And... we're off Join us next Spring at the University of Potsdam for the third Applied Causal Graphs workshop: applied-causal-graphs.de Now that the date and place are set and two of the keynote speakers are fixed, all we need is an abstract from you.

A new field experiment conducted on Reddit explains why some people lurk quietly and why others become extremely active in online political discussions. Learn more in #ScienceAdvances: https://scim.ag/4oOdywQ

We @uni-konstanz.de are hiring a full professor in machine learning for our MSc program in Social and Economic Data Science: stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/6...

Join us in Konstanz! For anyone interested, feel free to DM if you have questions.

Für eine deutsche Zusammenfassung, hier ein kurzes Interview beim DLF www.deutschlandfunk.de/online-disku...

Online political discussions are characterized by a minority of users dominate the discussion, while most remain silent. Those who perceived a discussion as toxic/polarized tend to remain silent: But toxicity engages power users (namely men interested in politics) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

It's out!! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Big thank you to my coauthors @small-schulz.bsky.social and @lorenzspreen.bsky.social, and to all participants who discussed 20 political issues over 4 weeks in 6 subreddit, 3 experimental conditions and let us observe.

Whose voices are heard in online discussions? Most people stay silent... and the drama may drive power users to post even more. A Reddit field experiment by @lfoswaldo.bsky.social @small-schulz.bsky.social & @lorenzspreen.bsky.social reveals why and explores ways to change it. tinyurl.com/3pwksmpu

2️⃣4️⃣🎁🎄 Doing something new for Advent this year: one great data journalism piece per day until Dec 24. I’m teaching a data journalism course @hertieschool.bsky.social next semester, so this is partly selfish homework. But maybe interesting for others too.

Our survey on research practices in Computational Communication Science is still open for participation! #CommSky

We've published an Open Letter urging EU policymakers to reject the Digital Omnibus' proposed Amendment to Article 12(5) GDPR, which would undermine citizens' data access rights & the researchers who depend on them for #DataDonation research. Read & sign: shorturl.at/e1mr4 - your signature matters.

Christmas markets in Cologne in 2025 Each Christmas tree 🎄 shows the location of one of the 9 Christmas markets. I created a Christmas tree flat icon as an SVG and imported it into mapbox.com Studio. Finally, I discovered the particle-based snow setting. ❄ #30DayMapChallenge Day 21: Icons

📣 New op-ed in Süddeutsche Zeitung: What the data say about the “Brandmauer” I summarize key findings from a study with @anninahermes.bsky.social across 57 democracies ➡️ Far-right parties don’t get weaker in government, they get stronger (~6 points by the next election) tinyurl.com/4j6jaud2

Join us as postdoc at the Inequality Discourse Observatory at the University of Konstanz: stellen.uni-konstanz.de/jobposting/7... We will do epic research between Linguistics and Computational Social Science at the Cluster of Politics of Inequality. Feel free to DM if you have any questions.

Another casualty of the LLM revolution. In "arXiv’s CS category, review articles and position papers must now be accepted at a journal or a conference and complete successful peer review."

We have a new preprint: osf.io/preprints/so... What have we learned about social media - the constantly moving target of empirical research - over the past decade?

How common are “survey professionals” - people who take dozens of online surveys for pay - across online panels, and do they harm data quality? Our paper, FirstView at @politicalanalysis.bsky.social, tackles this question using browsing data from three U.S. samples (Facebook, YouGov, and Lucid):

Wer’s glaubt Ralph Hertwig und Lisa Oswald @lfoswaldo.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social zu den psychologischen Faktoren von Falsch- und #Desinformation im aktuellen Heft „Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte“ der Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung: www.bpb.de/shop/zeitsch... #APuZ #Fakten #Fiktion

Hat mich gefreut, hier etwas beitragen zu dürfen @bpb.de www.bpb.de/shop/zeitsch... mit Ralph Hertwig @arc-mpib.bsky.social @mpib-berlin.bsky.social

For the first time in [err] many years I won't be teaching causal inference to Data Science Master's students at the Hertie School next semester. So, if you're Berlin-based, Berlin-reachable, or just Berlin-curious and for some reason you'd like to be me in Spring 2026, then now's your chance. 1/2

Great 5(!)-year postdoc position in FFM!

🚀 New postdoc position for Platform Data & Computational Social Science Join us to drive @gesis.org' efforts around the Digital Services Act (DSA) and conduct research with online platform data 💼 TV-L EG 14 | Location: Cologne 📌 Apply now: www.gesis.org/en/institute... #DSA #CSS #DataScience

My department at Leuphana University offers 6 fully funded PhD scholarships (incl. research funding) for three years. If you are interested in studying democratic resilience (particularly party competition and elections 🤓) and you have a strong methodolgical background: Apply! shorturl.at/kcTbG

We wrapped up the 22nd Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (@mpib-berlin.bsky.social). ECRs from around the world joined us to share their insights on rationality, cognition, and decision-making. 1/🧵👇

FINALLY 😌 The Delegated Act is here. The Act clarifies rules for data access under the Digital Services Act #DSA #dataaccess #research #eusky #commsky #polisky #csssky digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/d...

We are hiring, @arc-mpib.bsky.social a postdoc for a project to investigate why citizens feel alienated from liberal democracy and how a shared sense of reality can be restored. Work with @lfoswaldo.bsky.social @anaskozyreva.bsky.social, Ralph Hertwig and me: www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/2084802/2025...

Female academics are much more affected by the birth of a child than are male academics. Academic mothers are much more likely to... ◾temporarily leave the labor force ◾and, if they return, shift away from tenure-track positions. scholar.harvard.edu/files/sdchen...

The Trump regime is purporting to occupy a major American city with military troops while secret agents kidnap people off the street. A US senator was just arrested and the President has entertained questions about arresting the governor. Authoritarianism is on the march; an extremely dangerous time

Here are some of the 🔑 findings: - Legislators across the 12 countries DO follow researchers but seldom visibly engage. *Also, most of their engagement is with social scientists.

🤔 How much do politicians engage with academic researchers online? In my latest paper, I find that politicians from 12 countries rarely engage with researchers on social media, but this can change when expertise gains salience Preprint: osf.io/preprints/osf/wqbe4_v1 🧵👇

So delighted by this news! Looking forward to the next 7 years of research - there is lots to do 🏃‍♀️

🚨 New publication 🚨 : Happy to share that my paper, "Losing Touch: The Rhetorical Cost of Governing" is now forthcoming at @cpsjournal.bsky.social. Short 🧵 about the paper here 👇 1/10

Harvard today, your institution tomorrow. It's all part of the Project 2025 plan to destroy high education in America. All leading US universities depend on federal funding and tuition dollars from international students. They severely curtailed the former. Now they're eliminating the latter.

Im @economist.com-Ranking ist Deutschland in Sachen Gleichstellung übrigens sogar zurückgefallen. So viel zu „zu viel Feminimus macht die AfD stark“, liebe Märchenonkel. www.economist.com/graphic-deta...

New preprint with @jbakcoleman.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social @randomwalker.bsky.social @orbenamy.bsky.social @lfoswaldo.bsky.social where we argue for a complex-system perspective to understand the causal effects of social media on society and for a triangulation of methods arxiv.org/abs/2505.09254

The worst happened. We were DOGE’d. Our NSF funding is gone. So now there’s nothing stopping me from sharing Expert Voices Together, a crisis response system for US-based researchers and journalists facing harassment. It's a true passion project. 🧵 1/ expertvoicestogether.org

Out now! "GERDA: The German Election Database." GERDA provides comprehensive municipal, state, and federal election results at the municipality level between 1990 and 2021. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We are hiring postdocs in Computational Social Science 📍SweCSS, Norrköping, Sweden ⏰Deadline June 3 🔗https://liu.se/en/work-at-liu/vacancies/26854 Please apply // help us spread the word

🚨 Update on our case against #X: A #Berlin court has confirmed that researchers can enforce their right to access platform #data in their own national courts. No need to sue in Ireland, where X is based. Here’s why this matters 👇

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How the entertainment narrative of upward mobility distorts the harsh economic realities in America. The American Mirage by @eunjikim.bsky.social is out now. Learn more: press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

We're organizing another round of the Summer School for Women* in Political Methodology 🎉 summerschoolwpm.org Our super-cool speakers include msands.bsky.social @allisonwkoh.bsky.social @melinscribe.bsky.social @rebeccakittel.bsky.social @fabiennelind.bsky.social & @indiiigo.bsky.social 📆01/05

I was just contacted on LinkedIn for a role that requires a PhD in social science to curate and annotate training data for a major Gen AI company (undisclosed). They are offering... $15 an hour.

We've built a tool to make it easy to run experimental studies on social media interventions. Check it out. understanding.social

Mis/disinformation research officially cancelled. Understanding the creation, content, distribution, and susceptibility is one of today’s key scientific and societal challenges. Researching this is not free speech infringement. Such a claim is intentionally misleading. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

NEW: NSF announces it's "terminating awards that are not aligned with agency priorities...including but not limited to those on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and misinformation/disinformation." #HigherEd #AcademicSky

Excited about this coverage of our work and the replication by @maxplanck.de with @lfoswaldo.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social and Ralph Hertwig @arc-mpib.bsky.social www.mpg.de/24519906/dig...

Examining Congressional speeches from 1879 to 2022, @aroyehuns.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social et al. suggest that evidence-based language has continued to decline since the mid-1970s, together with a decline in legislative productivity. @bristoluni.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Why do scientists still struggle to answer basic questions about the safety of digital tech from AI to social media, even as families point to rising evidence of individual harm with concern & grief? @orbenamy.bsky.social & I have a new article in @science.org: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...