How Do (Human) Child Welfare Workers Respond to Machine-Generated Risk Scores?
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Martin Eiermann, Maria Fitzpatrick, Katharine Sadowski, Christopher Wildeman Sociological Science January 6, 2026 10.15195/v13.a1 Abstract Algorithmic risk scoring tools have been widely incorporated into governmental decision making, yet little is known about how human decision makers interact with machine-generated risk scores at the street level. We examined such human–machine interactions in the child welfare system, a high-stakes setting where caseworkers ascertain whether government interv