The two researchers Sophia Gaenssle and Oliver Budzinski (both Economic Theory Group, TU Ilmenau) presented their research in Torino at the European Workshop on Applied Cultural Economics. The most renowned researchers in the field of cultural economics take part in the conference; both from the European area and international guests.
The paper presented by Gaenssle and Budzinski “Disentangling Individual Biases in Jury Voting: An Empirical Analysis of Voting Behavior in the Eurovision Song Contest” studies individual jury voting behavior in the Eurovision Song Contest. The authors find that individual proximity between contestants and jury members (regarding, inter alia, age, gender, cultural similarity) significantly influences the jury voting behavior. These results show actual voting behavior of jury members and systematic bias in favor of their own peers. This has strong implications when it comes to the composition and selection of jury members or expert panels in general.