Michael Bang Petersen

Since 2020, Petersen has led the HOPE project, researching global attitudes to the COVID-19 pandemic and advising the Danish government.^[3] The project's mission of transparently explaining how COVID-19 restrictions in Denmark to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 helped Danish citizens maintain confidence in the government and contributed to Denmark's relatively successful handling of the early stages of the pandemic.^[4] For his work on citizen and government trust in Denmark during the pandemic, he earned the 2022 Forskningskommunikationsprisen (Research Communication Award) from the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science.^[5][6]

Peterson is also the director of the Research on Online Political Hostility Project through the Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Science.^[7] He has researched the evolutionary foundations of political misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theory beliefs.^[8]

Peterson has contributed to and been cited in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times,^[9] The Atlantic,^[10] The Washington Post,^[11] and The Irish Times.^[12]

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