ECONtribute and C-SEB member Christopher Roth, Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Cologne, receives the prestigious ERC Starting Grant for his project “Viral Narratives: The Role of Narratives for Economic Belief Formation”. The project investigates the life cycle of economic narratives from their creation to their influence on economic behavior. By using online experiments, language data analysis, and artificial intelligence, the project will explore why certain narratives go viral in markets and what mechanisms make them compelling. ERC Starting Grants are awarded to excellent young scientists and funded with up to 1.5 million euros for a period of five years.