and focus ppl on grieving the tragic killing of Charlie Kirk. Gov Cox has long promoted civility across party lines. Our research finds that his messages are persuasive when Americans see it. 👇

Does labeling AI content affect its persuasiveness? Our latest policy brief evaluates the impact of authorship labels on how people perceive AI-written policy messages. @jurafsky.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social @federicobianchi.bsky.social hai.stanford.edu/policy/label...

We live in a world that feels more divided than ever. This week, we revisit an episode with sociologist Robb Willer and discuss how to bridge even the greatest divides. hiddenbrain.org/podcast/us-2...

Fantastic piece from @robbwiller.bsky.social and @owasow.bsky.social on nonviolent resistance published in the @nytimes.com. Bravo! www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/o...

Congratulations to lab alumn @maxhuibai.bsky.social on the release of his academic party game, Publish or Perish! Very excited to have received our copies in the mail – thanks, Max! You can check out Max's game here 👇 publishorperish.games

Thank you to @jonnekamphorst.bsky.social and David Broska for an engaging presentation on their work on support for predistributive and redistributive policies! @robbwiller.bsky.social @stanfordpacs.bsky.social

Big thanks to Ariel Malka for a fascinating presentation in the lab this week on how cultural and economic ideologies shape anti-democratic sentiment across partisan lines! @robbwiller.bsky.social @stanfordpacs.bsky.social

Compelling evidence in this new WP that AI can do "deep canvassing" and durably reduce prejudice and change policy attitudes. Very cool stuff from @tomcostello.bsky.social @gordpennycook.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social @dgrand.bsky.social

Very cool to see this research developed into a policy brief! Impactful work from a superstar team: @joon-s-pk.bsky.social @cqzou.bsky.social ‬ @aaronshaw.bsky.social @mako.cc Carrie Cai, Meredith Ringel Morris, @robbwiller.bsky.social Percy Liang, @mbernst.bsky.social

‬Big thanks to @devorahmanekin.bsky.social for an engaging talk on how affective polarization may shape nonviolent resistance!

Thank you Kylie Fuller for presenting your work on how extreme protest tactics affect legislators' support for climate activists and climate action. We look forward to seeing this project develop!

Thank you to Minjae Kim for an engaging and insightful talk on cross-cutting ties among divided political elites last Tuesday!

Big thanks to @simine.com for a thoughtful and engaging discussion on open science practices and strengthening trust in peer-reviewed research during her visit to the lab last week!

Thanks to Ryan Liu for sharing his exciting work on simulating and predicting people using generative AI agents! We are looking forward to seeing how this project develops.

A big thank you to Michael N. Stagnaro for sharing his compelling research addressing the ongoing challenge of distinguishing Bayesian from motivated reasoning. We look forward to seeing this project develop!

Thanks to @chagaiweiss.bsky.social for sharing his recent RCT with us, which showed that receiving investment portfolios in energy markets—especially green energy—can increase belief in climate change, support for climate action, and pro-environmental behavior. Exciting and encouraging results!

Thanks to Josh Martin for stopping by our lab to share his experiences and wisdom around applied behavioral science! You can learn more about Josh's exciting work here: www.venn-advisors.com

Thanks to Hanzhang Ren for presenting his team's winning approach to a global forecasting competition, which predicted fertility in the Netherlands. You can learn more about the Predicting Fertility data challenge here: stulp.gmw.rug.nl/prefer/

Thank you, Yao Xu, for presenting your research in our lab on how anti-establishment claims-making shapes electoral support for politicians who challenge democratic norms — truly insightful work!

Thanks to @lxeagle17.bsky.social for stopping by our lab to present the work that Split Ticket has been doing to establish a quantitative metric of candidate strength! You can learn more about Split Ticket’s work and their post-election analysis here: split-ticket.org

Congrats to our lab's members and affiliates on their @spspnews.bsky.social presentations! 🎉🎉🎉 Check out the attached image for everyone's presentation details! ⬇️👀

A huge thank you to @spruill.bsky.social for sharing her research exploring the influence of legal language on Black and White Americans’ perceptions of police officers and police use-of-force. Truly thought-provoking work!

A big thank you to Michael N. Stagnaro for sharing his research on using an informational intervention to bolster support for election integrity among conservative Republicans. It was a compelling study, and we look forward to seeing this project develop!

We're honored to be among the winners of the 2024 @stanfordhai.bsky.social Seed Research Grants! And congrats to the scholars behind this winning proposal: Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, and @robbwiller.bsky.social

Thank you Maya Mathur for presenting your research on the behavioral science of reducing meat consumption at our lab workshop! You can learn about the work that Maya's lab, the Humane & Sustainable Food Lab, does here 👇 www.foodlabstanford.com

Thanks to @small-schulz.bsky.social for stopping by our lab this week to workshop his research on using Mastodon to test algorithms for reducing partisan misperceptions. Excited to see this project develop!

Excited to see our Strengthening Democracy Challenge featured in @pnas.org: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... To learn more, check out the manuscript in @science.org (science.org/doi/10.1126/...)!

Big thanks to @anthlittle.bsky.social for an informative presentation on how we might model motivated reasoning to distinguish the process from Bayesian updating. Check out Andrew’s argument in this fascinating pre-print here: osf.io/preprints/os...

A big thank you to Katherine Clayton for workshopping The Structural Democratic Reforms megastudy in our lab this week! Excited to see this ambitious project develop! Jonne Kamphorst, @robbwiller.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social Ben Kinder, Chrystal Redekopp, Izzy Gainsburg

Thank you @jsmernyk.bsky.social and Jonne Kamphorst for presenting your exciting research on LLM-based voter guides!

Thank you to Jonas Schoene for sharing your innovative work on social media's role in shaping perception and well-being!