Zachary C Steinert-Threlkeld
Biographic Data
| ID | 949804 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Zachary C Steinert-Threlkeld |
| GIVEN NAMES | Zachary C |
| FAMILY NAME | Steinert-Threlkeld |
| SIGNATURE | STEINERT-THRELKELD Z C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5122-9660 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 206 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Digitizing and Generating Social Conflict Data with Artificial Intelligence
Taken at face value
Understanding the role of emotions in protest is a growing field of research, but existing research does not address the role of emotions once protests start. By applying computer vision models to the expressed emotions of 37,558 faces in 7,824 geolocated protest images across twelve protest waves in ten countries, this article contributes to the study of emotions and protest. Most importantly, it measures emotions within protest waves, not befor…
Improving Computer Vision Interpretability
Treating images as data has become increasingly popular in political science. While existing classifiers for images reach high levels of accuracy, it is difficult to systematically assess the visual features on which they base their classification. This paper presents a two-level classification method that addresses this transparency problem. At the first stage, an image segmenter detects the objects present in the image and a feature vector is c…
Civilian behavior on social media during civil war
Recent research emphasizes social media's potential for citizens to express shared grievances. In active conflict, however, social media posts indicating political loyalties can pose severe risks to civilians. We develop a theory that explains how civilians modify their online behavior as part of efforts to improve their security during conflict. After major changes in territorial control, civilians should be more likely to post positive content,…
Recommendations for sharing network data and materials
One of the goals of open science is to promote the transparency and accessibility of research. Sharing data and materials used in network research is critical to these goals. In this paper, we present recommendations for whether, what, when, and where network data and materials should be shared. We recommend that network data and materials should be shared, but access to or use of shared data and materials may be restricted if necessary to avoid …
Collective identity in collective action
Does collective identity drive protest participation? A long line of research argues that collective identity can explain why protesters do not free ride and how specific movement strategies are chosen. Quantitative studies, however, are inconsistent in defining and operationalizing collective identity, making it difficult to understand under what conditions and to what extent collective identity explains participation. In this paper, we clearly …
Taxing dissent
How State and Protester Violence Affect Protest Dynamics
How do state and protester violence affect whether protests grow or shrink? Previous research finds conflicting results for how violence affects protest dynamics. This article argues that expectations and emotions should generate an n-shaped relationship between the severity of state repression and changes in protest size the next day. Protester violence should reduce the appeal of protesting and increase the expected cost of protesting, decreasi…
How State and Protester Violence Affect Protest Dynamics
How do state and protester violence affect whether protests grow or shrink? Previous research finds conflicting results for how violence affects protest dynamics. This paper argues that expectations and emotions should generate an n-shaped relationship between the severity of state repression and changes in protest size the next day. Protester violence should reduce the appeal of protesting and increase the expected cost of protesting, decreasing…
News and Geolocated Social Media Accurately Measure Protest Size Variation
Larger protests are more likely to lead to policy changes than small ones are, but whether or not attendance estimates provided in news or generated from social media are biased is an open question. This letter closes the question: news and geolocated social media data generate accurate estimates of protest size variation. This claim is substantiated using cellphone location data from more than 10 million individuals during the 2017 United States…
Social media and Russian territorial irredentism
After Kremlin policymakers decided to incorporate the territory of Crimea into Russia, updates on public attitudes in Russian-speaking communities elsewhere in Ukraine would have been in high demand. Because social media users produce content in order to communicate ideas to their social networks, online political discourse can provide important clues about the political dispositions of communities. We map the evolution of Russian-speakers’ attit…
The Future of Event Data Is Images
Moralization, protest and violence
Longitudinal Network Centrality Using Incomplete Data
How do individuals’ influence in a large social network change? Social scientists have difficulty answering this question because measuring influence requires frequent observations of a population of individuals’ connections to each other, while sampling that social network removes information in a way that can bias inferences. This paper introduces a method to measure influence over time accurately from sampled network data. Ranking individuals …
Spontaneous Collective Action
Who is responsible for protest mobilization? Models of disease and information diffusion suggest that those central to a social network (the core) should have a greater ability to mobilize others than those who are less well-connected. To the contrary, this article argues that those not central to a network (the periphery) can generate collective action, especially in the context of large-scale protests in authoritarian regimes. To show that thos…
Predictability Versus Flexibility
There is heated debate over the wisdom and effect of secrecy in international negotiations. This debate has become central to the process of foreign investment arbitration because parties to disputes nearly always can choose to hide arbitral outcomes from public view. Working with a new database of disputes at the world's largest investor-state arbitral institution, the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the …
Spontaneous Collective Action
Who is responsible for protest mobilization? Models of disease and information diffusion suggest that those central to a social network (the core) should have a greater ability to mobilize others than those who are less well-connected. To the contrary, this article argues that those not central to a network (the periphery) can generate collective action, especially in the context of large-scale protests in authoritarian regimes. To show that thos…
How State and Protester Violence Affect Protest Dynamics
How do state and protester violence affect whether protests grow or shrink? Previous research finds conflicting results for how violence affects protest dynamics. This article argues that expectations and emotions should generate an n-shaped relationship between the severity of state repression and changes in protest size the next day. Protester violence should reduce the appeal of protesting and increase the expected cost of protesting, decreasi…
News and Geolocated Social Media Accurately Measure Protest Size Variation
Larger protests are more likely to lead to policy changes than small ones are, but whether or not attendance estimates provided in news or generated from social media are biased is an open question. This letter closes the question: news and geolocated social media data generate accurate estimates of protest size variation. This claim is substantiated using cellphone location data from more than 10 million individuals during the 2017 United States…
Predictability Versus Flexibility
There is heated debate over the wisdom and effect of secrecy in international negotiations. This debate has become central to the process of foreign investment arbitration because parties to disputes nearly always can choose to hide arbitral outcomes from public view. Working with a new database of disputes at the world's largest investor-state arbitral institution, the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the …
Taxing dissent
Social media and Russian territorial irredentism
After Kremlin policymakers decided to incorporate the territory of Crimea into Russia, updates on public attitudes in Russian-speaking communities elsewhere in Ukraine would have been in high demand. Because social media users produce content in order to communicate ideas to their social networks, online political discourse can provide important clues about the political dispositions of communities. We map the evolution of Russian-speakers’ attit…
The Future of Event Data Is Images
Civilian behavior on social media during civil war
Recent research emphasizes social media's potential for citizens to express shared grievances. In active conflict, however, social media posts indicating political loyalties can pose severe risks to civilians. We develop a theory that explains how civilians modify their online behavior as part of efforts to improve their security during conflict. After major changes in territorial control, civilians should be more likely to post positive content,…
Longitudinal Network Centrality Using Incomplete Data
How do individuals’ influence in a large social network change? Social scientists have difficulty answering this question because measuring influence requires frequent observations of a population of individuals’ connections to each other, while sampling that social network removes information in a way that can bias inferences. This paper introduces a method to measure influence over time accurately from sampled network data. Ranking individuals …
Improving Computer Vision Interpretability
Treating images as data has become increasingly popular in political science. While existing classifiers for images reach high levels of accuracy, it is difficult to systematically assess the visual features on which they base their classification. This paper presents a two-level classification method that addresses this transparency problem. At the first stage, an image segmenter detects the objects present in the image and a feature vector is c…
Collective identity in collective action
Does collective identity drive protest participation? A long line of research argues that collective identity can explain why protesters do not free ride and how specific movement strategies are chosen. Quantitative studies, however, are inconsistent in defining and operationalizing collective identity, making it difficult to understand under what conditions and to what extent collective identity explains participation. In this paper, we clearly …
Predictability Versus Flexibility
There is heated debate over the wisdom and effect of secrecy in international negotiations. This debate has become central to the process of foreign investment arbitration because parties to disputes nearly always can choose to hide arbitral outcomes from public view. Working with a new database of disputes at the world's largest investor-state arbitral institution, the World Bank's International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the …
Longitudinal Network Centrality Using Incomplete Data
How do individuals’ influence in a large social network change? Social scientists have difficulty answering this question because measuring influence requires frequent observations of a population of individuals’ connections to each other, while sampling that social network removes information in a way that can bias inferences. This paper introduces a method to measure influence over time accurately from sampled network data. Ranking individuals …
Spontaneous Collective Action
Who is responsible for protest mobilization? Models of disease and information diffusion suggest that those central to a social network (the core) should have a greater ability to mobilize others than those who are less well-connected. To the contrary, this article argues that those not central to a network (the periphery) can generate collective action, especially in the context of large-scale protests in authoritarian regimes. To show that thos…
Moralization, protest and violence
The Future of Event Data Is Images
News and Geolocated Social Media Accurately Measure Protest Size Variation
Larger protests are more likely to lead to policy changes than small ones are, but whether or not attendance estimates provided in news or generated from social media are biased is an open question. This letter closes the question: news and geolocated social media data generate accurate estimates of protest size variation. This claim is substantiated using cellphone location data from more than 10 million individuals during the 2017 United States…
Social media and Russian territorial irredentism
After Kremlin policymakers decided to incorporate the territory of Crimea into Russia, updates on public attitudes in Russian-speaking communities elsewhere in Ukraine would have been in high demand. Because social media users produce content in order to communicate ideas to their social networks, online political discourse can provide important clues about the political dispositions of communities. We map the evolution of Russian-speakers’ attit…
How State and Protester Violence Affect Protest Dynamics
How do state and protester violence affect whether protests grow or shrink? Previous research finds conflicting results for how violence affects protest dynamics. This paper argues that expectations and emotions should generate an n-shaped relationship between the severity of state repression and changes in protest size the next day. Protester violence should reduce the appeal of protesting and increase the expected cost of protesting, decreasing…
Taxing dissent
How State and Protester Violence Affect Protest Dynamics
How do state and protester violence affect whether protests grow or shrink? Previous research finds conflicting results for how violence affects protest dynamics. This article argues that expectations and emotions should generate an n-shaped relationship between the severity of state repression and changes in protest size the next day. Protester violence should reduce the appeal of protesting and increase the expected cost of protesting, decreasi…
Collective identity in collective action
Does collective identity drive protest participation? A long line of research argues that collective identity can explain why protesters do not free ride and how specific movement strategies are chosen. Quantitative studies, however, are inconsistent in defining and operationalizing collective identity, making it difficult to understand under what conditions and to what extent collective identity explains participation. In this paper, we clearly …
Recommendations for sharing network data and materials
One of the goals of open science is to promote the transparency and accessibility of research. Sharing data and materials used in network research is critical to these goals. In this paper, we present recommendations for whether, what, when, and where network data and materials should be shared. We recommend that network data and materials should be shared, but access to or use of shared data and materials may be restricted if necessary to avoid …
Taken at face value
Understanding the role of emotions in protest is a growing field of research, but existing research does not address the role of emotions once protests start. By applying computer vision models to the expressed emotions of 37,558 faces in 7,824 geolocated protest images across twelve protest waves in ten countries, this article contributes to the study of emotions and protest. Most importantly, it measures emotions within protest waves, not befor…
Improving Computer Vision Interpretability
Treating images as data has become increasingly popular in political science. While existing classifiers for images reach high levels of accuracy, it is difficult to systematically assess the visual features on which they base their classification. This paper presents a two-level classification method that addresses this transparency problem. At the first stage, an image segmenter detects the objects present in the image and a feature vector is c…
Civilian behavior on social media during civil war
Recent research emphasizes social media's potential for citizens to express shared grievances. In active conflict, however, social media posts indicating political loyalties can pose severe risks to civilians. We develop a theory that explains how civilians modify their online behavior as part of efforts to improve their security during conflict. After major changes in territorial control, civilians should be more likely to post positive content,…
Digitizing and Generating Social Conflict Data with Artificial Intelligence
Political science (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence (7 works) · Social media (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Social Media and Politics (6 works)