Conversational AI and Equity Through Assessing GPT-3’s Communication with Diverse Social Groups on Contentious Topics

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Scientific Reports (2024) Authors: Kaiping Chen, Anqi Shao, Jirayu Burapacheep, Yixuan Li Abstract: Autoregressive language models, which use deep learning to produce human-like texts, have surged in prevalence. Despite advances in these models, concerns arise about their equity across diverse populations. While AI fairness is discussed widely, metrics to measure equity in dialogue systems are lacking. This …

The Impact of Public Deliberation and Identity-Based Storytelling on Civic Empowerment among Latinx Communities on Environmental Issues

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Environmental Communication (2024) Authors: Amanda L. Molder, Isabel I. Villanueva, Kaiping Chen Abstract: Environmental issues already disproportionately impact communities of color in the U.S., where there is a long and well-established history of environmental racism. Despite efforts to diversify voices in deliberation, engaging marginalized populations remains a key challenge. Drawing from environmental communication, civic empowerment, and social …

Engaging White Parents to Address Their White Children’s Racial Biases in the Black-White Context

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Child Development  (2023) Authors: Katherine E. Scott, Tory L. Ash, Bailey Immel, MaKayla A. Liebeck, Patricia G. Devine, Kristin Shutts Abstract: Multiple studies (n = 1065 parents, 625 females, 437 males, 3 nonbinary, 99.06% White; n =  80, 5 to 7-year-old children, 35 girls, 45 boys, 87.50% White; data collection September 2017–January 2021) investigated White U.S. parents’ thinking …

A Multigenerational Model of Environmental Risk for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Children and Families

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Environmental Health Perspective (2024) Authors: Janean E. Dilworth-Bart, Thea Sankari, Colleen F. Moore Abstract: In recent years, public discourse has increasingly brought institutional and structural racism to the foreground of discussion on the well-being of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. Environmental toxicity in combination with the social triggers of institutional and structural racism are …

Are Neighborhood Effects Explained by Differences in School Quality?

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American Journal of Sociology (2023) Authors: Geoffrey T. Wodtke, Ugur Yildirim, David J. Harding, and Felix Elwert Abstract: It is widely hypothesized that neighborhood effects on academic achievement are explained by differences in the quality of schools attended by resident children. The authors evaluate this hypothesis using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and a diverse set …

Rearranging the Desk Chairs: A Large Randomized Field Experiment on the Effects of Close Contact on Interethnic Relations

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American Journal of Sociology (2023) Authors: Felix Elwert, Tamás Keller, Andreas Kotsadam Abstract: Contact theory predicts that interethnic exposure reduces antiminority discrimination. By contrast, conflict theory predicts that interethnic exposure worsens discrimination. Received scope conditions, however, are vague and do not properly differentiate between the domains of the theories. Furthermore, prior evidence is mostly correlational, and supportive …

Nonparametric Causal Decomposition of Group Disparities

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Annals of Applied Statistics (2025) Authors: Ang Yu, Felix Elwert Abstract: We introduce a new nonparametric causal decomposition approach that identifies the mechanisms by which a treatment variable contributes to a group-based outcome disparity. Our approach distinguishes three mechanisms: group differences in: (1) treatment prevalence, (2) average treatment effects, and (3) selection into treatment based on …

Taking the Budget to the Streets: Street-level Mobilization and Inclusion in Participatory Budgeting

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Local Development & Society (2023) Author: Denia Garcia Abstract: Community engagement is crucial to fulfilling the democratic potential of participatory budgeting. In the United States, the inclusion of racialized groups is imperative, given the country’s socioeconomic and political inequality. This article critically examines inclusion, focusing on one practice that I call streetlevel mobilization. This practice is …

The Signaling Power of Unexcused Absence from School

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Educational Policy (2023) Authors: Jaymes Pyne, Eric Grodsky, Elizabeth Vaade, Bo McCready, Eric Camburn, Dominique Bradley Abstract: State and national school accountability policies situate preventing chronic absenteeism on par with meeting state standardized test benchmarks. We question relying on school attendance as both a component of accountability policies and a means of enhancing equity in schools. …

Individual Adjustments for Many and Structural Change for Some: Teacher and School Responses to Classed Out-of-School Responsibilities

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Children and Society (2023) Authors: Annaliese Grant, Eric Grodsky, Maria Velazquez, Helen Rose Miesner, Elizabeth E. Blair, Lyn Macgregor Abstract: Research on adolescent responsibilities outside of school rarely considers how schools and teachers mitigate the adverse consequences of those responsibilities on academic outcomes. We seek to understand when, and for whom, teachers and administrators accommodate students’ out-of-school …