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Simone Zhang

@sxz

Assistant Professor of Sociology at NYU. Classification, prediction, and AI in decision-making, social policy, and law. www.simonezhang.com

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16.09.2023
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Latest posts by Simone Zhang @sxz

TWO new Assistant Professor positions in Sociology at USC! Seeking candidates with expertise in the following: 1) Institutions & Inequalities and 2) Socially Informed AI and/or Data Science (links to job ads below๐Ÿ‘‡). Happy to talk about what it's like to work/live here! #sociology (1/3)

08.09.2025 14:39 ๐Ÿ‘ 40 ๐Ÿ” 41 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 4
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On Prolific, "we estimate that about 34% of online study participants use LLMs to answer open-ended questions atleast some of the time..."

Seems like a very timely paper for behavioural scientists using online samples: osf.io/preprints/so... ;

We really need more papers on this issue

29.08.2025 09:46 ๐Ÿ‘ 194 ๐Ÿ” 80 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4 ๐Ÿ“Œ 7
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Generative AI Meets Open-Ended Survey Responses: Research Participant Use of AI and Homogenization - Simone Zhang, Janet Xu, AJ Alvero, 2025 The growing popularity of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools presents new challenges for data quality in online surveys and experiments. This study e...

Thanks so much for sharing!! The published version is also out now at doi.org/10.1177/0049...

30.08.2025 14:26 ๐Ÿ‘ 13 ๐Ÿ” 4 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
A screenshot of the Sociological Methods & Research website showing the special issue title

A screenshot of the Sociological Methods & Research website showing the special issue title

Iโ€™m delighted to share that the August 2025 special issue of Sociological Methods & Research on Generative AI is out now. Along with my co-editor, Daniel Karell, we put together this issue to build on the conference we organized last year.

Here's a thread on each of the ten papers:

01.08.2025 14:53 ๐Ÿ‘ 75 ๐Ÿ” 31 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3 ๐Ÿ“Œ 5
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Big thank you to many people who've provided feedback and supported this project!

20.05.2025 20:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education Article: Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education | Sociological Science | Posted May 16, 2025

Paper (open access) available here: sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

20.05.2025 20:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 4 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Using a nationally representative sample of U.S. parents, we find that most parents view algorithms as fairer than status quo methods like lotteries, counselor discretion, parent requests, and admin. rules.

But there's polarization: higher-SES, liberal parents are more supportive of algorithms.

20.05.2025 20:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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New paper with Rebecca Johnson (@rebeccaj.bsky.social) on parental perceptions of using algorithms to allocate scarce resources in schools, now out in Sociological Science (@sociologicalsci.bsky.social):

20.05.2025 20:34 ๐Ÿ‘ 29 ๐Ÿ” 8 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

NEW: Rebecca A. Johnson, Simone Zhang, "Predictive Algorithms and Perceptions of Fairness: Parent Attitudes Toward Algorithmic Resource Allocation in K-12 Education." sociologicalscience.com/articles-v12...

16.05.2025 16:33 ๐Ÿ‘ 10 ๐Ÿ” 3 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Many thanks to our RAs, reviewers, and terrific special issue editors @thomasdavidson.bsky.social
and Danny Karell. Special thank you to the incredible community resource that is the Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS) program @jeremyfreese.bsky.social @mocraig.bsky.social

07.05.2025 15:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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AI-Generated Survey Responses Could Make Research Less Accurate (And a Lot Less Interesting)

You can also check out this great write-up of our paper here: www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/ai-...

07.05.2025 15:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 3 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Paper here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Preprint version here: osf.io/preprints/so...

07.05.2025 15:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 2 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Do you field online surveys and experiments? Ever get back text responses that look unusually diplomatic and polished?

In this paper, now out at Sociological Methods & Research, we study the emerging use of AI among online study participants.

07.05.2025 15:32 ๐Ÿ‘ 56 ๐Ÿ” 15 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Thanks for sharing Hakeem!

Our project started when we too were piloting open-ended questions for a study and noticed unusually long/typo-free/diplomatic responses. Others reported similar experiences.

Latest version of the paper here: osf.io/preprints/so...

21.12.2024 17:22 ๐Ÿ‘ 18 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
OSF

This is an emerging challenge! My colleagues and I have a working paper on this issue: osf.io/preprints/so...

21.12.2024 17:16 ๐Ÿ‘ 9 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Very cool! I laughed out loud when I reached that sentence on false positive hosts because I immediately heard "hey, Ryan Reynolds here"

15.11.2024 15:05 ๐Ÿ‘ 6 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

I'd also love to be added, thank you!

11.11.2024 14:44 ๐Ÿ‘ 0 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's COMPASlicated is such a great paper ๐Ÿ™‚

04.10.2023 17:49 ๐Ÿ‘ 1 ๐Ÿ” 0 ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1 ๐Ÿ“Œ 0