Austin van Loon

Austin van Loon is the Class of 1956 Career Development Assistant Professor and an Assistant Professor of Work and Organization Studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is a standing faculty member of the Organization Studies program, a core faculty member of the Economic Sociology program, and a faculty member of the Managerial Communications group.

Van Loon's research examines how people make sense of the world around them, and how that process shapes what they do — especially in contexts of disagreement, ambiguity, and conflict. In the substantive stream of his research, he studies how groups define who belongs, how they manage internal differences, and how they respond to new technologies. Recent topics include the cultural sources of different immigration attitudes, how the design of online platforms shapes political conversation, how organizations hold together despite deep internal disagreements, and how artificial intelligence is changing higher education.

The second stream of Van Loon's research is methodological. In it, he develops tools and frameworks for using artificial intelligence rigorously in social science research. His most recent work introduces experimental designs that combine AI predictions with human data to draw stronger conclusions from smaller studies. He has also worked on the statistical and large-scale analysis of human language, measuring cultural differences, and building software that helps researchers design better studies.

Van Loon teaches Communication for Leaders, a core MBA course designed to equip students with persuasive strategic communication skills crucial for driving meaningful organizational change.