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Nick Buttrick

@nickbuttrick

Socioecological and cultural psychology. Inequality, guns, & bootstraps aka why America is strange. Asst prof at Wisconsin-Madison. Posts are not my own.

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Latest posts by Nick Buttrick @nickbuttrick

Studying large language models as compression algorithms for human culture Large language models (LLMs) extract and reproduce the statistical regularities in their training data. Researchers can use these models to study the conceptual relationships encoded in this training ...

You can read the whole thing here: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...

10/10

23.01.2024 14:27 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Understanding how given groups are represented in the broader culture is still interesting of course, but it is not necessarily the same as understanding ground-truth differences in how groups understand the world themselves. 9/10

23.01.2024 14:24 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

4) How do we know? LLMs are most powerful in studying hard-to-survey cultural groups or those with little prior data, but this is also where it can be hardest to know if the LLM is faithfully representing the beliefs of a set of people versus stereotypes on the internet. 8/n

23.01.2024 14:23 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

3) LLMs β€œknow” cultural psychology. They may be learning from the cultural psychology literature itself and then repeating back to us things that psychologists have already discovered (in other words, the extant scientific literature could be influencing model output) 7/n

23.01.2024 14:18 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

2) Whose writing??? Being written ABOUT is not the same as doing the writing. LLMs may overrepresent stereotypes, especially where outgroup writings are more voluminous than writings from inside the group. 6/n

23.01.2024 14:15 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

1) The internet is not the world. What info makes it onto the internet is shaped by many forces, such as literacy, power, and the rewards that come with posting. Bias in, bias out. 5/n

23.01.2024 14:10 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

HOWEVER. LLMs are biased. 4/n

23.01.2024 14:07 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

LLMs can reproduce cultural differences: although WEIRD by default, they can be asked to respond β€˜as if’ they were a person with certain properties (age, politics, etc). And their answers are remarkably accurate. 3/n

23.01.2024 14:05 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Cultural psychologists have used compressed cultural artifacts (like Google Book’s nGram) to track cultural change over time. For instance, US culture shifted in viewing happiness as β€œluck” (in the 1800s) to more modern views. LLMs could let us do the same on a massive scale. 2/n

23.01.2024 14:03 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
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New article at TiCS: What can ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) tell us about people? As a collection of compressed cultural artifacts, LLMs potentially allow for the study of culture at a massive scale. But caution is needed. 1/n 🧡

23.01.2024 13:56 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Two million in Bluesky - please post a celebratory bird

19.11.2023 03:16 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
A terrifying, evil looking goose showing his beak-teeth

A terrifying, evil looking goose showing his beak-teeth

I'm going through old photos and found this. The last time there was Goose Discourse I mentioned this evil goose that would come after me when I was a kid at this local lake. This is not that goose, but that is the same lake, and I am certain this is one of that evil fucker's descendants

19.11.2023 01:47 πŸ‘ 146 πŸ” 12 πŸ’¬ 22 πŸ“Œ 4
University of Wisconsin-Madison in fall

University of Wisconsin-Madison in fall

With grad admission deadlines coming up, I’m hoping to recruit a grad student (or 2!) this year! If you’re interested in guns, culture, or novels/reading, please reach out - I’d love to hear from you and chat about Madison.

(Please share!)

15.11.2023 12:36 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Bob’s 1986 AER, from his dissertation, compared estimates from an experimental and an econometric evaluation of the same job training program.

It showed limits of econometric approaches and is one of the most influential validation exercises in labor.
www.jstor.org/stable/1806062

25.10.2023 20:40 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 1
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Does what we read shape our worldviews? People who read more literary fiction growing up exhibit more complex worldviews (eg attributional complexity, lower essentialism) as adults - @nickbuttrick.bsky.social

#SESP #psychology #socialpsyc

13.10.2023 15:19 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
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β€œWhat is it about fiction, about poetry, about narrative that makes it so powerful? …that makes philosophers think of mass murder?” - @nickbuttrick.bsky.social on Plato

#SESP #psychology #socialpsyc

13.10.2023 15:06 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Reading Literary Fiction Is Associated With a More Complex Worldview - Nicholas Buttrick, Erin C. We... What are the effects of reading fiction? We propose that literary fiction alters views of the world through its presentation of differenceβ€”different minds, diff...

It’s out! In PSPB: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

15.10.2023 22:29 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
A Culture of Fear Sells Guns in the U.S. This Is How We Got Here. In episode two of The Gun Machine, host Alain Stephens explains the history of American gun ownership, including the racist roots of the Second Amendment.

A media:

www.thetrace.org/2023/10/amer...

(I am in it.)

10.10.2023 10:21 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm assuming goose content is welcome here?

28.09.2023 13:55 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1