Main Focus
I am a network scientist doing research on self-organized online discourse and how to empower democratic and autonomous decision-making through platform design and boosting.
My aim is to better understand the interplay between human behaviour and
the connectivity and functioning of online platforms, in particular how
this affects our public discourse and thus our democracy. But also to
question the current status quo and explore how this technology offers
untapped opportunities for an improved information landscape and
participatory democracy lived online. (here more eloquently put by David Bowie)
Previously, I did my PhD at the TU Berlin on empirical methods and
theoretical models to describe the dynamics of collective attention from
online data sets. At the LMU in Munich I studied physics with a focus
on systems biophysics. My areas of interest are:
- Online Behaviour
- Complex systems
- Social Networks
- Computational social science
- Decision making
- Opinion dynamics
Curriculum Vitae
- 2021, Leopoldina (German National Academy of Sciences), Prize for Junior Scientists
- 2018, Dr. rer. nat. (PhD), Theoretical Physics, TU Berlin
- 2016, M.Sc., Physics, LMU Munich
- 2013, B.Sc., Physics, LMU Munich
Selected Literature:
Full list -> google scholar
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A systematic review of worldwide causal and correlational evidence on digital media and democracy (Nature Human Behaviour)
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How behavioural sciences can promote truth, autonomy and democratic discourse online (Nature Human Behaviour)
- Boosting people’s ability to detect microtargeted advertising (Scientific Reports)
- Accelerating dynamics of collective attention (Nature Communications)
- Modeling echo chambers and polarization dynamics in social networks (Physical Review Letters)
-
Technology and democracy (European Comission)
Selected Public Coverage:
- ARD alpha, Campus Talk (in German): Wie können wir Demokratie auf sozialen Medien schaffen?
- New York Times: We’re Staring at Our Phones, Full of Rage for ‘the Other Side’
- The New Yorker: How harmful is social media?
- The Atlantic: Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid
- Science magazine: Studying and fighting misinformation should be a top priority
- Salon: Remember when the internet was supposed to be transparent and democratic? There's still hope.
- The Guardian: Global attention span is narrowing and trends don't last as long, study reveals.
- Vox: Yes, the internet is destroying our collective attention span.
- Wissenschaft im Dialog, Panel Discussion: Fake News & Disinformation
- European Parliament, EYE 2021 Panel Discussion: Digital democracies: Threat or opportunity?
- Tagesspiegel (in German): Empowern statt sperren
- Netzpolitik (in German): Forscher wollen Soziale Medien reparieren
- Wissenschaftskommunikation (in German): Schneller, kürzer, politischer
- SWR2 (in German): Transparenz im Netz: So können wir unsere Online-Welt anders gestalten