My name is Pontus Strimling.
I am a research leader at the Institute For Futures studies in Stockholm and a lecturer at the Institute for Analytical Sociology, Linköping University. My research deals with how cultural traits change over time. In particular, I study how norms are created, sustained and transformed. My goal is to further the understanding of cultural change to the point where it can be used to predict and even transform the outcome of real-world cultural change. Rooted in theories of cultural evolution, I aim to grasp how cultural transmissions on the individual level connect to large-scale societal transformations.
At the Strimling Lab, my team and I use experiments and surveys to study individuals and mathematical models that aggregate the results of these into predictions concerning how cultural traits spread in populations. We make frequent use of global databases such as the World Values Survey and the General Social Survey, to test our predictions.
My work ranges from fundamental research on how to model cultural change in general, to more specific questions surrounding changes in norms within gender equality, hygiene and violence. I am currently dividing my time between trying to understand the upcoming societal impact of AI technology, understanding how values change (with a special focus on immigrants), and connecting what we know about norm change to what we know about how the brain works.
As an introduction to my work on how norms change can be found here:
And here is a talk on some coming effects of Artifical Intelligence
A full list of my publications can be found here.
Want to get in touch? Please contact me on this address.