Gaël Le Mens

Gaël Le Mens is Professor (Catedràtic) in the Department of Economics and Business at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, with affiliations at Barcelona School of Economics and UPF-BSM. An ICREA Acadèmia Awardee (2023-2027), he researches learning processes in individuals, organizations, and machines, examining how information sampling affects judgment and belief formation.

Current research explores:

• Social media feedback dynamics and opinion polarization
• Conceptual categorization using LLMs (GPT-4, Llama 3)
• Reinforcement learning biases
• Wisdom-of-crowds phenomena

His work combines computational modeling with experimental methods.

Publications appear in top journals including Psychological Review (4 papers), PNAS (4 papers), and Management Science. Research themes show consistent focus on decision biases arising from sampling limitations, with recent expansion into AI-assisted text analysis and political scaling applications.

Honors include:

• ERC Consolidator Grant for selective information sampling research
• Multiple publications in PNAS and Psychological Review
• ICREA Acadèmia recognition

Mentored doctoral students include Elizaveta Konovalova, Nikolas Schöll, and Thomas Woiczyk. Leads the ERC-funded project 'Implications of Selective Information Sampling' examining belief polarization mechanisms.

Affiliated with the Rebel Governance Network and Strategic Organization Design Unit, with visiting positions at INSEAD, London Business School, and Stanford GSB.