New tutorial preprint about simulation-based inference! Shows how to fit a cultural evo model to baby name data using approx Bayesian computation, random forests, and deep learning. Wrote for @eslr.bsky.social but wanted to share with others in @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social! :) osf.io/preprints/so...

SOEPcampus at @diw.de, 6–7 October in Berlin. Want to learn about one of the largest and longest-running multidisciplinary household surveys worldwide? You can still join the two-day Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) workshop, including hands-on exercises in R or Stata. www.diw.de/en/diw_01.c....

DIW Berlin: SOEPcampus@DIW Berlin 2026

On October 6 and 7, 2026, we are organizing a two-day workshop on the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) at DIW Berlin. In addition to presentations on the composition, data structure, sampling design, and w...

diw.de

I read some very interesting books over the summer. One sentence that moved me is from the last chapter of Poor Artist. "You don't need permission to do art." I think about it a lot now. You don't need permission to create, to ask stupid questions, and to try out all the wrong answers.

Inspired by Iyad and JF's interesting concept "Science Fiction Science", I'll make a little twist and do Science Fiction Poetry Science. Here I wrote two poems about Cultural Evolution and Evo Pscy and you can tell I am having a lot of fun. selfmademodeler.wordpress.com/2026/07/30/s...

Sci-fi, Poetry and Cultural Evolution

Earlier this year, I read Korean writer Kim Cho-yeop’s short sci-fi story collection If We Can’t Go at the Speed of Light. It was very beautifully written. I was intrigued by the first …

selfmademodeler.wordpress.com

I summarised my path in (social) science as a love story for cultural evolution: selfmademodeler.wordpress.com/2026/07/28/c...

Cultural Evolution, a Love Story

I recently read this quote from Albert Camus. “A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those great and simple images in whose presence his heart first …

selfmademodeler.wordpress.com

It was an awesome conference @thomasfmueller.bsky.social recommended me. I presented our work on the influence of AI substitution on creative industry and knowledge production: arxiv.org/abs/2602.03541 and hopefully will see this fun crowd again at @ehbea2026.bsky.social in Leiden soon!

Group Selection as a Safeguard Against AI Substitution

Reliance on generative AI can reduce cultural variance and diversity, especially in creative work. This reduction in variance has already led to problems in model performance, including model collapse...

arxiv.org

Culture Conference@cultconf.bsky.social · 7mo ago

That's a wrap on the Culture Conference 2026! 🎉 Three days packed with fascinating ideas and research, and the kind of conversations you don't want to end. Thank you to every speaker—talks and posters alike—and to every attendee who joined us in Utrecht or online. You made it unforgettable! 🤩

Under group selection, AI complementarity can prevail—because groups that preserve human variation explore more, and perform better over time. Strong group boundaries, institutions, and norms can act as a safeguard against long-run cultural decline.

Qiankun Zhong@qkzhong.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New preprint with @thomasfmueller.bsky.social Julian Garcia @iyadrahwan.bsky.social: Group Selection as a Safeguard Against AI Substitution. arxiv.org/pdf/2602.03541

Using evolutionary models, we compare AI substitutes and AI complements. We show that in a population with mixed strategies, AI substitution wins with higher efficiency, at the cost of a reduction in group variance.

Qiankun Zhong@qkzhong.bsky.social · 8mo ago

New preprint with @thomasfmueller.bsky.social Julian Garcia @iyadrahwan.bsky.social: Group Selection as a Safeguard Against AI Substitution. arxiv.org/pdf/2602.03541

New preprint with @thomasfmueller.bsky.social Julian Garcia @iyadrahwan.bsky.social: Group Selection as a Safeguard Against AI Substitution. arxiv.org/pdf/2602.03541

This paper is now published. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Paul Smaldino@psmaldino.bsky.social · 2y ago

"Information Architectures: A Framework for Understanding Socio-Technical Systems" is in press at npj Complexity. Normally I might wait until publication to share, but given the relevance to our rapidly-changing world, it seemed worth sharing now. osf.io/preprints/so...

Inspiring experience working with a group of great researchers. Now it’s the time for us to understand the current social changes and their influence on the information society.

Paul Smaldino@psmaldino.bsky.social · 2y ago

This came out of a 2023 workshop at @sfiscience.bsky.social. Our amazing collaborators include @mzefferman.bsky.social, @judithmedia.bsky.social, @elizabethhobson.bsky.social, @kristinalerman.bsky.social, @helenamiton.bsky.social, @culturologies.co, @janalasser.bsky.social, @qkzhong.bsky.social

Discussions on abortion are still very much needed, especially right now. Glad to see this paper finally came out. Do we still have the opportunity to do research like this?

Ashwin Rao@ashwinrao.bsky.social · 2y ago

🚨Late post: Paper with Anna Chang @qkzhong.bsky.social @kristinalerman.bsky.social and Magdalena Wojcieszak- Polarized Online Discourse on Abortion: Frames and Hostile Expressions among Liberals and Conservatives was accepted to @icwsm.bsky.social ! arxiv.org/pdf/2311.16831

After two years of trial and error, here are my tips on how to validate your model empirically. When we can't have perfect measures in social science, this is what we usually do and should be careful about: selfmademodeler.wordpress.com/2024/09/24/h...

How to Validate Your Model Empirically (Part.1)

In the past two years, I have put a lot of effort into empirically testing models and had many failed attempts. I wouldn’t call them all failures. To be fair, some are just boring instead of wrong. Bu...

selfmademodeler.wordpress.com

Two weeks left to submit a poster to the multidisciplinary Machine+Behavior conference (Berlin, April 29-30, submit here: easychair.org/cfp/MaBe24) This is a great opportunity for early career researchers, I'm looking forward to the conference! Learn more about it here: machinebehavior.science

Machine+Behavior Conference

Welcome to the forefront of behavioral science in the digital age.

machinebehavior.science