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Christopher Andrew Bail CV

Professor of Sociology
Sociology
CV

Overview


Chris Bail is Professor of Sociology, Computer Science, Political Science, and Public Policy at Duke University, where he directs the Society-Centered AI Initiative and co-founded the Polarization Lab. He studies how artificial intelligence shapes human behavior in a range of different settings—and social media platforms in particular.

 A Guggenheim Fellow and Carnegie Fellow, Chris's writing appears in leading outlets such as Science,  Nature,  the New York Times, and Harvard Business Review. His widely acclaimed 2021 book, Breaking the Social Media Prism, was featured in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and described as “masterful,” by Science Magazine. It also inspired Twitter to implement a major change to its policies designed to counter misinformation and polarization. His co-authored research on using generative AI for conflict mediation also inspired a new product on NextDoor. 

Bail has also written for the Sunday Op-Ed page of the New York Times, CNN, and The Washington Post Blog and appeared on NBC Nightly News, CBS, CNN, BBC, and NPR to discuss his research. His work has been covered by more than sixty media outlets, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, The Atlantic, Scientific American, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, Vox, Daily Kos, National Public Radio, NBC News, C-Span, and the BBC. 

​Chris is passionate about building the field of computational social science. He is the Editor of the Oxford University Press Series in Computational Social Science and the Co-Founder of the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science, which are free training events designed to introduce junior scholars to the field that are held concurrently in a range of universities around the world each year. He also serves on the Advisory Committee to the National Science Foundation's Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate, and helped create Duke's Interdisciplinary Data Science Program. After the publication of his 2021 book, Chris began consulting with social media companies, non-profit groups, and governments to implement insights from his research.

​Most of the funding for Bail's research has been provided by the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation, among others described on the C.V. linked on this site. Chris received his PhD from Harvard University in 2011.

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor of Sociology · 2019 - Present Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Director of the Trinity Social AI Initiative · 2024 - Present Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy · 2019 - Present Sanford School of Public Policy
Professor of Political Science · 2022 - Present Political Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Professor of Computer Science · 2024 - Present Computer Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science and Society · 2023 - Present Duke Science & Society, University Initiatives & Academic Support Units

In the News


Published January 14, 2025
Dorothy, We Don’t Use a Floppy Disk Anymore
Published October 29, 2024
Will AI Influence Human Behavior (and Vice Versa)?
Published October 24, 2023
Bridging Political Divides With Artificial Intelligence

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Recent Publications


A research agenda for encouraging prosocial behaviour on social media.

Journal Article Nature human behaviour · March 2025 Many studies examine antisocial behaviours on social media-such as sharing misinformation or producing hate speech-but far fewer examine how platforms can incentivize more prosocial behaviour. We identify several ways in which social media platforms curren ... Full text Cite
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Recent Grants


Ideological Distance, Identity Cues, and Affective Political Polarization on Facebook

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Facebook Inc. · 2019 - 2025

Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science

ConferencePrincipal Investigator · Awarded by Templeton World Charity Foundation · 2024 - 2025

Designing Social Media to Promote Intellectual Humility

ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by John Templeton Foundation · 2022 - 2025

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Education, Training & Certifications


Harvard University · 2011 Ph.D.