Lisa Oswald

Lisa Oswald is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, working within the Center for Adaptive Rationality's Cognition in Online Environments research group. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the Hertie School in Berlin, an MSc in Social Data Science from the University of Oxford, and MSc and BSc degrees in Psychology from the University of Kassel.

Her research focuses on public discourse in online environments and the role of digital media for democratic politics. Integrating psychological and political science perspectives, she employs computational social science methods including digital trace data analysis and online experiments. Her work examines critical contemporary issues including political polarization, online hate speech, climate change skepticism, and the relationship between digital platforms and democratic processes.

Oswald's recent publications demonstrate her leadership in examining how digital environments shape political participation and public trust. Her work combines rigorous methodological approaches with pressing real-world questions about the digital transformation of democratic societies. She has developed expertise in analyzing political discussions on platforms like Reddit and examining how platform design affects user participation.

Scientific Awards:

• Doctoral Scholarship, German Academic National Foundation (2021-2023)
• Best poster award 2022, PolMeth Europe
• Highly commended thesis 2020, Oxford Internet Institute
• Carl-Friedrich Graumann Award, German Psychological Society (2018)
• Scholarship, German Academic National Foundation (2016-2020)

Oswald has served as a teaching assistant for courses including 'Introduction to Data Science' and 'Statistical Modeling & Causal Inference' at the Hertie School. Her research collaborations span multiple institutions, including work with Philipp Lorenz-Spreen, Ralph Hertwig, and other leading scholars in computational social science. She actively engages with policy-relevant research questions, particularly regarding the Digital Services Act and platform regulation.