October 21 | The Wisdom Behind Words: What We Value, How We Organize, and How We Learn

Описание: The Wisdom Behind Words: What We Value, How We Organize, and How We Learn

About the Seminar:

Natural language processing has the potential to understand and address some of society's largest challenges. Drawing on millions of observations from obituaries, online petitions, and science writing, this talk will demonstrate how language patterns reveal underlying values in legacy, predict collective action, and how AI can make science more accessible. The presentation will explore three counterintuitive discoveries: how cultural crises like 9/11 and COVID-19 reshape the values we celebrate in death notices, why linguistically complex online petitions consistently attract more supporters, and how AI-generated scientific summaries make science more approachable by improving public comprehension and trust in scientists. Together, these studies advocate for a transdisciplinary approach that bridges computation with psychological theory, demonstrating how language can reveal fundamental aspects of the human condition and address societal challenges through communication.

About the Speaker:

Dr. David M. Markowitz is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. He uses language patterns from natural databases to infer what people are thinking, feeling, and experiencing psychologically. His work has appeared in outlets such as Science Advances, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Communication, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. In 2022, Dr. Markowitz was named a "Rising Star" of the Association for Psychological Science. He received his PhD from Stanford University and his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Cornell University.