Sander Hermsen
@sanderhermsen.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.5K following 170 posts
Behaviour Change (and) Design – Applied and fundamental research meets practice – Radboudumc and OnePlanet Research Centre, Nijmegen, NL – he/him/his – EN/NL/DE
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sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Welcome to the 150+ new followers from the last couple of days 😃😳🤩 I guess most if not all of you have found me through the amazing Soc Psy starter pack by @markrubin.bsky.social, right?

Let me take this opportunity to introduce myself properly to all of you ⬇️
Reposted by Sander Hermsen
olivia.science
important on LLMs for academics:

1️⃣ LLMs are usefully seen as lossy content-addressable systems

2️⃣ we can't automatically detect plagiarism

3️⃣ LLMs automate plagiarism & paper mills

4️⃣ we must protect literature from pollution

5️⃣ LLM use is a CoI

6️⃣ prompts do not cause output in authorial sense
5 Ghostwriter in the Machine
A unique selling point of these systems is conversing and writing in a human-like way. This is imminently understandable, although wrong-headed, when one realises these are systems that
essentially function as lossy2
content-addressable memory: when
input is given, the output generated by the model is text that
stochastically matches the input text. The reason text at the output looks novel is because by design the AI product performs
an automated version of what is known as mosaic or patchwork
plagiarism (Baždarić, 2013) — due to the nature of input masking and next token prediction, the output essentially uses similar words in similar orders to what it has been exposed to. This
makes the automated flagging of plagiarism unlikely, which is
also true when students or colleagues perform this type of copypaste and then thesaurus trick, and true when so-called AI plagiarism detectors falsely claim to detect AI-produced text (Edwards, 2023a). This aspect of LLM-based AI products can be
seen as an automation of plagiarism and especially of the research paper mill (Guest, 2025; Guest, Suarez, et al., 2025; van
Rooij, 2022): the “churn[ing] out [of] fake or poor-quality journal papers” (Sanderson, 2024; Committee on Publication Ethics, Either way, even if
the courts decide in the favour of companies, we should not allow
these companies with vested interests to write our papers (Fisher
et al., 2025), or to filter what we include in our papers. Because
it is not the case that we only operate based on legal precedents,
but also on our own ethical values and scientific integrity codes
(ALLEA, 2023; KNAW et al., 2018), and we have a direct duty to
protect, as with previous crises and in general, the literature from
pollution. In other words, the same issues as in previous sections
play out here, where essentially now every paper produced using
chatbot output must declare a conflict of interest, since the output text can be biased in subtle or direct ways by the company
who owns the bot (see Table 2).
Seen in the right light — AI products understood as contentaddressable systems — we see that framing the user, the academic
in this case, as the creator of the bot’s output is misplaced. The
input does not cause the output in an authorial sense, much like
input to a library search engine does not cause relevant articles
and books to be written (Guest, 2025). The respective authors
wrote those, not the search query!
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Your answers will help inform an update to the Key Enabling Methodologies overview by CLICKNL, representatives of the Dutch creative industry. You can find the overview of key enabling methodologies here: kems.nl/en/
KEMs – Ontwerpmethoden voor professionals
kems.nl
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Are you working on designing for #behaviourchange and #empowerment, in research or practice? We want to know what you think are the most important developments in this field and you can help by filling out this short questionnaire. lnkd.in/dKHV4WVG
Reposted by Sander Hermsen
polphilpod.bsky.social
US political violence overwhelmingly comes from the right -

the side that calls for, glorifies, & literally pardons it
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Zeker, je krijgt alleen een doorverwijzing als je dat zelf wil. Maar de ethische aspecten van het leefstijlgesprek zijn inderdaad interessant en belangrijk. Daar gaan we dus (vooral) naar kijken in de analyse. Duurt wel nog een paar maanden, sorry :-)
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Niet in deze studie, maar we hebben ook een studie gedaan naar patiëntervaringen. Aangezien het een umc is, komen mensen uit alle geledingen van de maatschappij daarin voorbij. Resultaten volgen nog!
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
In this study, we looked at referral to platforms that help patients find lifestyle support that fits their needs, ranging from lifestyle coaching to dietary advise and smoking cessation support. Your other question is very relevant (there’s often a disconnect), but beyond the scope of this work
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
When, and why, do health care professionals refer patients to lifestyle interventions?

This week, I presented work that helps answering this question at @ehps2025.bsky.social in Groningen, NL #ehps2025

Missed it? No worries! The poster is here: osf.io/wgfvm
Reposted by Sander Hermsen
iscycle.bsky.social
🚴‍♀️ Today we co-organized EHPS in Motion with 4TU.RECENTRE at the @ehps.bsky.social in Groningen!

An interactive bike tour with short activities, fun stops, and a DUO bike to symbolize teamwork in research 🤜🏼🤛🏼

Thanks to all who joined! 🌱🚲
#EHPS2025 #ISCycle #4TURECENTRE #activetravel
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
On my way to Groningen for #EHPS2025! Looking forward to meeting so many wonderful colleagues, and presenting some work on when and why health care professionals (don’t) refer patients to lifestyle interventions. See you there!

@ehps2025.bsky.social
@ehps.bsky.social
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Finally an honest security notice
Stencil graffiti of a security guard with the legend “secured by sleepy migrant workers on minimum wage”
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
In the project, we built a risk assessment tool for public use, which also collected data on current behaviour and attitudes, to inform public policy. More on the development process in this earlier publication up-j-hpb.ubiquityjournal.website/articles/10....
Your Covid-19 Risk: Reflections on the Development of the Tool | Health Psychology Bulletin
up-j-hpb.ubiquityjournal.website
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
If, goodness forbid, we ever end up in another pandemic, this work can help pandemic preparedness
Reposted by Sander Hermsen
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
The installation in the larger hall was hallucinogenic and beautiful, but I especially loved the smaller screens in the side room, explaining the work and showing ‘riffs’ of Gehry-style imagery as fluid as a jazz improvisation. Would certainly recommend
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Anadol uses AI in what it’s best at: summarising, pretending, finding common denominators in huge swathes of data
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Impressive generation of endless streams of Gehry-like works based on hundreds of thousands of images from the architect’s archives. Used with permission and done through ‘sustainable computing’, whatever that may be
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Went to see Refik Anadol’s audiovisual reimagination of Frank Gehry’s architectural legacy through AI and generative art at the Guggenheim Bilbao last week.

Quite fitting that the work of the poster child of computer-aided architecture now gets reinterpreted by the poster child of AI-driven art
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Apparently Trump, visiting the NATO summit, spent the night at the royal palace last night
laminda.bsky.social
HEMA, a popular Dutch department store, is letting everyone know that they have a product in stock that can remove orange stains from royal bed linens (available a mere 5-minute bike ride from the palace) 🔥
titiak.bsky.social
Je hebt bedrijven die willen aanhaken, en je hebt Hema die het kan
Reposted by Sander Hermsen
laminda.bsky.social
HEMA, a popular Dutch department store, is letting everyone know that they have a product in stock that can remove orange stains from royal bed linens (available a mere 5-minute bike ride from the palace) 🔥
titiak.bsky.social
Je hebt bedrijven die willen aanhaken, en je hebt Hema die het kan
Reposted by Sander Hermsen
paolocrosetto.bsky.social
A *null* result I'm very proud of!

Led by Rustam Romaniuc, 35 coauthors from all over France tested nudge interventions to boost voter turnout.

None worked, and we are possibly not surprised -- but a well-powered null result *is* a result!

Paper:

kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...
The main figure from the voter turnout paper -- no effect of any nudge intervention on voter turnout.
sanderhermsen.bsky.social
Excellent statue of Saint Tacano, patron saint of people who manage to get their round in strategically, so they only need to fork out for some fresh pints for the lads and not the girlfriends’ gin and tonics, mojitos, and aperol spritzes