How does a society segregated into different subgroups? How are some groups radicalized and other groups not? How do some people in a group come to hold extreme views? How do group members become homogenized over time? Can a society become depolarized? How much of disagreement in a society can be constructive?
In the Summer of 2012, I was fortunate to be introduced by Aaron Bramson to Patrick Grim's research group at the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan. Since then, I have been much enjoying collaborating with Aaron Bramson, Patrick Grim, Daniel Singer, Zev Berger, Bennett Holman, Karen Kovaka, and many more.
Our research group has a multidisciplinary composition from philosophy through political science, psychology, and biology to complex systems science. We study polarization, group deliberation, collective problem-solving and decision making, and democratic processes. Our primary research methods for integrating multi-level mechanisms are agent-based modeling, complex adaptive systems modeling, and computer simulations.
If you like to know more about our research, please find the following paper:
Jung, J.,Grim, P., Singer, D. J., Bramson, A., Berger, W. J., Holman, B., & Kovaka, K. (2019). A Multidisciplinary Understanding of Polarization.American Psychologist, 74,301-314.doi:10.1037/amp0000450