“Us vs. Them”




16/04/19

Speaker: Dr. Maddalena Marini, Post-doc researcher at Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and Harvard Medical School.
Historically, human beings lived in small groups composed by individuals with similar genetic and social characteristics. Although our society is now populated by multicultural individuals, our mind still reflects the vestiges of this evolutionary heritage: we prefer people who are socially and culturally “similar to us” than those who are “not like us”. What is the nature of social attitudes and stereotypes? How do they operate? What features of the social hierarchy play a role in shaping and maintaining them? What are their consequences on behavior and decision-making? How can they be changed? How do they develop over time? In this talk, I will present an outlook of my research in which I address these points as well as giving an outline of my future plans.


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