ORA grant for Andreas Flache, Michael Mäs & Tom Snijders

Andreas Flache (RUG), Michael Mäs (RUG) & Tom snijders (RUG) receive an ORA-grant for their research project “ToRealSim Towards realistic computational models of social influence dynamics”. The grant has a volume of 1.2 million Euro. 63 out of initially 294 pre-proposals were admitted to the full-proposal stage, of which 16 proposals received a grant.

About the project:
Recently, many societies shifted towards more polarization and volatility in opinions, for example in attitudes about immigration or climate policy. The project ToRealSim (Towards realistic computational models of social influence dynamics) has the ambition to improve understanding of these dynamics by focusing on the complex micro-macro interactions that may bring them about. Opinion dynamics will be studied as possible unintended results of local yet interdependent social influence processes in large populations. In a combined effort of reseach teams from the Netherlands (U Groningen), UK (U Manchester & Leicester), Germany (Jacobs U, Bremen) and France (LISC, Aubiere), computational agent-based models will be theoretically extended, empirically calibrated with data from experiments and social network studies; and tested against observed opinon dynamics in immigration- and climate-related issues, using in particular a range of large-scale cross-country survey and panel data-sets. Models will further be used to study policy implications.

Main-applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Flache (Sociology / ICS, Groningen).
Co-applicants: Professor Dr. Klaus Boehnke, Bremen, Professor Dr. Guillaume Deffuant, Aubière, Professor Dr. Bruce Edmonds, Manchester.