Michael Bang Petersen (born 5 January 1980) is a Danish political scientist. He is a professor at Aarhus University, with research focusing on human evolutionary psychology and its role in politics. Starting in 2020, he led HOPE, a project examining responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in democratic countries and contributing to the Danish government's response to the pandemic.
Petersen was born on 5 January 1980 in Kolding, Denmark. He earned a PhD in political science from Aarhus University in 2007.[1]
Since 2020, Petersen has led the HOPE project, researching global attitudes to the COVID-19 pandemic and advising the Danish government.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] [5]
Peterson is also the director of the Research on Online Political Hostility Project through the Aarhus University, School of Business and Social Science.[6] He has researched the evolutionary foundations of political misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theory beliefs.[7]
Peterson has contributed to and been cited in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times,[8] The Atlantic,[9] The Washington Post,[10] and The Irish Times.[11]