@davidbroska.bsky.social
🇪🇺 PhD Candidate at Stanford Sociology. Computational Social Science, Social Psychology, and Social Policy
https://sociology.stanford.edu/people/david-sebastian-broska
https://sociology.stanford.edu/people/david-sebastian-broska
First day of my research visit at Oxford! Many thanks to @zparolin.bsky.social for the generous invitation.
I’ll be presenting on simulating human behavior with LLMs on Jan 28 at the @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Sociology Seminar.
If you’ll be around Oxford, feel free to reach out!
I’ll be presenting on simulating human behavior with LLMs on Jan 28 at the @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Sociology Seminar.
If you’ll be around Oxford, feel free to reach out!
January 19, 2026 at 9:56 AM
First day of my research visit at Oxford! Many thanks to @zparolin.bsky.social for the generous invitation.
I’ll be presenting on simulating human behavior with LLMs on Jan 28 at the @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Sociology Seminar.
If you’ll be around Oxford, feel free to reach out!
I’ll be presenting on simulating human behavior with LLMs on Jan 28 at the @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Sociology Seminar.
If you’ll be around Oxford, feel free to reach out!
Effect sizes in social science survey experiments are typically small, requiring large samples and budgets for sufficient statistical power. It gets even trickier because increasing n/$ yields only diminishing returns to statistical power. This study points to an important barrier to credibility👇 1/
Survey experiments have become a popular methodology among social scientists. Has it been effective?
In POQ, Rauf et al. study the efficacy of 100 survey experiments. Their results show that a majority of hypotheses were not supported.
Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...
In POQ, Rauf et al. study the efficacy of 100 survey experiments. Their results show that a majority of hypotheses were not supported.
Read now: doi.org/10.1093/poq/...
December 19, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Effect sizes in social science survey experiments are typically small, requiring large samples and budgets for sufficient statistical power. It gets even trickier because increasing n/$ yields only diminishing returns to statistical power. This study points to an important barrier to credibility👇 1/
To simulate-then-validate, to validate-then-simulate, or to calibrate: that is the question. We discuss ways to simulate human responses to behavioral science experiments using LLMs and strategies to address their limitations. Check out our preprint!
Many think LLM-simulated participants can transform behavioral science. But there's been a lack of accessible discussion of what it means to validate LLMs for behavioral scientists. Under what conditions can we trust LLMs to learn about human parameters? Our paper maps the validation landscape.
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December 18, 2025 at 9:15 PM
To simulate-then-validate, to validate-then-simulate, or to calibrate: that is the question. We discuss ways to simulate human responses to behavioral science experiments using LLMs and strategies to address their limitations. Check out our preprint!
Reposted
I'm super happy & proud to be able to work with this rock star group of a team (and academic guests)! 🧠🧠🧠💫🙏 @goetheuni.bsky.social @infer-frankfurt.bsky.social
- and it's really nice to check out parts of Frankfurt that I hadn't been to as part of our team event
- and it's really nice to check out parts of Frankfurt that I hadn't been to as part of our team event
September 23, 2025 at 2:27 PM
I'm super happy & proud to be able to work with this rock star group of a team (and academic guests)! 🧠🧠🧠💫🙏 @goetheuni.bsky.social @infer-frankfurt.bsky.social
- and it's really nice to check out parts of Frankfurt that I hadn't been to as part of our team event
- and it's really nice to check out parts of Frankfurt that I hadn't been to as part of our team event
Check out this article on leveraging AI for conducting social science research!
Social science research can be time-consuming, expensive, and hard to replicate. But with AI, scientists can now simulate human data and run studies at scale. Does it actually work? hai.stanford.edu/news/social-...
Social Science Moves In Silico | Stanford HAI
Despite limitations, advances in AI offer social science researchers the ability to simulate human subjects.
hai.stanford.edu
July 30, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Check out this article on leveraging AI for conducting social science research!
Excited to continue learning about the latest #CSS at @ic2s2.bsky.social! I’ll be at the Social Prediction Session, presenting the mixed subjects design on combining human and LLM data in experiments. Paper with Michael Howes and @austin-van-loon.bsky.social. Come join us! doi.org/10.1177/0049...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
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doi.org
July 21, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Excited to continue learning about the latest #CSS at @ic2s2.bsky.social! I’ll be at the Social Prediction Session, presenting the mixed subjects design on combining human and LLM data in experiments. Paper with Michael Howes and @austin-van-loon.bsky.social. Come join us! doi.org/10.1177/0049...
Reposted
New in Sociological Methods & Research: Soc PhD candidate @davidbroska.bsky.social, @austin-van-loon.bsky.social, & Michael Howes show how combining human subjects and large language models can yield precise estimates at low cost, with implications for scientific productivity
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
June 25, 2025 at 3:32 PM
New in Sociological Methods & Research: Soc PhD candidate @davidbroska.bsky.social, @austin-van-loon.bsky.social, & Michael Howes show how combining human subjects and large language models can yield precise estimates at low cost, with implications for scientific productivity
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
How can we leverage generative AI to advance social science methods and research? Daniel Karell and Thomas Davidson led a special issue in Sociological Methods & Research to find out. Special kudos to them! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
May 17, 2025 at 3:54 PM
How can we leverage generative AI to advance social science methods and research? Daniel Karell and Thomas Davidson led a special issue in Sociological Methods & Research to find out. Special kudos to them! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Mixed feelings about silicon subjects (LLM predictions of human behavior) as replacements for human subjects? Consider the mixed subjects design.
🚨Now published at Sociological Methods and Research🚨
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
🚨Now published at Sociological Methods and Research🚨
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
April 23, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Mixed feelings about silicon subjects (LLM predictions of human behavior) as replacements for human subjects? Consider the mixed subjects design.
🚨Now published at Sociological Methods and Research🚨
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
🚨Now published at Sociological Methods and Research🚨
doi.org/10.1177/0049...
Reposted
Happy to share my new paper with Cat Dang Ton and @eollion.bsky.social on how to use generative LLMs for extracting information from textual data (conditionally accepted at Sociological Methods & Research)
Here's a rundown..
osf.io/preprints/so...
Here's a rundown..
osf.io/preprints/so...
March 31, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Happy to share my new paper with Cat Dang Ton and @eollion.bsky.social on how to use generative LLMs for extracting information from textual data (conditionally accepted at Sociological Methods & Research)
Here's a rundown..
osf.io/preprints/so...
Here's a rundown..
osf.io/preprints/so...
Reposted
🚨 ACCEPTED AT SMR 🚨
Confused by colleagues who seem to want to study LLMs instead of humans? Frustrated by skeptics (e.g., myself 8 months ago) who dismiss LLMs as a potential source of data on human behavior? Check out our paper for a new way forward: osf.io/j3bnt_v3/
OSF
osf.io
February 18, 2025 at 11:55 AM
🚨 ACCEPTED AT SMR 🚨
Confused by colleagues who seem to want to study LLMs instead of humans? Frustrated by skeptics (e.g., myself 8 months ago) who dismiss LLMs as a potential source of data on human behavior? Check out our paper for a new way forward: osf.io/j3bnt_v3/