Teaching Materials
Conspiracy Theories: Challenges and Solutions [SPI 403/404]
A misinformation epidemic has been consuming our communities in this relatively new – technologically-advanced — informational landscape. This epidemic spans from the dissemination of isolated pieces of misinformation through social networks, all the way through the development of highly contagious and highly resilient conspiracy theories endorsed by tight-knit communities. We survey relevant social science literature to understand the factors that facilitate the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories. Building on current empirical approaches, we discuss: (a) the psychological and social mechanisms that facilitate the endorsement of conspiracy theories and (b) the strategies aimed at addressing this epidemic. As part of this research seminar we will attempt to design research projects to innovate on both (a) and (b).
Changing Minds: The Psychology of Individual and Collective Beliefs [PSY 414]
Understanding how people believe and how what they believe impacts their behavior has recently become a central topic across the social sciences. This recent interest was spurred by the recent misinformation epidemic that has been consuming our communities in this new technologically advanced informational landscape. We will address the scientific advances on understanding beliefs by answering the following questions: What factors facilitate the endorsement of conspiracy theories? How do people influence each other’s beliefs? How do beliefs propagate through social networks? How do people change their beliefs? We will use a multidisciplinary framework to understand the endorsement and propagation of true and false beliefs through social networks.
Psychology for Policy Analysis and Implementation [SPI 502]
The course explores how basic concepts from behavioral research in social and cognitive psychology and judgment and decision-making can shape policy formulation and implementation. Central themes include a detailed analysis of human judgment and decision-making, and how a variety of motives and situational forces can affect people’s choices, attitudes, and behavior. Combined, these topics have potentially profound implications for policy design and implementation that affect both individuals as well as the functioning of organizations. Lecture material is drawn from basic psychological research and from behaviorally-informed policy analysis. Students work with faculty and with each other to identify the relevance of the material for policy and management through weekly precepts and written assignments.
From Collective Memory to Collective Violence [PSY 414]
Inter-group conflict and collective violence are central topics across the social sciences. This course is aimed at providing a framework for integrating different approaches to intergroup conflict, from psychology (social-interactionism) to sociology (social network analysis) to political science (nationalism studies). Various inter-group conflicts are discussed (e.g. the Former Yugoslavian Republics, Israel-Palestine) with the goal of assessing the validity of the interdisciplinary framework proposed herein.
The Science of Memory in Movies [FRS 105]
Human memory is a topic of widespread scientific and popular interest. As part of this course we use (and watch) popular movies about memory to answer several questions about this extraordinary function of the mind/brain.
Are our memories reliable? Watching Rashomon (1950, Dir. Kurosawa) makes us think twice about trusting our memories as accurate replicas of the past.
If memories are malleable, can we will ourselves to forget “uncomfortable” events from the past? Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Dir. Gondry) illuminates the science behind directed forgetting and prompts discussions about the neural mechanisms involved in memory and the ethics of memory engineering.
What would we be if we had no memory of the past? Movies that depict patients who suffer from brain lesions (Memento, 2000, Dir. Nolan) and Alzheimer’s disease (Away from her, 2006, Dir. Polley) explore this possibility and facilitates discussions of the relation between memory and identity.
We answer these (and other) questions by reading and discussing scientific articles that investigate human memory. This course exposes students to the most up to date theories of memory as well as to recently developed methodologies designed to study it scientifically (e.g., neuroimaging, lesion studies, social network analysis).
Social Cognition: The Psychology of Interactive Minds [PSY 304]
Individuals are rarely isolated from one another. In our day-to-day lives, interactivity is ubiquitous, from communicating with one another, to jointly remembering the past, to coordinating our actions. Despite the fact that our minds are constantly in an interactive mode, most cognitive scientists investigate the mind/brain in tasks that involve complete isolation from others. Even social scientists who fully acknowledge that humans are social creatures tend to study cognition in isolation by simply presenting stimuli that are social in nature. This course is based on the assumption that exploring humans in interaction will lead to significant advances in understanding the mind. At the same time, it will illuminate the emergent properties of cognition at a collective level.
The Psychology of Interactive Minds brings together several strands of research with three main objectives: a) present interactivity as manifested at different levels, from neuroscience, to communication, to memory, and to action, b) feature novel methodological approaches aimed at studying interactivity in principled ways, and c) create bridges across the different subfields in the cognitive and the social sciences to facilitate the development of new experimental paradigms.