Annika Fredén, Karlstad University, is project leader in the WASP-HS program. Read more about the project Bias and methods of AI technology studying political behavior.
What’s your view of being a part of WASP-HS?
I think it is a great opportunity to connect with other scholars who are interested in the intersection between methods, social sciences, and new developments in AI. It is quite unique for Sweden, where there are usually rather firm lines between e.g. computer science and my own field, political science. I appreciate the exchange and open-minded perspective on research with focus on science rather than subfields.
What are your expectations on WASP-HS?
It will complement current collaborations within political science and combine knowledge from a number of good universities in Sweden into something new. I am curious to see how the WASP Graduate School will develop, and how international networks will be tied to our work.
I guess that one result of it will be that we will form new research teams combining different skills with AI as the common denominator, which has proved to be a successful strategy in for example the US.
What do you want your own project to lead to?
I want to deepen my knowledge of data analysis and the understanding of how people interact and understand political information and how this affect behaviors. I am particularly interested in skewness and tendencies, both in the way that people form their opinions and are affected by potentially “biased” information (from for example local or global polls) and in the data as such, depending on the way it has been gathered.
I hope that we will be able to say something new from both of these angles starting from AI-based methods.
PhD student positions related to the project:
How information and institutions affect political behavior: Applying AI technology to the study of political data
