10/ links: Postdoc(PD): Soc. Psyc/related DL: 1-Oct-24 tinyurl.com/ERC-PD1tinyurl.com/ERC-PD2tinyurl.com/ERC-RMMtinyurl.com/ERC-AP

9/ None of these ideas are new (cf. stereotypes, schemas, heuristics, etc.) - but compression is a mathematical framework for making sense of it all in a new (& hopefully more integrated) way. Pls get in touch if you have any questions; and of course please retweet if you’re comfortable with that.

8/ If successful, ID-Compression will provide a unifying theory, linking basic psychology to macro social structure allowing us to understand, detect, quantify and (maybe) manage polarization.

7/ People try to act comprehensibly in a given information system, thereby sustaining it. For example, an American wearing a red cap could look like a MAGA Republican, so Democrats avoid wearing red caps, amplifying the signal.

6/ Identity compression produces information spaces where people can recognize friend or foe with minimal data, since the identity-information relations are highly redundant.

5/ We hypothesize that polarization exists when socially structured attributes align with group identities to create a compressible identity information space where knowing someone’s group identity allows you to guess related attributes. Conversely, knowing some attributes tells you their identity.

4/ Take a social example: in these Serbian protests, multiple attitudes like “sex before marriage is OK,” “men can love men,” or “God should be obeyed” are compressible as a single dichotomy – RELIGIOUS or LIBERAL: if you knew someone’s answer to one, you could guess them all.

3/ ID-Compression builds on simple idea: that the link between social identity & polarization is compressibility. Compressibility exists when there's redundant information. e.g. we can capture key features of this painting with a fraction of the data, because a lot of information is redundant.

2/ This is a consolidated thread now all four posts are advertised: We’re building interdisciplinary team to develop information-theory approach to understanding social identity embedded in social information. Slides from ERC interview, so forgive overambitious vibes :D

11/ Feel free to contact people in our department or collaborators for an independent 🤨peer review 🤨 Contact HoD Eric Igou for more general details about the post & application process, or me for more info about the ID-COMPRESSION project.