Research profile and short bio

See also my full CV.

I study how to boost human judgment and decision making (scienceofboosting.org) by investigating human and machine behavior—drawing on psychology, cognitive science, AI, collective intelligence, and computational social science. I head the research area “boosting decision making” (see also scienceofboosting.org), am a senior research scientist, and serve as one of the director's deputies at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. I actively engage in science communication, policy advising, and applied problem solving.

My current research areas are:

1. Hybrid human–AI decision making and collective intelligence
2. Risks and benefits of digitalization, AI, & new media: Systems and behavioral interventions for resilient citizens, organizations, & societies
3. Boosting: Improving human judgment and decision making in individuals and teams

My work addresses key challenges facing individuals, organizations, and societies: building better and more trustworthy hybrid human–AI teams, ensuring AI supports (rather than erodes) human competences, and strengthening resilience against misinformation, manipulation, and risks of generative AI.

I currently lead or co-lead four ongoing third-party funded projects:

• Hybrid human artificial collective intelligence in open-ended decision making (HACID) for medical diagnostics and climate services (EU Horizon grant, co-PI)
• Assisting behavioral science and evidence-based policy making using online machine tools (POLTOOLS) (DFG grant, PI)
• Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online: How to rebalance human and algorithmic decision making (Reclaiming autonomy online/RAO) (Volkswagen Foundation grant, co-PI)
• Social media for democracy – understanding the causal mechanisms of digital citizenship (SoMe4Dem) (EU Horizon grant, co-PI)

I am committed to interdisciplinary research, open and reproducible science, research-led teaching, and building inclusive, equitable research environments. I have published in top international peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Annual Review of Psychology, Nature Human Behaviour, Perspectives in Psychological Science, PNAS, Psychological Science, Science Advances, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences) and have been featured in Science, Scientific American, and cited in academic and popular books, including Superforecasting by Tetlock and Gardner. In 2010 I received the Hillel Einhorn New Investigator Award of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making.

I have organized and presented at national and international workshops, symposia and conferences and have been invited to give talks and keynotes at academic institutions in the US, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK (incl., The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, University of California, London School of Economics, ETH Zürich, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods).

I studied psychology (social, economic, and decision psychology), management (organizational science and marketing), and computer science, and received my PhD in psychology from the University of Basel in 2009.