My research

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen, working in the group of Prof. Nils Köbis on the Human Understanding of Algorithms and Machines. I study how interactions with Artificial Intelligence (AI) shape human behavior, decision-making, and well-being in everyday life. By combining behavioral experiments and experience-sampling methods, I examine when delegating choices to AI helps or harms others, and how these systems become integrated into people’s everyday social experiences. My goal is to understand how AI transforms the ways we connect, cooperate, and interact—both with each other and with AI itself—with the hope of contributing to a better, hybrid future society.

IAS Fellowship

How do daily interactions with Artificial Intelligence (AI) resemble or differ from our brief encounters with other people, and what does this mean for well-being in everyday life?

During my IAS fellowship, I will examine whether AI interactions—such as asking a chatbot for advice or conversing with a digital assistant—function more like weak-tie social exchanges: brief, frequent, and low in intimacy, yet potentially meaningful as a new form of social connection. Using experience sampling and behavioral experiments, I will investigate whether these AI encounters supplement or substitute for human weak-tie interactions, which are known to enhance happiness and a sense of belonging.

The project is carried out in collaboration with Prof. Shaul Shalvi (University of Amsterdam) and a wider network of interdisciplinary colleagues, combining insights from social psychology, behavioral ethics, and data science. Its goal is to uncover how AI use shapes daily social experiences and well-being, and whether it strengthens or erodes the subtle web of everyday human connections that sustain social life.