Giuliano Formisano
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giulianoformisano.bsky.social
Giuliano Formisano
@giulianoformisano.bsky.social
PostDoc in Politics, University of Zurich | Oxford PhD | Computational Social Science, Polarisation, NLP

giulianoformisano.github.io
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
Time to let the cat out of the bag that I’ve been elected to a Junior Research Fellowship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, alongside my position at the Reuters Institute.
November 7, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
LLMs are now widely used in social science as stand-ins for humans—assuming they can produce realistic, human-like text

But... can they? We don’t actually know.

In our new study, we develop a Computational Turing Test.

And our findings are striking:
LLMs may be far less human-like than we think.🧵
Computational Turing Test Reveals Systematic Differences Between Human and AI Language
Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used in the social sciences to simulate human behavior, based on the assumption that they can generate realistic, human-like text. Yet this assumption rem...
arxiv.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
This year’s call for applications for the Prize Post Doctoral Fellowships in Politics at Nuffield College is now live! It’s a fantastic opportunity for newly minted PhDs to spend three years in a wonderful academic environment:

www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/the-college/...
Postdoctoral Prize Research Fellowships in Politics - Nuffield College Oxford University
www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk
November 6, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🎓 Curious about publishing in the social sciences? Got a project in the works or just thinking about it? Join us for an inspiring morning hosted by the @sciencespo.bsky.social Library on Thursday, November 20, in the Saint-Thomas Salon Scientifique. @sciencespo-cee.bsky.social
Matinée jeunes chercheurs 2025
Matinée jeunes chercheurs et chercheuses (3ème édition), le jeudi 20 novembre 2025 de 9h15 à 12h30 Tout savoir (ou presque !) sur la publication en sciences sociales.
www.sciencespo.fr
November 6, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
Zohran's relentless disciplined campaign was truly impressive - he brought every message/issue back to the cost of living and built a model for what bringing attention to a positive affordability message can look like

Proud to have Blue Rose do ad testing for the Zohran IE!

x.com/alimortell/s...
Ali Mortell on X: ".@ZohranKMamdani ran a phenomenal, authentic campaign focused on affordability. Blue Rose Research is proud to have partnered with @MiddleSeatCo on ad testing and to support their work in helping build the momentum for a more affordable New York. LFG 🌹 https://t.co/0HLenkSSrv" / X
.@ZohranKMamdani ran a phenomenal, authentic campaign focused on affordability. Blue Rose Research is proud to have partnered with @MiddleSeatCo on ad testing and to support their work in helping build the momentum for a more affordable New York. LFG 🌹 https://t.co/0HLenkSSrv
x.com
November 5, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
Excited to share that together with @malojan.bsky.social we’ve published a research note in #partypolitics introducing PartySOME, a comprehensive dataset on political parties’ social media activity. A thread 🧵 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
November 5, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
I’m happy to see this short paper with @fluegeldo.bsky.social on unexpected hikes in voting costs out in @thejop.bsky.social !
doi.org/10.1086/739405
[1/5]
November 4, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🚨It's that exciting time of year!🚨

Our team has got TWO open DPhil (PhD) positions in #datascience + #health here at @oxforddemsci.bsky.social for 2026🎉! See for details:

1️⃣ 👉 crahal.com/HDS_2026.html
2️⃣ 👉 crahal.com/pophealth_2026.html

Please share and help us to find our future teammates ❤️!
September 1, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🚨 EPSS Belfast 2026 Call for Papers - One week to go! 🚨

Don't forget to submit your paper or panel proposal to the European Political Science Society @epssnet.bsky.social 2026 conference - just one week to go before the deadline: epssnet.org/belfast-2026...
Call for Papers | EPSS Belfast 2026 Conference
Submit your abstract or full paper for EPSS Belfast 2026. Share cutting‑edge political science research, network with peers & contribute to academic impact.
epssnet.org
October 31, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🚨 New main paper out at #EMNLP2025! 🚨

⚡ We show that personalization of content moderation models can be harmful and perpetuate hate speech, defeating the purpose of the system and hurting the community.

We argue that personalized moderation needs boundaries, and we show how to build them.
October 31, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
Exciting news for the OII! We’re delighted to announce that @computermacgyver.bsky.social will be our new Director and @kathryneccles.bsky.social our Deputy Director from January 2026. bit.ly/3JssF0q 1/3
OII | New leadership at the Oxford Internet Institute
The OII is pleased to announce Dr Scott A. Hale appointed as its next Director, and Dr Kathryn Eccles as Deputy Director.
bit.ly
October 27, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🚨 New LSE job in political science 🚨

We're looking for a *Full or Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy* to join the LSE School of Public Policy

Please share!

jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
Full or Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy
Full or Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, , <p style="text-align: center;"><em><span>LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university</span></...
jobs.lse.ac.uk
October 22, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
We're holding brief/extremely informal 15 minute meetings with anyone who is interested in either of these positions, scheduled for 19.11.2025 and 17.11.2025, respectively. Email or DM for more information!

Please do share details within your network; I think these projects are pretty cool!
🚨It's that exciting time of year!🚨

Our team has got TWO open DPhil (PhD) positions in #datascience + #health here at @oxforddemsci.bsky.social for 2026🎉! See for details:

1️⃣ 👉 crahal.com/HDS_2026.html
2️⃣ 👉 crahal.com/pophealth_2026.html

Please share and help us to find our future teammates ❤️!
October 11, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🚨 New paper 🚨

Sexually explicit deepfakes 🤖 hurt politicians on almost all fronts...

This is the case ***even*** when people realized the image wasn't real 🤯, and effects are stronger for male 👨 than female 👩 candidates

Link to preprint: tinyurl.com/pnnkhfks
October 3, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
NEW!
In Liverpool for Labour Conference...

Starmer is concentrating on Reform but Labour shouldn't mistake their threat on the right, even in Leave voting heartlands.

Our new analysis w/ @martamiori.bsky.social explains:

politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/news-and-eve...
Article - Nuffield Politics Research Centre
politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk
September 28, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
Ever asked yourself how to detect and extract social groups from texts with computational social science? @haukelicht.bsky.social and me have a solution for you out at @bjpols.bsky.social. You can also find the pre-trained models on huggingface!
NEW -

Detecting Group Mentions in Political Rhetoric A Supervised Learning Approach - cup.org/45WZppQ

- @haukelicht.bsky.social & @ronjasczepanski.bsky.social

#OpenAccess
September 1, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
Social media platforms operate globally, but do they allocate human moderation equitably across languages?

Our new WP shows the answer is no:

-Millions of users post in languages with zero moderators
-Where mods exist, mod count relative to content volume varies widely across langs

osf.io/amfws
August 28, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
We are looking for 1–2 postdoctoral researchers to join the project “Political Violence in Democracies”, led by @hannefjelde.bsky.social

📌 Full-time, 2-year postdoctoral position
📆 Start Date: Dec 1, (or by agreement)
📍 Location: Uppsala
⏳ Apply by: Oct 1

Read more: www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
August 14, 2025 at 12:25 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
We built the simplest possible social media platform. No algorithms. No ads. Just LLM agents posting and following.

It still became a polarization machine.

Then we tried six interventions to fix social media.

The results were… not what we expected.

arxiv.org/abs/2508.03385
Can We Fix Social Media? Testing Prosocial Interventions using Generative Social Simulation
Social media platforms have been widely linked to societal harms, including rising polarization and the erosion of constructive debate. Can these problems be mitigated through prosocial interventions?...
arxiv.org
August 6, 2025 at 8:24 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🏆 Thrilled to share that our HateDay paper has received an Outstanding Paper Award at #ACL2025

Big thanks to my wonderful co-authors: @deeliu97.bsky.social, Niyati, @computermacgyver.bsky.social, Sam, Victor, and @paul-rottger.bsky.social!

Thread 👇and data avail at huggingface.co/datasets/man...
July 31, 2025 at 8:05 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
We have a new paper out in @jepsjournal.bsky.social, with @laiabalcells.bsky.social, @sergisme.bsky.social and Ethan vanderWilden.

We test a number of experimental treatments aimed at strengthening social norms against radical-right support, but find mostly null results.

1/3
July 31, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
Even in times of sociocultural conflict, a progressive left electorate is more averse to sociocultural *and* socioeconomic inequalities than (far) right voters.

New paper with @siljahausermann.bsky.social Palmtag @tabouchadi.bsky.social @stefwalter.bsky.social Berkinshaw
tinyurl.com/d42wyb79

1/n
July 29, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
🚨New working paper 🚨

Excited to share my new working paper on rural discontent with climate policies in Europe.

As the climate backlash materialises, especially in rural places, I ask: why do people oppose the green transition in rural areas?

A quick 🧵

The paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
July 25, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Giuliano Formisano
1/ New paper out in Electoral Studies with @heikekluever.bsky.social and @cornelius-erfort.bsky.social
We show that nuclear power plants reduce electoral support for Green parties in Germany.
🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A thread on the paper:
How nuclear power hurts the Greens: Evidence from German nuclear power plants
What are the electoral consequences of nuclear energy for Green parties? Despite the centrality of nuclear opposition to Green party platforms, and th…
www.sciencedirect.com
July 25, 2025 at 9:09 AM