Jan Lorenz
@janlo.de
Computational social scientist, agent-based models, opinion dynamics and collective decision. Sometimes english, manchmal deutsch
http://datasci.social/@janlo
http://datasci.social/@janlo
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Misinformation research has a causality problem: lab experiments are limited; observational studies confounded.
We used causal inference on 9.9M tweets, quantifying effects in the wild while blocking backdoor paths.
Does misinfo get higher engagement? Are following discussions more emotional? 🧵
We used causal inference on 9.9M tweets, quantifying effects in the wild while blocking backdoor paths.
Does misinfo get higher engagement? Are following discussions more emotional? 🧵
OSF
osf.io
November 11, 2025 at 9:59 AM
Misinformation research has a causality problem: lab experiments are limited; observational studies confounded.
We used causal inference on 9.9M tweets, quantifying effects in the wild while blocking backdoor paths.
Does misinfo get higher engagement? Are following discussions more emotional? 🧵
We used causal inference on 9.9M tweets, quantifying effects in the wild while blocking backdoor paths.
Does misinfo get higher engagement? Are following discussions more emotional? 🧵
Das crazy. -> Das's' crazy.
October 18, 2025 at 3:50 PM
Das crazy. -> Das's' crazy.
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Job Alert! We are hiring two post-docs (full time, 4+ years) in our project SCEPTIC - Social, Computational and Ethical Premises of Trust and Informational Cohesion with @annanosthoff.bsky.social @guzoch.bsky.social and Prof. Andreas Peters (uol.de/informatik/s...)
October 17, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Job Alert! We are hiring two post-docs (full time, 4+ years) in our project SCEPTIC - Social, Computational and Ethical Premises of Trust and Informational Cohesion with @annanosthoff.bsky.social @guzoch.bsky.social and Prof. Andreas Peters (uol.de/informatik/s...)
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
📢 New Journal Article: AI & Deliberation 📢
What impact does #AI have on democratic deliberation? Together with @adrauc.bsky.social, I explore this question in a new article in Government Information Quarterly. Findings in the thread 🧵👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
(1/7)
What impact does #AI have on democratic deliberation? Together with @adrauc.bsky.social, I explore this question in a new article in Government Information Quarterly. Findings in the thread 🧵👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
(1/7)
Artificial Intelligence in deliberation: The AI penalty and the emergence of a new deliberative divide
Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) promise help for democratic deliberation, such as processing information, moderating discussion, and fact-che…
www.sciencedirect.com
September 29, 2025 at 12:21 PM
📢 New Journal Article: AI & Deliberation 📢
What impact does #AI have on democratic deliberation? Together with @adrauc.bsky.social, I explore this question in a new article in Government Information Quarterly. Findings in the thread 🧵👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
(1/7)
What impact does #AI have on democratic deliberation? Together with @adrauc.bsky.social, I explore this question in a new article in Government Information Quarterly. Findings in the thread 🧵👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
(1/7)
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Happy 3²/4²/5² day!
(for the US only—it's the less cool 20(5²)-3²-4² in ISO-8601)
(for the US only—it's the less cool 20(5²)-3²-4² in ISO-8601)
September 16, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Happy 3²/4²/5² day!
(for the US only—it's the less cool 20(5²)-3²-4² in ISO-8601)
(for the US only—it's the less cool 20(5²)-3²-4² in ISO-8601)
If you are interested in doing a PhD on Agent-based models of Protests consider this call:
2 Doctoral Scholarships (48 months) ‘Contentious Politics in the Digital Age’ (CoPoDi), funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Visit: www.bigsss-bremen.de/academic-pro...
2 Doctoral Scholarships (48 months) ‘Contentious Politics in the Digital Age’ (CoPoDi), funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Visit: www.bigsss-bremen.de/academic-pro...
CoPoDi: Research and Faculty
www.bigsss-bremen.de
September 11, 2025 at 9:59 AM
If you are interested in doing a PhD on Agent-based models of Protests consider this call:
2 Doctoral Scholarships (48 months) ‘Contentious Politics in the Digital Age’ (CoPoDi), funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Visit: www.bigsss-bremen.de/academic-pro...
2 Doctoral Scholarships (48 months) ‘Contentious Politics in the Digital Age’ (CoPoDi), funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
Visit: www.bigsss-bremen.de/academic-pro...
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
To cite this meme:
Photoshop et al. (2025)
Photoshop et al. (2025)
September 10, 2025 at 8:26 AM
To cite this meme:
Photoshop et al. (2025)
Photoshop et al. (2025)
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
My fourth day at #CCS2025 starts in the physics of self-organization satellite, where @cgershen.bsky.social discussed a balance-based narrative to explain complex systems science to the general public. He gave us a historical overview on the topic and then a formalization of his ideas.
September 4, 2025 at 8:11 AM
My fourth day at #CCS2025 starts in the physics of self-organization satellite, where @cgershen.bsky.social discussed a balance-based narrative to explain complex systems science to the general public. He gave us a historical overview on the topic and then a formalization of his ideas.
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
My daughter knew I would enjoy the evolutionary dynamics (an evolutionary stable state / Nash equilibrium) described in this 3 minute video from KQED’s excellent Deep Look team:
These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years
#evolution #nature
These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years
#evolution #nature
These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years | Deep Look
YouTube video by Deep Look
www.youtube.com
August 23, 2025 at 6:37 PM
My daughter knew I would enjoy the evolutionary dynamics (an evolutionary stable state / Nash equilibrium) described in this 3 minute video from KQED’s excellent Deep Look team:
These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years
#evolution #nature
These Lizards Have Been Playing Rock-Paper-Scissors for 15 Million Years
#evolution #nature
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
PsyArXiv is seeking new moderators to help combat an increase in AI submissions! If you've ever posted a preprint to PsyArXiv, please consider joining. Minimum commitment 1h/month, there's a training session this Monday @ 1pm ET. More info here: forms.gle/9LB1rEtxHAeZ... #PsychSciSky
Expression of Interest in Serving as a PsyArXiv Moderator
As you might have heard, PsyArXiv is having some issues with an increase in low-quality submissions, ranging from AI generated manuscripts to inflate citation metrics, incoherent or nonsensical docume...
forms.gle
August 15, 2025 at 5:31 PM
PsyArXiv is seeking new moderators to help combat an increase in AI submissions! If you've ever posted a preprint to PsyArXiv, please consider joining. Minimum commitment 1h/month, there's a training session this Monday @ 1pm ET. More info here: forms.gle/9LB1rEtxHAeZ... #PsychSciSky
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
By far the best alternative I have come across is Matilda: matilda.science?l=en
Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared
Google Scholar Is Doomed
Academia built entire careers on a free Google service with zero guarantees. What could go wrong?
hannahshelley.neocities.org
August 14, 2025 at 6:09 PM
By far the best alternative I have come across is Matilda: matilda.science?l=en
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
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
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
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
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
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Interesting paper that can extend to digital technologies generally and concludes:
“Understanding the consequences of actual AI for actual democracy, and figuring out how to steer toward the better rather than the worse outcomes, will require new kinds of cooperation than the ones we have today.”
“Understanding the consequences of actual AI for actual democracy, and figuring out how to steer toward the better rather than the worse outcomes, will require new kinds of cooperation than the ones we have today.”
New paper in our AI & Dem Freedoms series: @himself.bsky.social and @hahrie.bsky.social argue that the existing paradigm of democracy driving scholarship about its relationship to #AI highlights the wrong questions, and that we should focus on enduring democratic publics and collective behavior.
AI and Democratic Publics
knightcolumbia.org
August 5, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Interesting paper that can extend to digital technologies generally and concludes:
“Understanding the consequences of actual AI for actual democracy, and figuring out how to steer toward the better rather than the worse outcomes, will require new kinds of cooperation than the ones we have today.”
“Understanding the consequences of actual AI for actual democracy, and figuring out how to steer toward the better rather than the worse outcomes, will require new kinds of cooperation than the ones we have today.”
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Super important blog post on large scale scientific fraud through „scientific publishing“ by paying for it in „paper mills“.
Today, our article "The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly" is finally published in PNAS. I hope that it proves to be a wake-up-call for the whole scientific community.
reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...
reeserichardson.blog/2025/08/04/a...
A do-or-die moment for the scientific enterprise
Reflecting on our paper “The entities enabling scientific fraud at scale are large, resilient, and growing rapidly”
reeserichardson.blog
August 5, 2025 at 6:38 AM
Super important blog post on large scale scientific fraud through „scientific publishing“ by paying for it in „paper mills“.
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
only a maniac would use a 2-sided test here
Available in the SMBC store in "mom", "dad" and "parent" variants.
Credit to Richard McElreath for the language and graph on the mug.
MUG ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com/products/goo...
COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/number...
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
Credit to Richard McElreath for the language and graph on the mug.
MUG ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com/products/goo...
COMIC ◆ www.smbc-comics.com/comic/number...
PATREON ◆ www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersm...
STORE ◆ smbc-store.myshopify.com
July 28, 2025 at 8:01 AM
only a maniac would use a 2-sided test here
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
I think they’re here to stay, but it’s worth remembering (and this will become increasingly apparent in the years to come) that, despite some clear benefits, LLMs/large AI models are a net negative for society and it’s not even close.
July 25, 2025 at 9:21 PM
I think they’re here to stay, but it’s worth remembering (and this will become increasingly apparent in the years to come) that, despite some clear benefits, LLMs/large AI models are a net negative for society and it’s not even close.
Seltener Fund eines Fun-Content in der deutschen Wikipedia: Das Beispiel zum ökonomischen Grenznutzen ist wirklich besser zu verstehen, wenn man vorher dem Link zum Bratwurst-Artikel und das Bild konsultiert!
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenznu...
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenznu...
July 25, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Seltener Fund eines Fun-Content in der deutschen Wikipedia: Das Beispiel zum ökonomischen Grenznutzen ist wirklich besser zu verstehen, wenn man vorher dem Link zum Bratwurst-Artikel und das Bild konsultiert!
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenznu...
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenznu...
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
My lab has a name and a website now 🥳
Please welcome the "Psychology of Social Complexity" lab: www.socolab.co.uk
Please welcome the "Psychology of Social Complexity" lab: www.socolab.co.uk
Home | Psychology of Social Complexity
www.socolab.co.uk
July 25, 2025 at 6:51 AM
My lab has a name and a website now 🥳
Please welcome the "Psychology of Social Complexity" lab: www.socolab.co.uk
Please welcome the "Psychology of Social Complexity" lab: www.socolab.co.uk
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
I've been working on a new tool, Refine, to make scholars more productive. If you're interested in being among the very first to try the beta, please read on.
Refine leverages the best current AI models to draw your attention to potential errors and clarity issues in research paper drafts.
1/
Refine leverages the best current AI models to draw your attention to potential errors and clarity issues in research paper drafts.
1/
July 24, 2025 at 3:24 AM
I've been working on a new tool, Refine, to make scholars more productive. If you're interested in being among the very first to try the beta, please read on.
Refine leverages the best current AI models to draw your attention to potential errors and clarity issues in research paper drafts.
1/
Refine leverages the best current AI models to draw your attention to potential errors and clarity issues in research paper drafts.
1/
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Review "Opinion dynamics: Statistical physics and beyond"
arxiv.org/abs/2507.11521
Lab experiments, data, models, analytical/computational tools. 93 pages, >1k references.
With Fabian Baumann, David Garcia, Gerardo Iñiguez, Márton Karsai, Jan Lorenz, Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron. Led by Michele Starnini
arxiv.org/abs/2507.11521
Lab experiments, data, models, analytical/computational tools. 93 pages, >1k references.
With Fabian Baumann, David Garcia, Gerardo Iñiguez, Márton Karsai, Jan Lorenz, Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron. Led by Michele Starnini
Opinion dynamics: Statistical physics and beyond
Opinion dynamics, the study of how individual beliefs and collective public opinion evolve, is a fertile domain for applying statistical physics to complex social phenomena. Like physical systems, soc...
arxiv.org
July 16, 2025 at 5:57 AM
Review "Opinion dynamics: Statistical physics and beyond"
arxiv.org/abs/2507.11521
Lab experiments, data, models, analytical/computational tools. 93 pages, >1k references.
With Fabian Baumann, David Garcia, Gerardo Iñiguez, Márton Karsai, Jan Lorenz, Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron. Led by Michele Starnini
arxiv.org/abs/2507.11521
Lab experiments, data, models, analytical/computational tools. 93 pages, >1k references.
With Fabian Baumann, David Garcia, Gerardo Iñiguez, Márton Karsai, Jan Lorenz, Katarzyna Sznajd-Weron. Led by Michele Starnini
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
The representative electoral statistics show how often each demographic group voted for different parties in the German federal election. This year, I’ve prepared the data as radar charts. What do you think: does this type of chart work well for this kind of data? www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...
June 23, 2025 at 4:00 PM
The representative electoral statistics show how often each demographic group voted for different parties in the German federal election. This year, I’ve prepared the data as radar charts. What do you think: does this type of chart work well for this kind of data? www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
Haben nicht alle noch nach einem Namen für schwarz-rot gesucht? Wie wäre es mit "Drecksarbeit"-Koalition?
June 19, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Haben nicht alle noch nach einem Namen für schwarz-rot gesucht? Wie wäre es mit "Drecksarbeit"-Koalition?
Reposted by Jan Lorenz
This was the jumpstart event for a major focus of my research going forward, together with many excellent collaborators (those in attendance and many others). I’m so grateful for the opportunity to put this together, and i hope for more events to come. #culturalevolution
Traditional models of cultural evolution haven’t held up in the face of modern-day constructs like social media and easy global travel. Last month, @psmaldino.bsky.social and collaborators convened a working group to build new models for the 21st century.
www.santafe.edu/news-center/...
www.santafe.edu/news-center/...
June 16, 2025 at 5:51 PM
This was the jumpstart event for a major focus of my research going forward, together with many excellent collaborators (those in attendance and many others). I’m so grateful for the opportunity to put this together, and i hope for more events to come. #culturalevolution