Decision Making for Policy (DEMAP) Research Cluster

DEMAP members worked with START Network and the MEAL practitioners group. The consortium includes more than 50 humanitarian aid agencies across five continents.

Members range from major international organisations, including Save the Children, the International Red Cross, FAO, and WFP, to national NGOs.

DEMAP members advised the consortium on effective methods for evaluating Anticipatory Action. Anticipatory Action is humanitarian aid provided to populations and areas forecast to experience a slow-onset hazard. Examples include drought, desertification, sea-level rise, and epidemic disease.

Cluster Members: Andrej Angelovski (MDX-AFE), Simon Lodato (MDX-AFE), Andreas Murr (University of Warwick), and Ericka Rascon Ramirez (MDX-AFE)

Project Outputs

• “Systematic Search and Review of Impact Evaluation Approaches for Anticipatory Action” – (Andrej Angelovski, Simon Lodato, Andreas Murr, and Ericka Rascon Ramirez)
• “Evaluation of Anticipatory Action by MEAL Organisations - Inception Report” - (Andrej Angelovski, Simon Lodato, Andreas Murr, and Ericka Rascon Ramirez)
• “Guidelines for the Evaluation of AA: Participatory Impact Assessment, Regression Discontinuity Designs & Other Methodological Considerations” - (Andrej Angelovski, Simon Lodato, Andreas Murr, and Ericka Rascon Ramirez)

One risk associated with the widespread use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and the Gen-AI revolution is their potential to generate text and content for malicious purposes, including fraud.

This project uses a controlled and incentivised experiment. It examines how individuals interact with an LLM when creating messages intended to defraud. It compares these messages with honest messages.

The project also compares messages created with support from an LLM or AI with messages created by humans without this support.

Cluster Members: Andrej Angelovski (MDX-AFE) and Manja Nikolovska (UCL)

This project examines how the presence of dependants changes the bargaining behaviour of both parties. Dependants may be family members, such as children or older people, or people who are socially dependent.

The research studies people who care for dependants and those with whom they negotiate. It also examines how political differences in the United States interact with changes in bargaining behaviour.

Cluster Members: Andrej Angelovski (MDX-AFE), Arianna Galliera (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), Francesca Marazzi (U of Tor Vergata)

This project explores how skill and performance affect altruism and giving in two settings:

1. The giver’s net worth depends on merit.
2. The giver’s net worth depends more on luck.

The research provides several new findings. In meritocratic settings, the giver’s skill and performance have a clear negative relationship with giving. This relationship does not appear in luck-based settings.

Knowing that a person in need is working increases giving. However, their level of performance does not affect the amount given. This indicates that only the giver’s own performance affects giving.

Cluster Members: Andrej Angelovski (MDX-AFE), Praveen Kujal (MDX-AFE)

This project evaluates small-scale interventions designed to raise awareness of toxic masculinity and misogyny.

Two pilot studies have identified which parts of the interventions are most effective. Findings from this qualitative evaluation will inform improvements to interventions used by the MDX Film Department over the past three years.

The team will use these findings to prepare for a third pilot in 2025. Based on the results, it plans to apply for a BA or ESRC grant to test the improved interventions on a larger scale.

Cluster members: Ben Serlin (MDX-Student Affairs), Helen Bendon (MDX-Film), Bastien Chabe-Ferret (MDX-AFE) and Ericka Rascon Ramirez (MDX-AFE).

Fundacion Ramon Areces and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation funded this project. Cluster members Lorenzo Ductor and Ismael Rodriguez are the principal investigators.

The funding supported data collection for three online experiments. The project examines how gender stereotypes may influence decisions when people form work teams.

Cluster members: Lorenzo Ductor (U of Granada), Ericka G. Rascon Ramirez (MDX-AFE) and Ismael Rodriguez (U of Malaga).

Principal Investigator: Bianca Stumbitz
Funder: ESRC Transforming Working Lives Research Grant
Dates: 2022-2025
Amount: £552,543.86
Funding received by: MDX

Cluster Members: Bastien Chabet-Ferret and Ericka G. Rascon-Ramirez

Democracy under Threat: How Education can Save it (DEMED), Neundorf, Anja et al.

The ERC Consolidator Grant funded the project from 2020 to 2025.

Find out more about the project

Cluster Member: Ericka G. Rascon-Ramirez

Cluster members: Bastien Chabe-Ferret (MDX-AFE) and Britta Stordal (MDX-HSCE).

This project explores whether dating apps can make it easier to search for a romantic partner. Apps may direct users into sub-markets based on the type of relationship they want.

For example, advertising campaigns by Tinder and eHarmony target sections of the market based on desired levels of commitment.

The project aims to connect theory with the complex reality of romantic matching. Researchers will conduct a thematic analysis of publicly shared social media data.

The research will provide deeper insight into dating apps, their performance, and the behaviour of individual users.

Cluster members: Manja Nikolovska (UCL), Shilan Dargahi (U of Sussex), Simon Lodato (MDX-AFE) 

This project will examine the causes of inequalities affecting ethnic minorities. It will also investigate policies that could address them effectively.

The proposal uses a contextual approach. It shifts attention from "who" experiences inequality to "where" it occurs.

The research will examine how the following factors affect economic inequalities in Britain, with international comparisons:

1. regional factors
2. labour markets
3. immigration policies.

Cluster members: Segi Pardos (U of Glasgow) and Ericka Rascon Ramirez (MDX-AFE)