Track papers across labs, topics, and trends.
Search papers, labs, and topics across Lattice.
The paper introduces VIRENA, a virtual platform designed for controlled experimentation within realistic social media environments, addressing limitations in data access and ethical constraints in studying online dynamics. VIRENA allows researchers to simulate feed-based platforms and messaging apps, enabling interactions between human participants and LLM-powered AI agents with configurable personas. The platform's no-code interface facilitates manipulation of content moderation, scheduling of stimuli, and execution of experiments, making it accessible for studying human-AI interaction, moderation interventions, and group deliberation.
Finally, a no-code platform lets researchers run controlled social media experiments with human and AI participants, opening up new possibilities for studying online behavior and interventions.
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 and realistic behavior. 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: 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 available for pilot collaborations. Designed for researchers, educators, and public organizations alike, VIRENA's no-code interface makes controlled social media simulation accessible across disciplines and sectors. This paper documents its design, architecture, and capabilities.