Keynote Lectures

We are honoured to host two influential social psychologists to give Keynote Lectures for our Summer School and share their expertise with us all.

Keynote #1: Jay Van Bavel

Social Media and Morality

Over five and a half billion people around the world now use social media, and this number continues to grow. One of the primary goals of social media platforms is to capture and monetize human attention. One means by which individuals and groups can capture attention and drive engagement on these platforms is by sharing morally and emotionally evocative content. I present the MAD Model of moral contagion which explains the interrelationship of social media and morality as well its consequences for individuals and society. We find that moral-emotional content and out-group animosity often goes viral on social media. Thus, social media often acts as an accelerant for existing moral dynamics, amplifying outrage, polarization, and intergroup conflict while also potentially amplifying more constructive facets of morality, such as social support, prosociality, and collective action.

Jay Van Bavel is a Professor of Psychology & Neural Science at New York University, an affiliate at the Stern School of Business in Management and Organizations, Professor at the Norwegian School of Economics, and Director of the Center for Conflict & Cooperation. He is also co-author of The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony (winner of the 2022 APA William James Book Award). Jay completed his PhD at the University of Toronto and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at The Ohio State University. Jay has published over 150 academic papers (including in Science, Nature, PNAS) and he is a Clarivate highly cited researcher (in the top 1% of researchers worldwide).

Keynote #2: Harriet Over

How Convincing are Social Psychological Models of Dehumanisation?

Discrimination is a pressing social problem. Psychological research is better placed to help ameliorate discrimination if it accurately characterises the mechanisms underlying behaviour. Prominent social psychological theories suggest that outgroups are often subtly dehumanised by being denied uniquely human qualities and emotions. I will present a series of theoretical and empirical challenges to these claims. I will describe experimental data suggesting that, although out-group members may be denied some uniquely human qualities and emotions (like rationality and civility), they are often attributed others (like jealousy and spite). I will discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of intergroup harm.

Professor Harriet Over is a developmental and social psychologist based at the University of York. She completed her PhD at Cardiff University in 2010. Her research explores the origins of prejudice and discrimination in childhood. Her recent work bridges psychology, digital culture, and mental health with a particular focus on online harms. She is especially interested in how online misogyny is affecting the behaviour and experiences of young people. Harriet’s work has been supported by the European Research Council, Smart Data Research UK, the Economic and Social Research Council, and the Leverhulme Trust. She is principal investigator of the HATESHIELD project, an EU-funded initiative to develop research-led interventions that encourage more egalitarian gender attitudes among children and young people.