Center for Democracy & Information Integrity

People

CDI draws together BI faculty across psychology, political science, communication, economics, organizational behavior, law, and data science.

Co-Directors

Anton Gollwitzer

Co-Director · Full Professor, Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior

A political and social psychologist studying misinformation, belief formation, polarization, and the cognition behind democratic decision-making, using experiments, NLP, and computational methods. PhD, Yale; Associate Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development; APS Rising Star (2026) and co-recipient of a $700,000 Templeton grant.

Currently: individualized AI tools for civic engagement and misinformation resistance.

Personal site · Google Scholar · LinkedIn · BI profile

Jonas R. Kunst

Co-Director · Full Professor, Department of Communication and Culture

A social and political psychologist working on social identity, intergroup conflict, dehumanization, radicalization, and AI-mediated influence. Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, recipient of APS’s Janet Taylor Spence Award, and a nominee for the Norwegian King’s Gold Medal.

Currently: a framework for radicalization in the age of AI and detection of coordinated influence.

Personal site · Google Scholar · LinkedIn · BI profile

Faculty Members

Jan Ketil Arnulf

Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Studies political cognition, leadership communication, and text analytics, with deep expertise in NLP and large language models. His work brings the latest generative-AI methods to the center’s projects.

Currently: semantic and LLM-based analysis of survey and text data.

Google Scholar · LinkedIn · BI profile

Alexander Buhmann

Department of Communication and Culture

Studies strategic and corporate communication, corporate-reputation measurement, and the use of AI in communication. His work examines how organizations communicate under uncertainty and digital disruption.

Currently: how AI is (and isn’t) reshaping corporate communication functions.

Google Scholar · LinkedIn

Benny Geys

Department of Economics

A political economist working on institutional trust, civic engagement, social capital, and the consequences of political violence. His research informs how democratic institutions respond to shocks and threats.

Currently: accountability, trust dynamics, and the political connections of firms.

Google Scholar · BI profile

Johannes Langguth

Department of Data Science and Analytics (partially affiliated with BI)

A computational social scientist specializing in misinformation dynamics, large-scale social-media analysis, and AI-assisted detection. He provides the center’s advanced computational backbone.

Currently: large-scale detection of conspiracy narratives and coordinated campaigns.

Google Scholar · LinkedIn · Simula profile

Nick Sitter

Department of Law and Governance

Works on comparative politics, EU regulation and competition, terrorism and counterterrorism, and democratic backsliding. His research links domestic political behavior to governance and security.

Currently: political and geopolitical risk, and EU rule-of-law and AI regulation.

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Suzanne van Gils

Department of Communication and Culture

Works on moral reasoning, ethical and respectful leadership, workplace incivility, and the ethics of human–AI interaction. Her research addresses the integrity processes that underpin institutional trust.

Currently: responsible-AI governance and the ethics of deploying AI at work.

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Students

Faisal Feroz

DPhil Candidate in Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

Oxford profile

Yannic Hinrichs

Doctoral Research Fellow, Department of Psychology, University of Oslo

UiO profile

Marius Stavang

PhD Candidate, Department of Psychology, NTNU

NTNU profile

Live Leonhardsen Wilhelmsen

PhD Candidate, Department of Leadership and Organizational Behavior, BI Norwegian Business School

BI profile