Hi everyone,

This Friday (January 22) from 15:00 till 16:00 we will have another exciting lab meeting. In this session of the Online Hot Politics Lab, Leor Zmigrod (University of Cambridge) will give a talk titled "A Cognitive Science of the Ideological Mind". The talk will be followed by a Q&A, and everybody is welcome to join via Zoom with this link: https://uva-live.zoom.us/j/96492065253 at 3pm (CET). Below a bio and abstract of Leor’s talk.

TITLE: A Cognitive Science of the Ideological Mind

ABSTRACT: Since the birth of modern civilisation, humans have been creating stories that capture their theories about how the world works and how they should act within this complex world. These narratives both describe and prescribe human action, and exist in a kaleidoscope of forms – from religious doctrines to authoritarian nationalism to political manifestos. Why do these explosive ideologies seduce and captivate the human brain? New research illustrates that our ideologies may be tightly interconnected with our perceptual and cognitive architecture. Data-driven approaches highlight that ideological beliefs are amenable to careful cognitive and computational analysis, revealing the cocktail of cognitive traits that can make a mind more (or less) susceptible to ideological dogmatism.
BIO: Dr Leor Zmigrod is a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her research combines methods from experimental psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience to investigate the psychology of ideological adherence and group identity formation. In particular, she is interested in investigating cognitive characteristics that might act as vulnerability factors for radicalization and ideologically-motivated behaviour.

If you missed any of the previous online hot politics lab meetings, you can find all video and audio recordings of our last online meetings in our Online Hot Politics Lab Meetings archive here: http://www.hotpolitics.eu/lab-meetings-archive/.

Have a great rest of the week and looking forward to seeing many of you Friday!

Best,

Maaike Homan

PhD Candidate at the Political Science Department

Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research

University of Amsterdam

Room B10.01