Philipp Lorenz-Spreen

How modern “now-ism“ can accelerate crises in climate, finance and ecosystems Slowing change may be our last line of defense

When change moves faster than systems can adapt, they tip

Our culture of “now-ism” risks pushing climate, economies and societies past their limits

The latest #ComplexityThoughts:

👉 manlius.substack.com/p/how-modern...

🎧 on Spotify and Apple

#ComplexSystems #Resilience

@ricardsole.bsky.social

If you ever wanted to delve into the AI-generated world of far-right imagination.. now you can.

See our CampAIgn Tracker 🇳🇱 here:
www.campaigntracker.nl/en/

#tk2025

Topical Negative Campaigning Under Spatial Pressure: Party-Level Strategies for Attacks Across Multiple Issues This paper investigates how spatial party competition shapes topical negative campaigning during Germany's 2021 federal election. We define topical negative campaigning as attacks on opponents that...

📢 New Publication Alert!

Thrilled to share our latest article with @jasminriedl.bsky.social & Johannes Steup
👉 Topical Negative Campaigning Under Spatial Pressure: Party-Level Strategies for Attacks Across Multiple Issues
🔗 doi.org/10.1080/0964...

Social media feeds today are optimized for engagement, often leading to misalignment between users' intentions and technology use.

In a new paper, we introduce Bonsai, a tool to create feeds based on stated preferences, rather than predicted engagement.

arxiv.org/abs/2509.10776

YouTube video by WION French President Macron Speaks at German Unity Day Ceremony | WION LIVE

President Macron:
“We were very naive to leave our public space to social media networks controlled by US or Chinese companies that don’t share our interests and not interested in survival of our democracies.”
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MggN...

"Europeans, let's wake up!" — Defend Democracy “We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.” President Macron on the occasion of German Unity Day, 3 October 2025.

"We've been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies." - Macron defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

All the arguments about fair labor and intellectual property seem to distract from the core message, which is in the last sentence:

"Psychology is meant to study humans, not statistical models."

Moving towards informative and actionable social media research Social media is nearly ubiquitous in modern life, and concerns have been raised about its putative societal impacts, ranging from undermining mental health and exacerbating polarization to fomenting v...

Indeed, especially in complex systems with feedback loops and spill over this is particularly challenging and trade offs have to be made, we wrote about this in the context of Social Media Research recently: arxiv.org/abs/2505.09254

Mini thread trying to debunk the "RCT or bust" propaganda. Looking forward to a chilled Saturday morning on Bluesky. 😉

📢 We're hiring a Doctoral Student in Research Software Engineering for Digital Behavioral Data!
Work at the intersection of computer science and social science, develop innovative tools, and pursue your doctoral degree with us.

👉 Apply here: www.gesis.org/en/institute...

#PublicationAlert 🥰. This one has been long in the making: It started with a @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in 2023, lead to a working group at the SFI in 2024, multiple online-meetings (one from Costa Rica, Munich, Denmark, Mumbai, and the US), thought-provoking and truly interdisciplinary work.

Ausbau der Forschung zu Ungleichheit und Konflikten Soziologe Steffen Mau an das Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung multireligiöser und multiethnischer Gesellschaften in Göttingen berufen. Neuausrichtung des Instituts startet

Some personal news to share www.mpg.de/25487784/aus...

Now the official version (in German): www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtEQ...

How to move forward Collaborate on improving data coverage Filling gaps in poliitical text orpora Collecting online platform data via APls, webscraping and the Digital Services Act Share open-source software, R packages and infrastructure components Improve conditions for data sharing Critically evaluate and improve the application of Al Requires collaboration and funding at the European level

@sebstier.bsky.social at #MEDem Conf: computational research of democracy stands in the shoulders of the few enthusiasts who create datasets, software and infrastructure for it. How can we move forward? Short answer: more collaboration & sharing!

Internal uncertainty impacts social information use in risky choice across adolescence - Communications Psychology Adolescents’ choices are influenced by others. A social risky choice experiment and Bayesian modelling reveal that age differences in internal uncertainty, being unsure how to choose, relate to differences in susceptibility to social influence.

😍 Our latest is out now in @commspsychol.nature.com. 🤩 We show with Bayesian modelling and experimental manipulation of uncertainty that developmental differences in social influence depend on differences in the internal uncertainty people have about their choice
doi.org/10.1038/s442...

Jahresversammlung 2025 der Leopoldina: Künstliche Intelligenz – 26. September 2025 YouTube video by Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften Leopoldina

My talk (among many other great presentations) from last week's annual conference of the @leopoldina.org is online:

In German (original): www.youtube.com/live/P8LMkq8...

In English (translated): www.youtube.com/live/XFZvksL...

"Notably, patterns of social media use—particularly greater Facebook use—were the strongest behavioral predictors of authoritarian tendencies."

osf.io/preprints/ps...

All EU countries appear to be gone in the Google political ad library

By @lizcarolan.com

The President of the United States has posted a fake AI video of himself announcing a non-existent policy to give people access to a fake miracle cure that also doesn't exist truthsocial.com/@realDonaldT... We are fully through the looking glass, folks.

Inside the everyday Facebook networks where far-right ideas grow The Guardian spent a year studying an online community trading in anti-immigration sentiment and misinformation. Experts say such spaces can play a role in radicalisation

Inside the everyday Facebook networks where far-right ideas grow: "The Guardian spent a year studying an online community trading in anti-immigration sentiment and misinformation. Experts say such spaces can play a role in radicalisation" www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...

How tech lords and populists changed the rules of power Digital moguls and strongman leaders are more than disrupters of the old liberal order. Together they seek to sweep it away, writes Giuliano da Empoli

"In Europe, the technocrats who govern [...] share the same incomprehension at the offensive they are facing. They [fail to] acknowledge that Trump and the tech bros’ goal is to impose regime change on this side of the Atlantic as well."

Maybe a loss of trust can be traced back to growing discrepancies between public debate and one's own information environment. In an increasingly fragmented info- and social space and resulting majority illusion, this poses a fundamental problem as media and institutions can never cover all topics.

Was, wenn die Plattformen einfach mit den Schultern zucken? Mit dem Digital Services Act versucht die EU ihre Bürger*innen vor den Risiken digitaler Plattformen, großteils US-amerikanischer, zu schützen. Wir sprachen mit LK Seiling, Co-Autor eines neuen…

Mit dem Digital Services Act versucht die EU ihre Bürger*innen vor den Risiken digitaler Plattformen zu schützen. Wir sprachen mit LK Seiling, Co-Autor unseres neusten Policy Papers, wie das inmitten geopolitischer Spannungen mit den USA funktionieren kann. #DSA40
Zum Interview 👉 buff.ly/5zISV6z

How much did Elon's takeover reshape Twitter/X? How did the partisan tilt of social media use change from 2020 to 2024?

The ANES 2024 data is out — and this thread answers all your burning questions! 🔥

Here @saminenno.bsky.social ‘s post on our website: css-synosys.github.io/post/public_...

White House discloses more details of deal to save TikTok TikTok's new U.S. entity would lease its algorithm from Chinese owner ByteDance.

According to the Whitehouse, TikTok's new U.S. entity would lease and "retrain" TikTok's fame algorithm from Chinese owner ByteDance under the terms of a yet-to-be-completed deal between the U.S. and China. www.axios.com/2025/09/22/t...

Feels like reposting this will stay timely for a bit…

I’m happy to share my first publication after my PhD, during my move from @hiigberlin.bsky.social to the CSS group led by @lorenzspreen.bsky.social. 🧵10/10

Very cool study from @saminenno.bsky.social about misinformation in talk shows, more interesting questions about the coupling between media types👇

Result: about 12% of talk shows contained at least one match, compared to just over 2% of news programs. 🧵4/10