Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Survey Development for AI Simulation

Department of Sociology, 42-43 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1JD The project proposes a cross-national study employing generative artificial intelligence, agent-based models, as well as online experiments and surveys to identify how the algorithms that shape the information users see on social media could promote democratic norms, increase trust, and decrease polarization.About the Role Reporting to the Principal Investigator, Christopher Barrie, the post holder will be responsible for the development of survey instruments to validate machine-coded measures of the quality online discussion as well as priming or social media clone experiments to determine the effect of online information exposure on political attitudes. The post holder will also assist in the collection of training and validation data from social media, and contribute to the analysis of real-world text data from online discussions as well as simulated platforms. The post holder will additionally provide guidance to junior members of the research group including research assistants, PhD students, and/or project volunteers. This is a fixed-term position for 18 months and will be available from March 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter.Application Process