Please join the Political Science Department and the American Politics Workshop as they host Emma Hoes, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Zurich's Department of Political Science.
Digital platforms shape how people communicate, deliberate, and form opinions. Studying these dynamics has become increasingly difficult due to restricted data access, ethical constraints on real-world experiments, and limitations of existing research tools. VIRENA (Virtual Arena) is a platform that enables controlled experimentation in realistic social media environments. Multiple participants interact simultaneously in realistic replicas of feed-based platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Reddit) and messaging apps (WhatsApp, Messenger). Large language model-powered AI agents participate alongside humans with configurable personas, demographic profiles, and realistic behavioral patterns. Researchers can manipulate content moderation approaches, pre-schedule stimulus content, and run experiments across conditions through a visual interface requiring no programming skills. VIRENA makes possible research designs that were previously impractical, including studying human–AI interaction in realistic social contexts, experimentally comparing moderation interventions, and observing group deliberation as it unfolds. Built on open-source technologies that ensure data remain under institutional control and comply with data protection requirements, VIRENA is currently in use at the University of Zurich and under active development. The talk presents the platform’s design, architecture, and current capabilities, while also discussing planned extensions and inviting engagement on additional use cases, feature development, and pilot collaborations. Designed primarily for academic research but adaptable to educational and policy-oriented contexts, VIRENA seeks to broaden the methodological toolkit for studying digital communication.
Emma Hoes is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Zurich's Department of Political Science, collaborating on the ERC-funded PRODIGI project. Her research examines how digital technologies influence information quality and trust, with particular focus on unintended consequences: interventions that backfire, platform dynamics that create new problems, and overlooked media content that shapes social orientations. She investigates both the problems emerging from digital transformations and solutions that can address them. Before UZH, she completed her PhD at the European University Institute, studying misinformation and media coverage. Her work is published in Nature Human Behavior, PNAS, Political Communication, and other leading journals.
Ariel Sowers
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