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Michael Mäs |
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Last
update: Feb 6, 2009 |
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Adress |
Dipl.-Soz. Michael Mäs Department of Sociology / ICS Grote Rozenstraat 31 9712 TG Tel.: +31(0)50
/ 3636731 E-mail: m.maes@rug.nl |
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personal data |
Born: 1981 in Weimar/Germany Nationality: German |
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Current main research interests |
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Rational Choice
Theory -
Statistics and
Measurement Methods -
Philosophy of Science -
Modelling Social
Processes -
Cohesion in Diverse
Social Groups -
Ethnic Discrimination
and Ethnic Conflicts -
Social Norms |
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current work |
- My PhD Project: One of the main
research fields in sociology is the explanation of cohesion in social groups.
Considering the rapid changes in the cultural composition of modern societies
current research focuses on the conditions of cohesion in social groups that
consist of members with diverse cultural backgrounds. Prominent theories on
this research field state that contact between the diverse group members
moderates the effect of diversity on cohesion (Allport 1954; Pettigrew 1998).
For example Axelrod (1997) argued that diverse groups in which the members
have only little contact will likely spilt up into opposing subgroups,
whereas this split will be observed less often in groups with more contact.
However empirical research suggests that contact can also have negative
effects on a group’s cohesion. Especially in the work team literature one
finds numerous reports about diverse groups that showed very little cohesion
although there was a high contact rate (e.g. Lau and Murnighan 2005). My
research focuses on the conditions of positive and negative effects of
contact on cohesion. Thus the general research question is: Why and under
which conditions does contact between the members of culturally diverse
social groups increase or decrease the level of cohesion in the groups? In
particular this project will focus on how the timing of contact affects the
influence of contact on cohesion. I use computational
modeling techniques to develop new hypotheses. We are gathering longitudinal
network data in two organizations and conduct laboratory experiments to test
our theories. My supervisors are: Andreas Flache, Werner Raub, Rafael Wittek and Károly Takács |
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Curriculum Vitae |
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educational Career |
- 1999: A-levels passed
at the Gymnasium (grammar school) August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben (certificate
of aptitude for higher education) -
1999 to 2000: compulsary service - 2000 to 2005: studies of
sociology and economics at the Alma Mater Lipsiensis ( >
August 2001: Vordiplom (preliminary exam) >
specializing in
sociological theory and econometrics >
March 2005: Academic degree: Diplom-Soziologe, grade:
cum laude (mit Auszeichnung) |
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research
experiences |
- 2002: Research
Assistant to Prof. Dr. Karl-Dieter Opp - 2003 to 2005:
Research Assistant to Prof. Dr. Kurt Mühler and Prof. Dr. Karl-Dieter Opp - 2003: empirical
study on the reporting behaviour of crime on social groups - Summer term 2005:
Lecturer at the chair of Thomas Voss, Dept. of
Sociology in - Since September
2005 I am a PhD-student at the ICS in - September –
November 2008 I was academic guest at ETH |
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Prices |
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Best Thesis Award of the
Department of Sociology, -
Best Poster Award for a Poster
presented at the International
Workshop on Challenges and Visions in the Social Sciences (ETH |
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Scientific
Publications |
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papers and
Books |
2008 Flache, Andreas and Michael
Mäs. (2008) "Why
do faultlines matter? A computational model of how strong demographic
faultlines undermine team cohesion." Simulation Modelling
Practice and Theory 16:175-191. Flache,
Andreas, and Michael Mäs. 2008. "How to get the
timing right? A computational model of how demographic faultlines undermine
team performance and how the right timing of contacts can solve the problem."
Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory 14:23-51. Mäs, Michael, and Andrea
Knecht. 2008.
"Die Entwicklung von negativen
Beziehungen in Schulklassen." in Ein
neues Paradigma in den Sozialwissenschaften: Netzwerkanalyse und
Netzwerktheorie, edited by Christian Stegbauer. 2006 Mäs Michael. 2006. “Does Regional Identification Lead To Negative
Attitudes Towards Foreigners?“ This paper was presented at the 101st
Annual Meeting of the ASA in Montréal 2005 Mäs, Michael; Kurt Mühler, and
Karl-Dieter Opp. 2005. “Wann ist man deutsch? Empirische
Ergebnisse eines faktoriellen Surveys “. Kölner Zeitschrift für
Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 57:112-134. Mäs, Michael. 2005. “Regionalismus, Nationalismus und
Fremdenfeindlichkeit“. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag. Mühler, Kurt; Karl-Dieter Opp;
Michael Mäs and Ralph Richter. 2006. “Region, Nation, Europa. Die Dynamik
regionaler und überregionaler Identifikation“. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag. |
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Conference and Workshop Presentations |
2008 “Faultlines and Polarization. The neglected
Effects of Crisscrossing work team members.” presented together with
Andreas Flache and Károly Takács at 2008 Annual
Meeting of the Academy of Management. “The
bridge over the faultline“ presented together with Andreas Flache
and Károly Takács at the sunbelt XXVIII (2008) “ ’What on earth must we assume’ to explain
increasing opinion differences between subgroups without assuming negative
influence?” presented together with Andreas Flache and Hanne Visser at International Workshop on Challenges and
Visions in the Social Sciences (ETH Zurich, August 2008) 2007 “How to get the timing right? A computational
model of how demographic faultlines undermine team performance and how the right
timing of contacts can solve the problem.” presented together
with Andreas Flache at the sunbelt
2007 (8th European Social Network Conference) “Network Games of Social Influence” presented
together with Károly Takács (presenter) and Andreas Flache at the sunbelt 2007 (8th European Social
Network Conference) “The double edge of
demographic faultlines. The neglected effects of crisscrossing on
cohesion and performance in work teams.“ presented together with Andreas
Flache and Károly Takács at “Rational Choice
Sociology: Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Applications” December
2007 at 2006 “Does Regional Identification Lead To Negative
Attitudes Towards Foreigners?” presented at 101st
Annual Meeting of the American
Sociological Association in Montréal 2005 “The Strength of Insufficient Punishment.
Cooperation and Punishment in Norm Games“ presented
together with Heiko Rauhut, Msc at “Rational
Choice Sociology: Theoretical Contributions and Empirical Applications”
December 2005 at |
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Invited
Talks |
“Homophily, Persuasion and Opinion
Polarization. Laboratory experiments on Polarization in Small Groups”
presented at Modeling Complex
Socio-Economic Systems and Crises, September 2008 ETH “How to get the timing right? A computational model
of how demographic faultlines undermine team performance and how the right
timing of contacts can solve the problem.” presented together
with Andreas Flache at “Cooperation Relations and Social
Networks Seminar” October 2006 at
the “How to get
the timing right? A computational model of how demographic faultlines
undermine team performance and how the right timing of contacts can solve the
problem.” presented together with Andreas Flache December 2006 at Methods and Models in Sociology (MEMOS)” at the
University of Groningen “Does Regional Identification Lead To Negative
Attitudes Towards Foreigners?” presented June 2006 at
the “Modelling Panel data: Advantages
and Problems” Student preparation for the MEMOS-Meeting June 2006 |
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Courses |
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Summer Term
2005: “Criticizing Sociological Theories” (in German) |
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Rijksuniversiteit |
Winter Term
2006/07: “Social Cohesion, moral
Behavior and Well-Being” (in Dutch) Summer Term
2007: “ Winter Term
2007/08: “Social Cohesion, moral
Behavior and Well-Being” (in Dutch) Summer Term
2008: “ |