Kimmo Eriksson

Researcher at the Institute for Futures Studies (IFFS) in Stockholm
Professor of applied mathematics at Mälardalen University (MDU)
Research fellow at MDU's AI initiative AI@MDU - AI and Society
Chairman and funder of the Global Social Norms network

My current main interest is social norms and opinions on moral issues: how they change over time and how they vary between groups and cultures - and how this depends on which norm or moral issue is involved.

I also have editorial assignments for a number of scientific journals, such as Judgment and Decision Making, and am a member of the board of the Institute for Analytical Sociology at Linköping University.

Current reserach

Global Social Norms

Global social norms studies aim at documenting how social norms vary across the globe and testing theories about why. In the international network for global social norms studies (GSN), researchers from many different countries collaborate on conducting such studies.

AI and Society

Investigations into how AI changes knowledge, working life, and cultural dynamics are crucial to understand its’ effects on, for example, education, employment, and welfare delivery.

Finding popular solutions to climate change

This research project aims to identify effective climate policies that garner widespread support, thereby informing politically viable climate mitigation strategies. We will conduct a global survey on public opinion toward 30 climate policies in 138 countries.

A new theory about the relation between cognitive ability and moral opinions

A large body of empirical research has established that people with higher cognitive ability tend to have more liberal opinions on "moral" issues. But why? This project proposes a new theory to resolve this, building on the researchers recent work on an argument-driven process whereby public opinion gradually changes toward more liberal opinions in the whole population.