Dylan Thurgood is a DPhil in Social Data Science student at the OII. He holds an MSc in Social Data Science from the OII and a BSc in Economics from the University of Warwick, during which he spent one year studying at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Dylan’s research lies at the intersection of psychology, political science and data science. He is primarily interested in how individuals update their beliefs when they encounter new information with a particular focus on the role of trust in institutions. In this context, he has investigated the impact of consuming hyperpartisan news on attitudes towards the European Union and the influence of social networks on opinion dynamics. Besides gaining a better understanding of opinion formation at the micro-level and analysing the implications this has for society as a whole, his work focuses on interventions that could enhance collective intelligence and mitigate polarisation. His research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
Opinion formation; collective intelligence; political polarisation; trust in institutions; science communication; e-participation; news consumption; right-wing populism; conspiracy beliefs
