Conduct research on social issues.

Conduct research on social issues. is a detailed work activity in O*NET — a concrete unit of work shared across 11 occupations and seen in 13 occupation-specific tasks. It rolls up into the broader work activity Research historical or social issues. in Getting Information .

Detailed work activities are the most granular shared layer in O*NET's work-activity hierarchy (Generalized → Intermediate → Detailed → occupation-specific task). The figures below describe how this activity shows up across the economy and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the work will be automated.

AI exposure

Of the 13 tasks under this activity that the OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rated, 13 (100%) are flagged as directly exposed to language models (E1) or exposed via model-powered tools (E2).

The Anthropic Economic Index observes real AI use on 8 of these tasks, with a mean mapped-usage share of 0.063% per task.

Exposure estimates overlap with model capabilities — whether a model could speed the task up — not whether the work will be done by software. Observed AI use is augmentation and assistance today, not jobs replaced.

Member tasks

Occupation-specific tasks O*NET maps to this detailed work activity, most important first.

• Analyze and interpret data to increase the understanding of human social behavior. · Sociologists · importance 4.7 · exposure with tools
• Plan and conduct research to develop and test theories about societal issues such as crime, group relations, poverty, and aging. · Sociologists · importance 4.3 · exposure with tools
• Study the socioeconomic impacts of new public policies, such as proposed legislation, taxes, services, and regulations. · Economists · importance 4.2 · exposure with tools
• Conduct social research. · Child, Family, and School Social Workers · importance 4.2 · exposure with tools
• Perform descriptive and multivariate statistical analyses of data, using computer software. · Social Science Research Assistants · importance 4.1 · direct LLM exposure
• Interpret and analyze policies, public issues, legislation, or the operations of governments, businesses, and organizations. · Political Scientists · importance 4.0 · exposure with tools
• Analyze data from surveys, old records, or case studies, using statistical software. · Survey Researchers · importance 3.9 · exposure with tools
• Identify culturally specific beliefs and practices affecting health status and access to services for distinct populations and communities, in collaboration with medical and public health officials. · Anthropologists and Archeologists · importance 3.9 · exposure with tools
• Increase social work knowledge by reviewing current literature, conducting social research, or attending seminars, training workshops, or classes. · Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers · importance 3.7 · exposure with tools
• Direct or conduct studies or research on issues affecting areas of responsibility. · Chief Executives · importance 3.7 · exposure with tools
• Examine societal issues and their relationship with both technical systems and the environment. · Industrial Ecologists · importance 3.5 · exposure with tools
• Develop approaches to the solution of groups' problems, based on research findings in sociology and related disciplines. · Sociologists · importance 3.3 · exposure with tools
• Conduct social research to advance knowledge in the social work field. · Healthcare Social Workers · importance 3.0 · exposure with tools

Occupations that perform this

• Sociologists
• Economists
• Child, Family, and School Social Workers
• Social Science Research Assistants
• Political Scientists
• Survey Researchers
• Anthropologists and Archeologists
• Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers
• Chief Executives
• Industrial Ecologists
• Healthcare Social Workers

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-conduct-research-on-social-issues,
  title  = {Conduct research on social issues.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/detailed-activities/conduct-research-on-social-issues}
}