Hi, I’m Ines Terrucha, a postdoctoral researcher in the Human Understanding of Machines and Algorithms lab. I study Human-AI interactions, how they affect our individual behavior and everyday lives, and how these interactions, taken together, shape a hybrid society.
Previously, I completed a joint PhD at Ghent University (UGent) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) under the supervision of Prof. Tom Lenaerts. My dissertation produced three publications, including a paper in PNAS. During my PhD, I combined evolutionary game theoretical methods with behavioral experiments to better understand how people solve collective-risk dilemmas in hybrid societies where humans interact with or through AI when making decisions that may affect others.
Building on this work, my current projects move along two tracks. First, I continue to run incentivized behavioral experiments that probe delegation to AI across social dilemmas, asking when handing choices to different systems helps or harms others, and which design and accountability mechanisms produce fairer outcomes. Second, I use experience-sampling methods (ESM) to capture what people actually use AI for in daily life, when and why they turn to it, and how those interactions affect mood, motivation, and subsequent behavior. In essence, I combine stylized lab experiments with in-situ data collection, balancing precision with generalizability, to build a fuller picture of how AI is shaping human behavior.
Why have I been doing this for the last couple of years? Because AI is already reshaping our lives. It’s urgent to understand its effects on individuals and how those effects scale into wider social outcomes. I approach this as a genuinely interdisciplinary researcher, combining experience sampling (ESM), incentivized behavioral experiments, and evolutionary game theory to explain how people behave with and through AI. What I’ve learned so far is that AI can strengthen human cooperation and agency. Going forward, my aim is to contribute to a hybrid society where we understand how AI shapes behavior and we harness it to promote the common good.
Oh, and I did an Ironman. Now I am into running ultramarathons.
