Human Social Sensing is an Untapped Resource for Computational Social Science

Overview

Journal Nature

Specialty Science

Date 2021 Jul 1

PMID 34194037

Citations 19

Authors

Mirta Galesic

Wandi Bruine de Bruin

Jonas Dalege

Scott L Feld

Frauke Kreuter

Henrik Olsson

Drazen Prelec

Daniel L Stein

Tamara van der Does

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The ability to 'sense' the social environment and thereby to understand the thoughts and actions of others allows humans to fit into their social worlds, communicate and cooperate, and learn from others' experiences. Here we argue that, through the lens of computational social science, this ability can be used to advance research into human sociality. When strategically selected to represent a specific population of interest, human social sensors can help to describe and predict societal trends. In addition, their reports of how they experience their social worlds can help to build models of social dynamics that are constrained by the empirical reality of human social systems.

Citing Articles

Analysis of social media language reveals the psychological interaction of three successive upheavals.

Mesquiti S, Seraj S, Weyland A, Ashokkumar A, Boyd R, Mihalcea R Sci Rep. 2025; 15(1):5740.

PMID: 39962124 PMC: 11832893. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-025-89165-z.

Proxy Preferences and the Values of Children's Health States.

Hausman D Pharmacoeconomics. 2024; 42(10):1065-1072.

PMID: 39039378 PMC: 11405500. DOI: 10.1007/s40273-024-01415-6.

Network spillover effects associated with the ChooseWell 365 workplace randomized controlled trial to promote healthy food choices.

Pachucki M, Hong C, OMalley A, Levy D, Thorndike A Soc Sci Med. 2024; 355:117033.

PMID: 38981183 PMC: 11385430. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117033.

Unpredictable benefits of social information can lead to the evolution of individual differences in social learning.

van den Berg P, Vu T, Molleman L Nat Commun. 2024; 15(1):5138.

PMID: 38879619 PMC: 11180142. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49530-4.

Individual-centralized seeding strategy for influence maximization in information-limited networks.

Liu Y, Wang X, Wang X, Yan L, Zhao S, Wang Z J R Soc Interface. 2024; 21(214):20230625.

PMID: 38715322 PMC: 11077013. DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2023.0625.

References

Bruine de Bruin W, Parker A, Galesic M, Vardavas R . Reports of social circles' and own vaccination behavior: A national longitudinal survey. Health Psychol. 2019; 38(11):975-983. PMC: 7038818. DOI: 10.1037/hea0000771. View

Christakis N, Fowler J . Social network sensors for early detection of contagious outbreaks. PLoS One. 2010; 5(9):e12948. PMC: 2939797. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012948. View

Garcia-Herranz M, Moro E, Cebrian M, Christakis N, Fowler J . Using friends as sensors to detect global-scale contagious outbreaks. PLoS One. 2014; 9(4):e92413. PMC: 3981694. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092413. View

Happe F, Cook J, Bird G . The Structure of Social Cognition: In(ter)dependence of Sociocognitive Processes. Annu Rev Psychol. 2016; 68:243-267. DOI: 10.1146/annurev-psych-010416-044046. View

Krueger J, Funder D . Towards a balanced social psychology: causes, consequences, and cures for the problem-seeking approach to social behavior and cognition. Behav Brain Sci. 2005; 27(3):313-27. DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x04000081. View

Chambers J, Windschitl P . Biases in social comparative judgments: the role of nonmotivated factors in above-average and comparative-optimism effects. Psychol Bull. 2004; 130(5):813-38. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.130.5.813. View

Lee E, Karimi F, Wagner C, Jo H, Strohmaier M, Galesic M . Homophily and minority-group size explain perception biases in social networks. Nat Hum Behav. 2019; 3(10):1078-1087. PMC: 6839769. DOI: 10.1038/s41562-019-0677-4. View

Lerman K, Yan X, Wu X . The "Majority Illusion" in Social Networks. PLoS One. 2016; 11(2):e0147617. PMC: 4757419. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0147617. View

Smaldino P, Flamson T, McElreath R . The Evolution of Covert Signaling. Sci Rep. 2018; 8(1):4905. PMC: 5861109. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-22926-1. View

10.

Alipourfard N, Nettasinghe B, Abeliuk A, Krishnamurthy V, Lerman K . Friendship paradox biases perceptions in directed networks. Nat Commun. 2020; 11(1):707. PMC: 7002371. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14394-x. View

11.

Bruine de Bruin W, Parker A, Fischhoff B . Can adolescents predict significant life events?. J Adolesc Health. 2007; 41(2):208-10. DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2007.03.014. View

12.

Bruine de Bruin W, Downs J, Murray P, Fischhoff B . Can female adolescents tell whether they will test positive for Chlamydia infection?. Med Decis Making. 2009; 30(2):189-93. DOI: 10.1177/0272989X09343308. View

13.

Polgreen P, Nelson F, Neumann G . Use of prediction markets to forecast infectious disease activity. Clin Infect Dis. 2006; 44(2):272-9. DOI: 10.1086/510427. View

14.

Fiedler K . Beware of samples! A cognitive-ecological sampling approach to judgment biases. Psychol Rev. 2000; 107(4):659-76. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295x.107.4.659. View

15.

Schulze C, Hertwig R, Pachur T . Who you know is what you know: Modeling boundedly rational social sampling. J Exp Psychol Gen. 2020; 150(2):221-241. DOI: 10.1037/xge0000799. View

16.

Galesic M, Olsson H, Rieskamp J . A sampling model of social judgment. Psychol Rev. 2018; 125(3):363-390. DOI: 10.1037/rev0000096. View

17.

Frable D . Being and feeling unique: statistical deviance and psychological marginality. J Pers. 1993; 61(1):85-110. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1993.tb00280.x. View

18.

Kruger J . Lake Wobegon be gone! The "below-average effect" and the egocentric nature of comparative ability judgments. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1999; 77(2):221-32. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.77.2.221. View

19.

Kruger J, Dunning D . Unskilled and unaware of it: how difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000; 77(6):1121-34. DOI: 10.1037//0022-3514.77.6.1121. View

20.

Cohen R, Havlin S, Ben-Avraham D . Efficient immunization strategies for computer networks and populations. Phys Rev Lett. 2003; 91(24):247901. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.91.247901. View