Description
I am particularly interested in the dynamics of opinion and attitude formation and how it influences democratic collective decision-making through deliberative interaction. I see opinion dynamics as an interdisciplinary topic because it touches on social psychology, game theory, and the dynamics of complex systems. It is on the one hand driven by automatic cognitive and emotional processes, on the other hand, it has elements of a strategic game, especially in the run-up to a poll, an election, or other collective decision. Finally, interaction in large groups can have surprising systemic effects on macroscopic outcomes going beyond the scope of the individual.