Research Projects
NORMS – One of my main research areas revolves around the study of norms and norm change, both in science and in broader society. I’ve approached this subject from multiple angles, combining a variety of methods—such as probabilistic models and agent-based models, experimental analysis on norm compliance, and quantitative work on the measurement of norms. In this area, I’m currently preparing a monograph titled Cooperation and Coordination in Game Theory, which is under contract with Cambridge University Press—Element Series in Decision Theory and Philosophy.
INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH – My research on norms is highly interdisciplinary, involving collaboration with scientists from various fields—among which psychology, economics, and mathematics. While working in interdisciplinary groups, I have become interested in the role of norms in scientific practice and made this the topic of my current research. On the one hand, I study how scientists from different domains combine their explanatory norms when involved in joint projects; on the other hand, I am interested in the science policy dimensions of this debate and, in particular, what science policies facilitate collaboration across fields. To give some examples, I consider open-access policies, systems for research assessment, research funding, and issues related to scientific freedom.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE – This project examines the role that systems for organizing scientific literature play in the development of science. Here, I consider questions such as how scientists navigate the literature when conducting research. More broadly, I think of academic libraries as meta-scientific instruments that scientists can use to discover relevant knowledge and develop it further. With the introduction of (AI) literature search systems—such as Google Scholar, Semantic Scholar and the Web of Science—we are witnessing an explosion of search systems, which complement university library catalogs and multiply scientists’ search options. Given the increasing role that such systems play in research, we need to ensure that they fulfill scientific aims and values, that they are accurate and represent the scientific landscape fairly.
Papers
“The Soul of Economics” for The Journal of Economic Methodology (forthcoming) (With Catherine Herfeld and Carlo Martini)
“Models and Measurements of Income Inequality” (forthcoming) in The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Scientific Modeling, ed. by Tarja Knuuttila, Natalia Carrillo, and Rami Koskinen. (with Alessandra Bass0)
Are Citation Metrics a Good Thing? (2022) Preprint on the PhilSci Archive here.
Norms2: Norms about Norms (2021) Erkenntnis (forthcoming)
Multiple models, one explanation (2021) Journal of Economic Methodology, 1-21. (with Johannes Korbmacher). The article is open access and available here.
“Why is behavioral game theory economists’ game? The concept of beliefs in equilibrium”. In Egashira, Taishido, Hands and Mäki (eds.) (2021) A Genealogy of Self-interest in Economics (Springer). The article is available here.
“Measuring Norms Using Social Survey Data” (2020) Economics and Philosophy. 1-34 (with Juliette de Wit). The article is open access and available here.
“Reflections on the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize Awarded to Banerjee, Duflo, and Kremer” (2020) Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics. The article is open access and available here.
“Knowledge Transfer and its Contexts” (2019) Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A. (With Catherine Herfeld). The article is available here.
“The Role of Psychology in Behavioral Economics: the Case of Social Preferences” (2018) Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part A. The article can be found here.
“Hypothetical Models in Social Science” (2017) with Alessandra Basso and Caterina Marchionni. Springer Handbook of Model-Based Science, edited by Lorenzo Magnani and Tommaso Bertolotti. The article is available here.
“Robustness Analysis and Tractability in Modeling” (2016) European Journal for Philosophy of Science. The article is open access and can be found here.
“On The Emergence Of Descriptive Norms” (2014) with Ryan Muldoon, Cristina Bicchieri, Stephan Hartmann and Jan Sprenger. Politics, Philosophy and Economics. 13(1): 3-22. The article can be found here.
“Why are descriptive norms there?” (2014) with Ryan Muldoon and Stephan Hartmann. Synthese. 191: 4409-4029. The article can be found here. [Preprint here]
“Disagreement Behind the Veil of Ignorance” (2014) with Mark Colyvan, Carlo Martini, Ryan Muldoon, Giacomo Sillari and Jan Sprenger. Philosophical Studies. 170: 377-394. The article can be found here.
“Conformorality. A Study on Group Conditioning of Normative Judgment” (2013) with Marie Nilsenova and Matteo Colombo. The Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 4: 751-764. The article can be found here. [Preprint here]
“Formal Epistemology Meets Experimental Philosophy” (2013) Synthese. Ed. with S. Hartmann and E. Machery. With contributions by M. Colyvan. G. Devetag, H. Hosni and G. Sillari. J. Overton. M. Unterhuber and G. Schurz. A. Vallinder and Erik Olsson. Carl Wagner. The article can be found here.
“Robustness Analysis versus Reliable Process Reasoning” (2014) Review of Robert Hudson’s ‘Seeing Things. The Philosophy of Reliable Observations’. Metascience. The article can be found here.
Work In Progress
“Explanatory Norms and Interdisciplinary Collaboration” (Submitted as a singled-author paper)
“Are Articles and Journal Metrics a Good Thing?” (Submitted as a singled-author paper)
“Beliefs & Beliefs: A Formal and Conceptual Divide Between Economics and Psychology” (with Michiru Nagatsu)
“Challenges to Interdisciplinary Practice in Behavioral Economics”
“A Dynamic Model of Pluralistic Ignorance” with Stephan Hartmann and Ryan Muldoon
Research Project: “Norms in Motion: on the Dynamics of Social Norm Change”
Non-peer Reviewed Articles
Report of the European Philosophy of Science Association Conference, the Reasoner (2017) 11(10)
Report of the Workshop: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Behavioral Economics, the Reasoner (2017) 07(10).
Report of the Workshop on Robustness Analysis that I organized at the University of Helsinki
Media
Blog entry for the PPE Blog, University of Groningen, March 2017
In September 2016, I was interviewed by the 3AM Magazine (2016). The interview can be found here.