24 September 2025, Computational Social Choice Seminar, Ulle Endriss

Abstract

Given the preferences of several people over a number of proposals, some of these proposals might be judged to be more divisive than others. Can we make this notion of divisiveness mathematically precise? In this talk, using tools and ideas from social choice theory, I will discuss some of the fundamental difficulties associated with providing a formal definition of divisiveness. This direction of research is motivated by the idea that being able to identify especially divisive proposals can be useful when designing online participatory platforms to support digital democracy initiatives that would allow citizens to deliberate over and express their preferences regarding competing policy proposals.

The talk will be broadly accessible, also if you have not seen much social choice theory before.

For more information on the Computational Social Choice Seminar, please consult https://staff.science.uva.nl/u.endriss/seminar/.