Politics and Social Change Lab

Does labeling AI content affect its persuasiveness? Our latest policy brief evaluates the impact of authorship labels on how people perceive AI-written policy messages. @jurafsky.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social @federicobianchi.bsky.social

hai.stanford.edu/policy/label...

Win Hearts, Then Minds + Your Questions Answered on Identity and "Covering" - Hidden Brain Media This week, we bring you a favorite episode with sociologist Robb Willer. We discuss the common mistakes we make in trying to persuade others of our point of view — and how to break out of our echo cha...

We live in a world that feels more divided than ever. This week, we revisit an episode with sociologist Robb Willer and discuss how to bridge even the greatest divides. hiddenbrain.org/podcast/us-2...

Fantastic piece from @robbwiller.bsky.social and @owasow.bsky.social on nonviolent resistance published in the @nytimes.com. Bravo!

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/o...

Congratulations to lab alumn @maxhuibai.bsky.social on the release of his academic party game, Publish or Perish! Very excited to have received our copies in the mail – thanks, Max!

You can check out Max's game here 👇
publishorperish.games

Thank you to @jonnekamphorst.bsky.social and David Broska for an engaging presentation on their work on support for predistributive and redistributive policies! @robbwiller.bsky.social @stanfordpacs.bsky.social

Big thanks to Ariel Malka for a fascinating presentation in the lab this week on how cultural and economic ideologies shape anti-democratic sentiment across partisan lines! @robbwiller.bsky.social @stanfordpacs.bsky.social

Compelling evidence in this new WP that AI can do "deep canvassing" and durably reduce prejudice and change policy attitudes. Very cool stuff from @tomcostello.bsky.social @gordpennycook.bsky.social @robbwiller.bsky.social @dgrand.bsky.social

Very cool to see this research developed into a policy brief! Impactful work from a superstar team: @joon-s-pk.bsky.social
@cqzou.bsky.social ‬ @aaronshaw.bsky.social @mako.cc Carrie Cai, Meredith Ringel Morris, @robbwiller.bsky.social Percy Liang, @mbernst.bsky.social

‬Big thanks to @devorahmanekin.bsky.social for an engaging talk on how affective polarization may shape nonviolent resistance!

Thank you Kylie Fuller for presenting your work on how extreme protest tactics affect legislators' support for climate activists and climate action. We look forward to seeing this project develop!

Thank you to Minjae Kim for an engaging and insightful talk on cross-cutting ties among divided political elites last Tuesday!

Big thanks to @simine.com for a thoughtful and engaging discussion on open science practices and strengthening trust in peer-reviewed research during her visit to the lab last week!

Thanks to Ryan Liu for sharing his exciting work on simulating and predicting people using generative AI agents! We are looking forward to seeing how this project develops.

A big thank you to Michael N. Stagnaro for sharing his compelling research addressing the ongoing challenge of distinguishing Bayesian from motivated reasoning. We look forward to seeing this project develop!

Thanks also to Chagai's co-authors, @saumjha.bsky.social , Namrata Kalla, Nemit Shroff, and Michelle Hanlon

Thanks to @chagaiweiss.bsky.social for sharing his recent RCT with us, which showed that receiving investment portfolios in energy markets—especially green energy—can increase belief in climate change, support for climate action, and pro-environmental behavior. Exciting and encouraging results!

Thanks to Josh Martin for stopping by our lab to share his experiences and wisdom around applied behavioral science! You can learn more about Josh's exciting work here: www.venn-advisors.com

Thanks to Hanzhang Ren for presenting his team's winning approach to a global forecasting competition, which predicted fertility in the Netherlands. You can learn more about the Predicting Fertility data challenge here: stulp.gmw.rug.nl/prefer/

Thank you, Yao Xu, for presenting your research in our lab on how anti-establishment claims-making shapes electoral support for politicians who challenge democratic norms — truly insightful work!

Thanks to @lxeagle17.bsky.social for stopping by our lab to present the work that Split Ticket has been doing to establish a quantitative metric of candidate strength! You can learn more about Split Ticket’s work and their post-election analysis here: split-ticket.org

Congrats to our lab's members and affiliates on their @spspnews.bsky.social presentations! 🎉🎉🎉

Check out the attached image for everyone's presentation details! ⬇️👀

A huge thank you to @spruill.bsky.social for sharing her research exploring the influence of legal language on Black and White Americans’ perceptions of police officers and police use-of-force. Truly thought-provoking work!

A big thank you to Michael N. Stagnaro for sharing his research on using an informational intervention to bolster support for election integrity among conservative Republicans. It was a compelling study, and we look forward to seeing this project develop!

We're honored to be among the winners of the 2024
@stanfordhai.bsky.social Seed Research Grants!

And congrats to the scholars behind this winning proposal:
Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, and @robbwiller.bsky.social

Thank you Maya Mathur for presenting your research on the behavioral science of reducing meat consumption at our lab workshop! You can learn about the work that Maya's lab, the Humane & Sustainable Food Lab, does here 👇
www.foodlabstanford.com

Thanks to @small-schulz.bsky.social for stopping by our lab this week to workshop his research on using Mastodon to test algorithms for reducing partisan misperceptions. Excited to see this project develop!

Excited to see our Strengthening Democracy Challenge featured in @pnas.org: pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

To learn more, check out the manuscript in
@science.org
(science.org/doi/10.1126/...)!

Big thanks to @anthlittle.bsky.social for an informative presentation on how we might model motivated reasoning to distinguish the process from Bayesian updating. Check out Andrew’s argument in this fascinating pre-print here: osf.io/preprints/os...

A big thank you to Katherine Clayton for workshopping The Structural Democratic Reforms megastudy in our lab this week! Excited to see this ambitious project develop!

Jonne Kamphorst, @robbwiller.bsky.social @brendannyhan.bsky.social Ben Kinder, Chrystal Redekopp, Izzy Gainsburg

Thank you @jsmernyk.bsky.social and Jonne Kamphorst for presenting your exciting research on LLM-based voter guides!