Starts With Us’ Post

This University of Oxford study resonates strongly with me - and doesn't surprise me in the slightest. After the Sortition Foundation (which at the time I joined them had a website that said something like 'Join us to repair people's broken trust in politics' (!)) stole my work on global geospatial sortition - which enabled the world's first global citizens' assembly to take place - despite having asked me to develop my ideas in a written project proposal for them (!), the shock was so great I felt I'd never be able to trust anyone or any organisation ever again. They were supposed to be the good guys. But they turned out to have feet of stinking clay... How anyone can still contemplate working with this deeply flawed and unethical organisation I do not know. Most people in the UK deliberative democracy field know what happened by now. But the Sortition Foundation is still being given commissions! It seems if someone provides a useful service, most people are prepared to turn a blind eye to the ruthless practices that got them their pre-eminent services status in the first place. Sharks abound, not just in the corporate field but also among NGOs and non-profits. And the people who continue to employ them just don't give a damn. No wonder so many of us are losing faith in our capitalist system, which seems to encourage predators everywhere you look. There's no escape from them. And most people don't seem to care. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that. I live in hope. (Just a sliver of it.) I think I'll send the authors of this Oxford study the extensive documentation of my case, and see what they think of it. I detect a tendency to assume that the increasing levels of mistrust in our society are somehow an individual psychological problem, rather than a systemic, societal one, which is partly due to lax corporate and ethical governance, requiring changes in company law, among others. #ethics #trust #governance #deliberativedemocracy #sortition #sortitionfoundation #systemchange #citizensassembly #globalcitizensassembly

Political polarization can be reduced when people are told to think about the personal relevance of issues they might not care about at first glance. We, a social psychologist and an evolutionary psychologist, decided to investigate this issue with two of our undergraduate students, and recently published our results in the science journal PLOS One. #Politics #psychology #relevance

Personality traits and political opinions: New study sheds new light on our reactions to opposing views #psychology #personaldevelopment #personalitydevelopment #traits #humanperformance https://flip.it/72acNs

Asked LLM on Groups of people who only tell lies. While the question about groups of people who only tell lies may evoke concepts in literature, myths or metaphorical representations, it is not appropriate in the real world to describe a particular group of people in such a generalised way. Human behaviour is complex and diverse and depends on individual personalities, environments and situations. However, it is possible to consider interesting concepts and phenomena from a sociological and psychological perspective. ### 'Lying' in social psychology. Social psychology studies why people lie and under what circumstances they tend to lie. There are various reasons for lying, including self-protection, protecting the feelings of others, pursuing self-interest and improving one's social status. ### Discussion of 'lying people' groups. - **Propaganda spreading groups**: groups that distort facts for political or economic purposes and spread lies to promote a particular ideology or belief. This may include government agencies, businesses and media organisations. - **Fraudsters and scammers**: people who lie for the purpose of defrauding individuals or groups of people for money. With the widespread use of the internet, such behaviour is becoming increasingly sophisticated and widespread. - **People who lie for social or psychological reasons**: people who lie to maintain social smoothness or to protect their self-esteem, including social lies (white lies). ### Comprehensive perspective. There are individuals and groups of people who lie in all societies, but not everyone lies all the time. Nor can the act of lying be viewed in a generally negative light. Depending on the cultural context and situation, the perception of lying can vary greatly. What is important is to have the critical thinking skills to assess the truth or falsity of information, and to work hard to build and maintain social trust.

Political polarization can be reduced when people are told to think about the personal relevance of issues they might not care about at first glance. We, a social psychologist and an evolutionary psychologist, decided to investigate this issue with two of our undergraduate students, and recently published our results in the science journal PLOS One. #Politics #psychology #relevance

Why is it so important for bystanders to support people who confront anti-social behaviour? Because bystander support can increase the strength of prosocial norms ... 🗣 Find out more in our new publication in the British Journal of Social Psychology here: https://lnkd.in/eSHjYamF 👥 Our research demonstrates that "When bystanders explicitly supported the confronter against the rule breaker, the norm was perceived as stronger—and sometimes, compliance intentions were higher—than when bystanders did not respond to the confronter... Our work demonstrates that for the prevention of norm erosion, confrontations benefit greatly from being explicitly supported by bystanders." This work was led by the incredible Anna Tirion, who started this research during her undergraduate research placement with Jan Willem Bolderdijk. It's been great to support this fascinating research project as part of a large team, and see Anna grow as a researcher to develop her first, first-author publication! Huge congratulations on this achievement Anna! As Anna notes in her post describing the paper, this is a really important finding with real world impacts: "Next time you find yourself in a situation where someone is misbehaving, even if someone else has already stepped in to tell them off, remember that bystander support matters. A simple nod or verbal expression of support can strengthen the social norm, discouraging future transgressions and fostering a healthier social environment." #bystander #psychology #socialnorms #prosocial University of Bath School of Management

In an era marked by incessant political dialogue and polarization, numerous studies meticulously explore the intricate interactions between political environments, individual mental well-being, and societal health. These comprehensive investigations illuminate the profound consequences of politicization in daily life, demonstrating the entangled relationship between individual mental states and societal structures. #society #politics #polarization #participation #mentalhealth #wellbeing #sciences #newsletter #articles #kikobites Further reading: https://lnkd.in/e--3H9at

Right navigation in your research, be open to queries, questions and input from a colleague, senior researchers in the field. Isolation leads to self-destructive and limiting on your potential. PhD journey is not just in the laboratory but it includes life with your family, relaxation, personal studies, writing, managing pressures and unexpected happenings, maintaining your mental well-being, skilful in maintaining a divide between personal problems, finances, social, religious, and research etc. Right navigation will bring greater success. #careergrowth #PhDdiary

“Our review of dehumanization's targets indicates that a remarkably broad range of social targets can be perceived to lack humanness. These targets extend far beyond ethnic groups, the focus of most infrahumanization research, to include groups defined by gender, social and sexual deviance, and illness, as well as the self. There is now substantial evidence that the lowest of the low are most vulnerable to dehumanization, especially when humanness is understood as human uniqueness, a vertical dimension of comparison in which being human amounts to being above animals. However, it is unlikely that all forms of dehumanization fit within this hierarchical framework. Some targets may be seen as lacking humanness in a more horizontal manner, based on distance and disconnection rather than status and domination. … There is some consistency among the individual differences associated with the propensity to dehumanize. First, this propensity is associated with hostile and disagreeable characteristics, including psychopathic and narcissistic traits, nationalistic beliefs, and hostile attitudes. Second, it is linked to emotional aversion to unfamiliar persons. Third, it is associated with hierarchical ideological positions, notably SDO and belief in human dominion over animals. Fourth, it may be associated with social disconnection and deficient empathy, given the link to autistic traits. These conclusions suggest that several distinct individual-difference domains are implicated in seeing people as less than human, each potentially having particular relevance to certain kinds or targets of dehumanization.” Nick Haslam Stephen Loughnan https://lnkd.in/erjimCHG

This is such an important discussion on the importance of #diversity and #inclusion to #psychology. One of the key points is the danger of ascribing behaviours to homogenous groups such as female/male or black/white. Such labelling ignores significant diversity within groups: including the extent to which individuals actually identify with labels! https://lnkd.in/gXJHH6AS