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Ralf Kurvers

@ralfkurvers.bsky.social
481 followers 304 following 20 posts

Collective decision making in human and non-human animals. Senior Researcher @arc-mpib.bsky.social | PI SCIoI | Guest researcher @leibnizigb.bsky.social | Website: ralfkurvers.com/ | www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/person/93403/2549

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Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Could not be more proud of @felicie-dhellemmes.bsky.social for pulling off this insane project, tracking humans and fish simultaneously to study how they interact
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Valerii Chirkov @chirkovv.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New paper alert! 🚨 How does social information quality impact collective intelligence in human groups? We used immersive 3D experiments to find out! Out now in Nature Comms 🧵👇 Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Payoff selectivity drives collective intelligence during dynamic resource tracking in humans - Nature Communications
Humans rely on complex social learning and collective adaptation to navigate dynamically changing environments. The authors show that human collective intelligence in a dynamic, naturalistic task depe...
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Julian Berger @officialberger.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
New paper out in @pnas.org 🚨 Human learning is an understudied but promising lever for boosting human–AI synergy @jasonburton.bsky.social @ralfkurvers.bsky.social @stefanherzog.bsky.social @dirkwulff.bsky.social
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Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Very proud of @kirikuroda.bsky.social for preprinting this study on social influence and information cascades in experienced based decision making. osf.io/preprints/ps... @arc-mpib.bsky.social. Great collab with @simyciri.bsky.social @dirkwulff.bsky.social
osf.io
OSF
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Max Planck School of Cognition @mps-cognition.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Our next application cycle starts soon…have questions? Sign up for a Q&A session! cognition.maxplanckschools.org/en/applicati...
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Iyad Rahwan | إياد رهوان @iyadrahwan.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
AI learns from human culture. But can we learn from AI? Very proud of my team for bringing this paper to publication, today at Nature Communications. See Levin's thread below for details.
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Nature Reviews Psychology @natrevpsychol.nature.com · 12/06/2026
Human cooperation is strong among individuals but fragile between groups Perspective by Paul A. M. Van Lange & Paul K. Bergmann bit.ly/4eFHMjK #psychscisky #socialpsych
bit.ly
Human cooperation is strong among individuals but fragile between groups - Nature Reviews Psychology
There is ample empirical evidence that humans are cooperative, but there is also evidence that humans can be distrustful, hostile and aggressive. In this Review, Van Lange and Bergmann reconcile this ...
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Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Proud of the whole team, esp of @alexschakowski.bsky.social for putting together this review: Toward a psychology of real-life decision-making. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @mpib-berlin.bsky.social @scioi.bsky.social @arc-mpib.bsky.social
sciencedirect.com
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Alexander Schakowski @alexschakowski.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Join our online @eslr.bsky.social skill-sharing session by @masonyoungblood.bsky.social this Thursday, 4PM CET to learn more about Bayesian likelihood free inference. Details below 👇
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Julian Berger @officialberger.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Sharing our latest endeavour here. How reproducible is your paper? @philipjakobbln.bsky.social and I built rigor.me to ease the burden of computational reproducibility. If you provide a paper, data and code, we execute it and tell you what works (and what fails). Beta is available now: rigor.me
rigor.me
Rigor
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Tim Vernimmen @timvernimmen.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
My latest story for @knowablemag.bsky.social is a Q&A with the one and only @iyadrahwan.bsky.social on the moral psychology of AI, illustrated by his own art! knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...
knowablemagazine.org
How will AI make moral decisions for you and me?
There’s an urgent need to study how artificial intelligence makes ethical choices because it soon will make many such decisions in our stead, says computer scientist Iyad Rahwan
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Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
New preprint led by @lucasmolleman.bsky.social investigates social information use across the human lifespan. Testing >40,000 participants aged 6-80 in museums in Berlin and Japan. psyarxiv.com/hec96
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Stephan Lewandowsky @lewan.uk · 04/06/2026
🧵 Thread: Does the internet threaten democracy? I argue that it does in my latest piece in Science: doi.org/10.1126/scie... Here's the short version. 1/9 1/10
doi.org
The architecture of the internet creates risks for democracy
Will democracy survive the internet? Do we need to choose between Facebook’s surveillance capitalism or democracy? Layered lines of evidence can inform questions like these. When considered together, the evidence gives rise to a concerning picture, as summarized in a recent report for the European Commission that I co-led.
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Paul Smaldino @psmaldino.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
I'm teaching an online workshop on ABM and model-based thinking through ICPSR next month. Details linked below in case you or someone you know is interested.
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Francisco Rodriguez-Sanchez @frodsan.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Tips for becoming a better mentor/supervisor, based on survey of 2,600 early-career researchers; eg. regular meetings are super-important Includes tips for institutions and funding bodies to promote good supervision doi.org/10.64898/202... #AcademicSky HT @science.org
What hurts, what helps: mental health in supervisor - ECR relations. Perceived impact of supervisor behavior on mental health and frequency of particular behaviors.

A) Overall perceived impact of supervisors’ behavior on respondents’ mental health. B) Percentage of respondents reporting specific supervisor behaviors with a negative impact. C) Percentage of respondents reporting specific supervisor behaviors with a positive impact. Respondents selected their top three behaviors each category (positive or negative).Communication as a core element of supervision. Perceived value, quantity, and quality of supervisory meetings.

Bars show respondents’ ratings of A) the importance of regular meetings, B) their frequency, and C) the perceived usefulness of meetings.
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CondeNanoLab @condenanolab.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
My Working Life article @science.org - When I stopped trying to have all the answers, my lab members thrived | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
When I stopped trying to have all the answers, my lab members thrived
This professor learned “to be there when people struggled without taking the wheel,” he writes
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Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 11/05/2026
Here is @alexschakowski.bsky.social on social learning strategies in Finnish fishing competitions
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Odd Jacobson @oddjacobson.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
New paper out today in Nat Ecol Evol! On how within- and between-group competition jointly shape ranging in wild capuchins, and how the environment tips the balance. Thread below 🐒
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Dirk Wulff @dirkwulff.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
📣 Behavioral Clones Workshop - Join us online! A one-day workshop on behavioral clones — 🤖 AI systems that model human decision-making and social behavior — following the Machine Behavior conference. Join online via Zoom (no remote Q&A). Register at: www.eventbrite.ch/e/behavioral...
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Mikko Tolonen @tolonen.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Excellent opportunity for researchers in computational humanities and AI: a 3-year Research Fellow/Postdoctoral Researcher position in Helsinki focusing on trustworthy AI across linguistic and cultural diversity. jobs.helsinki.fi/job/Helsinki... Please spread the word!
jobs.helsinki.fi
Research Fellow/Postdoctoral Researcher in trustworthy AI across linguistic and cultural diversities
Research Fellow/Postdoctoral Researcher in trustworthy AI across linguistic and cultural diversities
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Jeremy Koster @jeremykoster.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
There is a fully-funded PhD position at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology to pursue dissertation research among the Mayangna of Nicaragua, expanding a longitudinal study of subsistence strategies and behavioral ecology. Please share the posting! www.eva.mpg.de/career/posit...
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Jason W. Burton @jasonburton.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Big news! The 14th ACM Collective Intelligence Conference (CI 2026) will be held September 27-30, 2026, at the Virginia Tech Institute for Advanced Computing near Washington, DC. I'm excited to be a program co-chair this year. ci.acm.org/2026/ Papers and abstracts due 8 June. Check it out!
ci.acm.org
2026 ACM Collective Intelligence Conference
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ESLR @eslr.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
🚨ESLR Workshop tomorrow: 🗓 April 23, 2026 ⏰ 2pm CET Online Bayesian modeling of cognition and behavior using brms and Stan @alexschakowski.bsky.social and @lucahahn.bsky.social Join at: calendar.app.google/mNSksgpimmrs...
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Trends in Cognitive Sciences @cp-trendscognsci.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Online Now: How developing prosocial motivations shape children’s altruism
dlvr.it
How developing prosocial motivations shape children’s altruism
Developmental perspectives are crucial to harnessing the human potential for altruism. We synthesise and highlight recent research on the motivations underlying children’s (costly) prosocial behaviour. The order in which children develop intrinsic, extrinsic, and strategic motivations to benefit others has implications for efforts to positively impact young people’s lives.
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Phil Trans Roy Soc B theme issue ‘The evolution of collective intelligence’ is out! royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/3...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Volume 381 Issue 1948 | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B | The Royal Society
Influential themed journal issues across the life sciences.
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Wataru Toyokawa @watarutoyokawa.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
In which I’m a bit contributing in this paper led by Mehdi Moussaid @fouloscopie.bsky.social and Ralf Kurvers @ralfkurvers.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article...
royalsocietypublishing.org
Asymmetrical social copying drives behavioural cascades following a shock event
Abstract. When facing disruptive events, such as epidemics, terrorist attacks or financial crises, individuals often exhibit protective behaviours, includi
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Nicholas A. Christakis @nachristakis.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
New For the Love of Science vlog on creativity in science: How to Have New Ideas www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezVD...
youtube.com
How to Have New Ideas
YouTube video by For the Love of Science
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Alexander Schakowski @alexschakowski.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
🚨 Save the date! 🚨 Join the first @eslr.bsky.social skill-sharing online workshop next week to learn more about computational reproducibility from @fhillemann.bsky.social! Details below 👇
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Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
🚨Last week to apply for a 3 year postdoc with me and @dominikdeffner.bsky.social, embedded in theadaptivemind-excellencecluster.de Focus is on developing innovative experiments and computational models to understand social & cultural learning. Deadline is March 30th 👉 hmc-lab.com/SocialLearni...
hmc-lab.com
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution posted on March 2, 2026 We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual...
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Lisa Oswald @lfoswaldo.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
I'm hiring a postdoc! @goetheuni.bsky.social Focus: CSS, political behavior, political communication & transforming information environments. 📍 Frankfurt | ⏳ 3 years | 📅 Deadline: 14 April 2026 Full job ad here: www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794987/Zen... (search for “political behavior” to find it)
uni-frankfurt.de
Goethe-Universität — Zentrale Einrichtungen
Die Goethe-Universität ist eine forschungsstarke Hochschule in der europäischen Finanzmetropole Frankfurt. Lebendig, urban und weltoffen besitzt sie als Stiftungsuniversität ein einzigartiges Maß an E...
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Universität Wien / University of Vienna @univie.ac.at · 03/03/2026
📣 Call for Applications: The University of Vienna invites applications for more than 40 fully funded doctoral positions across a broad range of disciplines in Life Sciences and Natural Sciences. 👨‍🔬👩‍🔬 #PhDSky #PhD #univie 📅 Application period: 2 March – 27 March 2026, 12:00 CET More information: ⤵️
careers.univie.ac.at
Call for Applications: Doctoral Positions in the Life Sciences and Natural Sciences
Ambitious candidates with a strong academic track record who wish to pursue their doctorate in one of the research areas listed below.
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Chris Bail @chrisbail.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Want to learn about computational social science *for free* and identify new research partners across academic fields? Apply to one of the 2026 Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science (described in yellow in the attached map) here: sicss.io/locations
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Charley Wu @thecharleywu.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
🚀 Postdoc Alert! Are you passionate about social learning & cultural evolution? @dominikdeffner.bsky.social & I have a 3-year position with freedom to develop your research and work on cutting-edge multiplayer and immersive experiments. Apply by March 30! hmc-lab.com/SocialLearni... Pls share 🙏
hmc-lab.com
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution
Postdoc position -- Social Learning and Cultural Evolution posted on March 2, 2026 We are currently seeking a highly motivated individual...
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Mary Elizabeth Sutherland @meharpist.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Check out this recent @nature.com paper reporting a field experiment on X. It shows X's algorithm boosts conservative content and downranks traditional media—shifting users’ views on key issues. Switching to chronological doesn’t reverse the effect. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature
Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...
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Ketika Garg @ketikagarg.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
✨New Perspective out w/ Wenning Deng and @fearbrain.bsky.social in @cp-iscience.bsky.social ! We argue that social foraging gives us a unifying, and ecologically grounded way to study how decisions unfold across levels — from individuals and dyads to collectives. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
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Vito Trianni @vitotrianni.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
We have published the second short video of our series on hybrid collective intelligence. This time, @nikoz.bsky.social from @mpib-berlin.bsky.social presents how combining human expertise with AI insights can lead to better diagnostic accuracy in the medical domain. youtu.be/Xz8wBkDzjjQ
youtu.be
Human-AI collectives produce the most accurate differential diagnoses
YouTube video by HACID Project
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Center for Adaptive Rationality (MPIB, Berlin) @arc-mpib.bsky.social · 10/02/2026
📣 Applications for the 23rd Summer Institute on Bounded Rationality are now open! ✨Join us in Berlin @arc-mpib.bsky.social June 08–16, 2026, to explore the topic of “Decision Making in the Age of AI”. ✏️ More details + application form (deadline: March 16): www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/research/res...
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Andy Radford @andyradford.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Delighted that a #trumpetfish has made the 🌟cover🌟 of @royalsocietypublishing.org journal #ProceedingsB. Read about how these predatory #fish hide against similarly coloured non-threatening species to #camouflage on the move in our #OpenAccess article: doi.org/10.1098/rspb... #behaviour #marine
Front cover of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B showing a trumpetfish shadowing a non-threatening species of a similar colour to aid its hunting success.
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Max Planck Institute for Human Development @mpib-berlin.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
❄️🎣 What ice-fishing competitions reveal about human decision-making. New paper in @science.org by researchers from @mpib-berlin.bsky.social, @scioi.bsky.social, and the University of Eastern Finland. 👉 Read more: www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/newsroom/new... 📄 Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Vito Trianni @vitotrianni.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
We have published a new short video of a series on hybrid collective intelligence from the HACID project. In this video, we introduce the field, discussing how human experts and AI systems can join forces to produce better solutions to complex problems. youtu.be/3dwGpLo0EE0
youtu.be
Hybrid Collective Intelligence: What and Why
YouTube video by HACID Project
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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Is academia just a job? We assigned this paper in our professional development seminar last week and it was quite popular. My view: I grew up in a working class family and no one I knew considered their job "a calling". I also had a bunch of jobs that felt, well, like jobs.
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Hans-Christoph Nuerk @tuebang.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Please spread the news: 14 PostDoctoral Fellowships in the Early Career Rescue Fellowship Programme in Freiburg, Konstanz and Tübingen. Contact me, if you want to work with us in Tübingen. stellen.uni-konstanz.de/en/jobpostin...
stellen.uni-konstanz.de
14 Postdoctoral Fellowships - Early Career Rescue Fellowship Programme
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David Rand @dgrand.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
🚨 New in Nature+Science!🚨 AI chatbots can shift voter attitudes on candidates & policies, often by 10+pp 🔹Exps in US Canada Poland & UK 🔹More “facts”→more persuasion (not psych tricks) 🔹Increasing persuasiveness reduces "fact" accuracy 🔹Right-leaning bots=more inaccurate
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Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 29/11/2025
Working my way slowly through the @manymindspod.bsky.social back catalogue. This one with @iyadrahwan.bsky.social is really good on a cultural evolution analysis of machine / digital culture podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/m...
podcasts.apple.com
The rise of machine culture
Podcast Episode · Many Minds · 31/10/2024 · 1h 20m
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
This article provides more data showing how easy it is to manipulate humans on social media. These researchers rerouted the algorithm on Twitter to push some users toward “antidemocratic attitudes and partisan animosity”. It only took 1 week to elicit changes that used to take 3 years.
science.org
Reranking partisan animosity in algorithmic social media feeds alters affective polarization
Today, social media platforms hold the sole power to study the effects of feed-ranking algorithms. We developed a platform-independent method that reranks participants’ feeds in real time and used thi...
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Brendan Barrett @bjjbarrett.bsky.social · 17/11/2025
Postdoc position in individual-level incentives, social learning, and payoff-biased imitation shape group-level accuracy in complex prediction and decision-making tasks in Konstanz files.newsletter2go.com/l3slzozn/s_i...
files.newsletter2go.com
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Human Behavior & Evolution Society @humbehevosoc.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
Two postdoctoral opportunities in evolutionary anthropology at Duke University! The Pontzer Lab is hiring for projects on human ecology, energetics, and aging & health. More info: www.hbes.com/two-postdoct...
hbes.com
Two postdoctoral opportunities in evolutionary anthropology at Duke - HBES
https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30783 Position Description The Pontzer Lab in the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University seeks two Postdoctoral Associates for research in h...
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EHBEA 2026 @ehbea2026.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Leiden looking good today ;-) 📢 Abstract submission will be open Nov 1st – Dec 15th for EHBEA 2026 ⚡Present your research, connect & collaborate 14-17 April 📝 300 words (extendable to 800 after acceptance) For more information & our full call for abstracts, check www.ehbea2026.com
EHBEA 2026 in Leiden - abstract submission opens soon!
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Alex Mesoudi @alexmesoudi.com · 14/11/2025
Come and do a PhD at Exeter with me and Chico Camargo (Computer Science) on human-genAI coevolution "Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Data-Driven Agent-Based Modelling of Online Cultural Dynamics" www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/recr... More details here: www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...
exeter.ac.uk
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Michael Bang Petersen @m-b-petersen.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
Four (!) three-year postdoc positions available at @au.dk: international.au.dk/about/profil... Join an incredible team & help understand the psychological & political implications of the clash between high-speed society & slow-speed democracy. Please share! @tboeggild.bsky.social can help with Qs
international.au.dk
Four three-year postdoctoral positions in the project Slow-Motion Democracy - Vacancy at Aarhus University
Vacancy at Department of Political Science, Aarhus University
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