Handbook of Computational Social Science, Volume 1: Theory, Case Studies and Ethics

469 Pages·2021·6.443 MB·English

by  Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase, Sunny Liu, Lars E. Lyberg

HANDBOOK OF COMPUTATIONAL
SOCIAL SCIENCE, VOLUME 1
The Handbook of Computational Social Science is a comprehensive reference source for scholars
across multiple disciplines. It outlines key debates in the field, showcasing novel statistical
modeling and machine learning methods, and draws from specific case studies to demonstrate
the opportunities and challenges in CSS approaches.
The Handbook is divided into two volumes written by outstanding, internationally renowned
scholars in the field. This first volume focuses on the scope of computational social science,
ethics, and case studies. It covers a range of key issues, including open science, formal modeling,
and the social and behavioral sciences. This volume explores major debates, introduces digital
trace data, reviews the changing survey landscape, and presents novel examples of computational
social science research on sensing social interaction, social robots, bots, sentiment, manipulation,
and extremism in social media. The volume not only makes major contributions to the
consolidation of this growing research field but also encourages growth in new directions.
With its broad coverage of perspectives (theoretical, methodological, computational),
international scope, and interdisciplinary approach, this important resource is integral reading
for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers engaging with computational
methods across the social sciences, as well as those within the scientific and engineering sectors.
Uwe Engel is Professor at the University of Bremen, Germany, where he held a chair in sociology
from 2000 to 2020. From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Engel coordinated the Priority Programme on
“Survey Methodology” of the German Research Foundation. His current research focuses on
data science, human-robot interaction, and opinion dynamics.
Anabel Quan-Haase is Professor of Sociology and Information and Media Studies at Western
University and Director of the SocioDigital Media Lab, London, Canada. Her research interests
include social media, social networks, life course, social capital, computational social science,
and digital inequality/inclusion.
Sunny Xun Liu is a research scientist at Stanford Social Media Lab, USA. Her research focuses
on the social and psychological effects of social media and AI, social media and well-being, and
how the design of social robots impacts psychological perceptions.
Lars Lyberg was Head of the Research and Development Department at Statistics Sweden and
Professor at Stockholm University. He was an elected member of the International Statistical
Institute. In 2018, he received the AAPOR Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement.
The European Association of Methodology
(EAM) serves to promote research and
development of empirical research methods
in the fields of the Behavioural, Social,
Educational, Health and Economic Sciences
as well as in the field of Evaluation Research.
Homepage: http://www.eam-online.org
The purpose of the EAM book series is to advance the development and application of
methodological and statistical research techniques in social and behavioral research. Each volume
in the series presents cutting-edge methodological developments in a way that is accessible to a
broad audience. Such books can be authored, monographs, or edited volumes.
Sponsored by the European Association of Methodology, the EAM book series is open
to contributions from the Behavioral, Social, Educational, Health and Economic Sciences.
Proposals for volumes in the EAM series should include the following: (1) Title; (2) authors/
editors; (3) a brief description of the volume’s focus and intended audience; (4) a table of
contents; (5) a timeline including planned completion date. Proposals are invited from all
interested authors. Feel free to submit a proposal to one of the members of the EAM book series
editorial board, by visiting the EAM website http://eam-online.org. Members of the EAM
editorial board are Manuel Ato (University of Murcia), Pamela Campanelli (Survey Consultant,
UK), Edith de Leeuw (Utrecht University) and Vasja Vehovar (University of Ljubljana).
Volumes in the series include
SMALL SAMPLE SIZE SOLUTIONS
A Guide for Applied Researchers and Practitioners
Edited by Rens van de Schoot and Milica Miočević
ADVANCED MULTITRAIT-MULTIMETHOD ANALYSES FOR THE BEHAVIORAL
AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
Edited by Jonathan Lee Helm
HANDBOOK OF COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE, VOLUME 1
Theory, Case Studies and Ethics
Edited by Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase, Sunny Xun Liu and Lars Lyberg
HANDBOOK OF COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE, VOLUME 2
Data Science, Statistical Modelling, and Machine Learning Methods
Edited by Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase, Sunny Xun Liu and Lars Lyberg
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge.com/European-
Association-of-Methodology-Series/book-series/LEAEAMS
HANDBOOK OF
COMPUTATIONAL SOCIAL
SCIENCE, VOLUME 1
Theory, Case Studies and Ethics
Edited by Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase,
Sunny Xun Liu and Lars Lyberg
First published 2022
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 selection and editorial matter, Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase,
Sunny Xun Liu and Lars Lyberg; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase, Sunny Xun Liu and Lars
Lyberg to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
With the exception of Chapters 3, 7, 9, and 20, no part of this
book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
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Chapters 3, 7, 9, and 20, of this book are available for free in PDF
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Engel, Uwe, 1954– editor. | Quan-Haase, Anabel, editor. |
Liu, Sunny Xun, 1977– editor. | Lyberg, Lars, editor.
Title: Handbook of computational social science : theory, case studies and
ethics / edited by Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase, Sunny Xun Liu and
Lars Lyberg.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Series: European association of methodology | Volume 1. Handbook of
computational social science / edited by Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase,
Sunny Xun Liu and Lars Lyberg. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021014136 (print) | LCCN 2021014137 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367456535 (hbk) | ISBN 9780367456528 (pbk) |
ISBN 9781003024583 (ebk)
Subjects: LCSH: Social sciences—Data processing. | Social sciences—
Methodology. | Social sciences—Mathematical models.
Classification: LCC H61.3 .H36 2022 (print) | LCC H61.3 (ebook) |
DDC 300.72/7—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021014136
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021014137
ISBN: 978-0-367-45653-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-45652-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-02458-3 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003024583
Typeset in Bembo
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Lars E. Lyberg
December 1, 1944–March 1, 2021
Lars E. Lyberg had a passion for methods and statistics and made many contributions to these
fields. During his career, he was a prolific writer and active member of the research community,
working across disciplines including statistics, sociology, public opinion, and survey methodol-
ogy, but his recent contributions to computational social science made him an innovative and
much-respected scholar. In May 2018, Lars Lyberg received the American Association for Pub-
lic Opinion Research (AAPOR) Award for Exceptionally Distinguished Achievement. This
award is given for outstanding contribution to the field of public opinion research. We quote
from this laudation to appreciate once again Lars’ many outstanding contributions to the field
of survey methodology and statistics.
“For more than five decades, Lars Lyberg has made significant and important contributions
to the field of survey research. Lars’ career started at Stockholm University where he earned
a doctorate in statistics. In 1966, Lars began his professional work career at Statistics Sweden
where he spent more than 40 years, culminating in his appointment as Head of the Research
and Development Department.”
Lars was the founder of the Journal of Official Statistics and served as its chief editor for more
than 25 years. Lars was a prolific author, having written or edited many books and numer-
ous journal articles in top journals, including Survey Methodology, Public Opinion Quarterly, and
Survey Research Methods. Lars was an elected member of the International Statistical Institute,
past president of the International Association of Survey Statisticians, and a fellow of the Royal
Statistical Society and American Statistical Association.
Lars is co-editor of the present Handbook of Computational Social Science and therein a co-author
of a chapter on a changing survey landscape. On March 1, 2021, Lars passed away. We dedicate
Volume 1 of this Handbook to the memory of Lars E. Lyberg, a pioneer in statistics, survey
methodology, and computational social science.
On the occasion of the 2018 AAPOR Award, Steve Everett produced a video that is publicly
available at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi_P86lf3IY. The video starts with Lars talking about
himself, his life, his career, continues with showing the moment he receives the award, and ends
with a speech by Lars to commemorate the occasion. The video provides an opportunity to
remember Lars, and his many personal and academic accomplishments.
March 15, 2021 Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase, Sunny Xun Liu

CONTENTS
List of contributors x
Preface xx
1 Introduction to the Handbook of Computational Social Science 1
Uwe Engel, Anabel Quan-Haase, Sunny Xun Liu, and Lars Lyberg
SECTION I
The scope and boundaries of CSS 15
2 The scope of computational social science 17
Claudio Cioffi-Revilla
3 Analytical sociology amidst a computational social science
revolution 33
Benjamin F. Jarvis, Marc Keuschnigg, and Peter Hedström
4 Computational cognitive modeling in the social sciences 53
Holger Schultheis
5 Computational communication science: lessons from
working group sessions with experts of an emerging
research field 66
Stephanie Geise and Annie Waldherr
6 A changing survey landscape 83
Lars Lyberg and Steven G. Heeringa
vii
Contents
7 Digital trace data: modes of data collection, applications, and errors at
a glance 100
Florian Keusch and Frauke Kreuter
8 Open computational social science 119
Jan G. Voelkel and Jeremy Freese
9 Causal and predictive modeling in computational social science 131
Uwe Engel
10 Data-driven agent-based modeling in computational social science 150
Jan Lorenz
SECTION II
Privacy, ethics, and politics in CSS research 169
11 Ethics and privacy in computational social science: a call for pedagogy 171
William Hollingshead, Anabel Quan-Haase, and Wenhong Chen
12 Deliberating with the public: an agenda to include stakeholder input
on municipal “big data” projects 186
James F. Popham, Jennifer Lavoie, Andrea Corradi, and Nicole Coomber
13 Analysis of the principled AI framework’s constraints in becoming a
methodological reference for trustworthy AI design 200
Daniel Varona and Juan Luis Suárez
SECTION III
Case studies and research examples 217
14 Sensing close-range proximity for studying face-to-face interaction 219
Johann Schaible, Marcos Oliveira, Maria Zens, and Mathieu Génois
15 Social media data in affective science 240
Max Pellert, Simon Schweighofer, and David Garcia
16 Understanding political sentiment: using Twitter to map the U.S.
2016 Democratic primaries 256
Niklas M Loynes and Mark Elliot
17 The social influence of bots and trolls in social media 287
Yimin Chen
viii
Contents
18 Social bots and social media manipulation in 2020: the year in review 304
Ho-Chun Herbert Chang, Emily Chen, Meiqing Zhang, Goran Muric, and
Emilio Ferrara
19 A picture is (still) worth a thousand words: the impact of appearance
and characteristic narratives on people’s perceptions of social robots 324
Sunny Xun Liu, Elizabeth Arredondo, Hannah Mieczkowski, Jeff Hancock,
and Byron Reeves
20 Data quality and privacy concerns in digital trace data: insights from a
Delphi study on machine learning and robots in human life 343
Uwe Engel and Lena Dahlhaus
21 Effective fight against extremist discourse online: the case of ISIS’s
propaganda 363
Séraphin Alava and Rasha Nagem
22 Public opinion formation on the far right 373
Michael Adelmund and Uwe Engel
Index 380
ix