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The role of mathematical models in social sciences

Antoine Vendeville, post-doc researcher, will be presenting at the médialab seminar.

Rendez-vous, Séminaire de recherche

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Salle K.008, 1 Place St-Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris

Abstract

"In the past years, there has been a growing use of mathematical models to study social phenomena. The access to large behavioural traces from social media and the rapid increase of computing power has been a major factor in the development of these models. Until recent changes in the platforms’ policies, anyone with a laptop could obtain data for thousands of people and run simulations of opinion dynamics or disease transmission, among many other possibilities. This has stimulated the development of mathematical models that apply at a very large scale and allow to easily test hypotheses and predict scenarios, without having to resort to controlled experiments that are often costly, difficult to put into place, and more limited in numbers of participants. Mathematical models already had very concrete implications for our societies, from influencing the Brexit vote to designing efficient COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. This seminar will be a reflection around the role of these models in social sciences – and to a lesser extent, political science. I will illustrate where the models can shine, and where they can fail. The presentation will be focused on, but not limited to, the field of opinion dynamics on social media. The goal will be to foster a participative discussion about the role of mathematical models in social sciences: past, present and future."

Biography

Antoine Vendeville is a post-doctoral researcher at médialab. His research focuses on the study of opinion dynamics in online social platforms, between theoretical models and empirical observations. He also studies the impact of recommendation systems and the politics of regulating online social platforms from a practical point of view.