Computational Social Science
Online debates, polarization and echo chambers, polluted information environments and online well-being, studied through large-scale social data.
Giulio Rossetti
I lead the Social Network Analysis team at the KDD Lab (CNR-ISTI · University of Pisa · SNS), where we combine network science, computational social science and large language models to understand online behaviour, and build social twins to simulate it.
I model, characterise and forecast emerging social behaviours by combining complex networks and AI.
With the SNA@KDD team I study how information environments shape opinions, how social systems evolve beyond pairwise ties, and what changes when LLM agents join the conversation, using social twins such as YSocial to test interventions safely.
A single agenda, from the structure of social networks to LLM agents that inhabit simulated platforms.
Online debates, polarization and echo chambers, polluted information environments and online well-being, studied through large-scale social data.
Dynamic, higher-order and feature-rich network models; community discovery, diffusion and opinion dynamics on and of complex networks.
How large language models reason, agree and persuade: cognitive biases, opinion dynamics among LLM agents and the interplay between human and machine cognition.
LLM-powered digital twins of social media platforms to run controlled, reproducible experiments on recommender systems, moderation and information spread.
YSocial Social media digital twin YSocial is an open-source framework to design, simulate and analyse social media platforms populated by LLM-driven agents. It lets researchers test recommender systems, content moderation strategies and opinion dynamics in polluted information environments, without touching real users.
New bike lanes downtown finally approved. Curious how the shops on the corner will react #urbanplanning
Less parking means fewer customers. Nobody asked the people who work here.
Two good points here. A pilot on one street might settle it #evidence
Pilot for three months, publish the footfall data, then vote. Deal?
Open-source libraries for network science and social simulation, developed with the team.
@article{abramski2026role,
title = {The role of System 1 and System 2 semantic memory structure in human and LLM biases},
author = {Abramski, Katherine and Rossetti, Giulio and Stella, Massimo},
journal = {arXiv (Cornell University)},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2604.12816},
url = {https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2604.12816},
publisher = {Cornell University},
}@article{cauteruccio2026structure,
title = {Structure and dynamics of temporal hypergraphs via multi-rooted ego networks},
author = {Cauteruccio, Francesco and Citraro, Salvatore and Failla, Andrea and Rossetti, Giulio},
journal = {Social Network Analysis and Mining},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1007/s13278-026-01603-6},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-026-01603-6},
publisher = {Springer Science+Business Media},
}@article{citraro2026spreadpy,
title = {SpreadPy: A Python tool for modelling spreading activation and superdiffusion in cognitive multiplex networks},
author = {Citraro, Salvatore and Haim, Edith and Carini, Alessandra and Siew, Cynthia S. Q. and Rossetti, Giulio and Stella, Massimo.},
journal = {Computers in Human Behavior Reports},
year = {2026},
volume = {21},
pages = {100940--100940},
doi = {10.1016/j.chbr.2026.100940},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2026.100940},
publisher = {Elsevier BV},
}@article{morini2026reddit,
title = {Reddit Depression Communities as Spaces of Emotion Regulation: A Data-Informed Analysis of Coping and Engagement},
author = {Morini, Virginia and Citraro, Salvatore and Sajno, Elena and Sansoni, Maria and Riva, G and Stella, Massimo and Rossetti, Giulio},
journal = {Future Internet},
year = {2026},
volume = {18},
number = {4},
pages = {198--198},
doi = {10.3390/fi18040198},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3390/fi18040198},
publisher = {Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute},
}I am always open to new collaborations, invited talks and joint projects. Students interested in a thesis, or in a PhD within the Italian National PhD in Artificial Intelligence for Society, are welcome to reach out.
To set up a meeting, please contact me via email.