Hi! I am a postdoc at the London School of Economics, working on the rep2si project.

Research Interest

I’m lost somewhere between social sciences, psychology and economics. I’m also interested in history, where I made my bachelor. On my free time I develop the French lexicometrics platform Gallicagram, of which you can find an outline here.

Publications (updated in early 2025)

• de Courson B., Frankenhuis W., Nettle D.
  Poverty is associated with both risk avoidance and risk taking: empirical evidence for the desperation threshold model from the UK and France, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2025

• Acerbi A. & de Courson B.
  Weak content preferences stabilise culture, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2025

• Pfänder, J.; de Courson, B.; Mercier, H.
  How wise is the crowd: Can we infer people are accurate and competent merely because they agree with each other?, Cognition, 2025

• Nettle D., Chevallier C., de Courson B., Johnson E.A., Johnson M.T., Pickett K.
  Short-term changes in financial situation have immediate mental health consequences: The Changing Cost of Living Study, Social Policy & Administration, 2024

• Radkani S., Holton E., de Courson B., Saxe R., Nettle D.
  Desperation and inequality increase stealing: evidence from experimental microsocieties, Royal Society Open Science, 2023

• de Courson B., Frankenhuis W., Nettle D., van Gelder J.-L.
  Why is violence high and persistent in deprived communities? A formal model, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2023

• de Courson B., Azoulay B., de Courson C., Vanni L., Brunet E.
  Gallicagram : les archives de presse sous les rotatives de la statistique textuelle, Corpus, 2023

• de Courson B., Thouzeau V., Baumard N.
  Quantifying the scientific revolution, Evolutionary Human Sciences, 2023

• de Courson B. & Nettle D.
  Why do inequality and deprivation produce high crime and low trust?, Scientific Reports, 2021

• de Courson B., Fitouchi L., Bouchaud J.-P. & Benzaquen M.
  Cultural diversity and wisdom of crowds are mutually beneficial and evolutionarily stable, Scientific Reports, 2021