Centro Escolar University (CEU), in collaboration with the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca (UPSA), brought together members of their academic communities for the Erasmus Mundus Project International Free Public Lecture Series and Faculty Mobility Exchange Program held on August 4 and 5, 2026.
The two-day academic exchange explored the relationship among information, communication, and human behavior, highlighting how the presentation of information can influence how people understand it, make decisions, and respond to their environment.
On the first day, participants examined the role of data visualization in effective communication. Dr. Fernando Enrique Reina-Reyes, Associate Professor at the Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, discussed “Data Visualization for Effective Presentation in Business Management and Accounting,” emphasizing that graphs and other visual representations are not merely decorative elements in a presentation. Rather, they influence how audiences interpret information.
Through appropriate data visualization, communicators can effectively present trends, comparisons, and relationships. However, selecting an inappropriate visual representation can also lead audiences to misunderstand or misinterpret otherwise accurate information. The discussion underscored the importance of presenting data not only accurately, but also clearly and responsibly.
The second day shifted the discussion from how information is presented to how people respond to it. Dr. Reina-Reyes explored behavioral economics and decision-making, examining why people do not always make decisions based solely on rational considerations.
Everyday choices can be influenced by emotions, past experiences, cognitive biases, and the way options are presented. Procrastination, for example, can be linked to the tendency to favor immediate rewards over longer-term benefits, while having too many choices can also affect how individuals make decisions.
Taken together, the two-day exchange offered a broader perspective on communication and its influence on human behavior. A graph can shape how data is understood; an interface can influence the choices people make; an influencer can affect what audiences trust; and an algorithm can determine which information people encounter in the first place.