Samuel Coavoux

Samuel Coavoux is an Assistant Professor in Sociology at ENSAE and a researcher at CREST in the CSS research group in Palaiseau, France. He specializes in cultural consumption, cultural inequalities, and digital culture, employing computational social science and mixed methods approaches in his research.

His research interests focus on:

• Cultural consumption patterns and inequalities
• Digital culture and media usage
• Computational social science methodologies
• Online platforms and their societal impact

Coavoux's recent work examines museum visitors, video game players, Twitch and Twitter influencers, digital advertisers, and users of streaming platforms. His main current research project is "Records," a collaboration with music streaming platform Deezer to study digital music consumption using log data, surveys, and interviews.

His research has important implications for understanding how digital technologies reshape cultural practices and social inequalities. He investigates both the macro-level patterns of cultural consumption and the micro-level interactions between users and digital platforms.

Notable scientific contributions include:

• Research on machine bias in generative language models' responses to opinion polls
• Analysis of how online advertising targets consumers through algorithmic tools
• Examination of YouTube music video consumption and its environmental impact
• Studies on video games in everyday life

Coavoux advises students in sociology and computational social science, guiding research on digital culture and media consumption. His work has been supported by collaborations with major digital platforms including Deezer and Orange.

He leads research in the Computational Social Sciences group at CREST, where his team develops innovative methods for analyzing digital traces and combining them with traditional social science approaches.