Hi! My name is Marijn
I’m a Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole, in France (IAST).
My main research interests are in computational social science and complexity science. Specifically, theoretical and empirical modeling of online behavior and digital trace data. In my PhD research I focused on the impact of communicating via online social media platforms on processes of opinion formation and the diffusion of culture. Currently, I am working on the effects of network embeddedness, environmental bias and politicization of decision making on the emergence of polarization.
I got my PhD in Sociology from the University of Groningen where I was a member of the Norms and Networks Cluster and the ICS. Before joining the IAST, I was a Postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Sociology and Computational Social Science in the Karslruhe Institute of Technology.
Updates
March 2022 \\ Do filter bubbles cause
polarization? In our new paper in the next issue of Data
Science Michael Mäs and I argue that the answer to this question
depends on a multitude of factors on the global, local and individual
level of online social media as complex systems. We provide an extensive
review of theoretical and emprical work and show with toy models how
counter-intuitive effects emerge from of seemingly straightforward
mechanisms. We argue for the use of digital ‘crash-test dummies’ to
optimize technological innovations for information systems
pre-implementation.
October 2021 \\ I have joined the Institute for Advance
Study in Toulouse, part of the University of Toulouse 1 Capitole for a
three-year research fellowship. The IAST is an interdisciplinary
institute whose members get a lot of freedom to shape their own research
agenda. I’m excited about this opportunity and look forward to many cool
collaborations and cross-disciplinary inspiration in the coming years.
Website was last updated on June 22, 2022