Simone Zhang

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 below👇). Happy to talk about what it's like to work/live here! #sociology (1/3)

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

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...

I’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:

Big thank you to many people who've provided feedback and supported this project!

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...

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.

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):

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...

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

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-...

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

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.

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...

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

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

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

It's COMPASlicated is such a great paper 🙂