On Opinion

“We synchronise together through processes of emotional contagion and social conformity… This helps produce a shared experience of the world.”

Human beings are social creatures. But is this social nat…

“You really do have to do bridge building at the community level. People have to learn to talk to each other across sides”

The Left and the Right today are miles apart. In the past few years, polarisa…

“Dyadic morality is ultimately about the link between perceived harm and immorality…”

Why do we believe murder is “wrong”? Why can’t we compare the effects of a hurricane with the acts of a paedophile…

“A lot of the human behaviour that seems perplexing, irrational (like politics or religion) is often most effectively explained by Evolutionary Psychology”

We evolved to live in hunter-gatherer commun…

“Microaggressions are so hard because they typically don’t meet traditional philosophical conceptions of blameworthiness…”

Microaggressions are the latest front in the culture wars - seemingly harmles…

“We need to borrow from both the Left and the Right to achieve a renewal of liberalism…”

As a journalist and political commentator, Timothy Garton Ash took a front row seat watching Eastern Europe ope…

“We have to come to the table, even if it’s just to say we disagree… then you have a chance to move forward”

The number of armed groups created in the last 6 years surpasses the number created since W…

"By gaining greater knowledge of how others think, we can become less certain of the knowledge we think we have, which is always the first step to greater understanding"

It goes without saying that th…

“In their desire for groups to BE equal, Liberals have a bias towards PERCEIVING groups to be equal… Inequality must therefore always be explained through discrimination and prejudice, rather than ev…

“When evidence is ambiguous––when it is hard to know how to interpret it—it can lead rational people to predictably polarize.”

Turi talks with philosopher Kevin Dorst to understand why all our cogniti…

“Democracy runs on disagreement: it is by means of citizens hashing out their differences that democracy can achieve better political outcomes.”

In Part 2 of their podcast, Turi and Bob Talisse follow…

"Democracy is the thesis that a decent and stable political order is possible amongst equal citizens who disagree, but only if that disagreement is made to work in the service of democracy through ci…

“The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing” Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 1670

The Mind is embodied - it is a bodily function. What causes it to function in the way that it does. What motivate…

“John Stuart Mill would be the kind of person who would argue for following people with whom you strongly disagree because they’re the ones that are gonna make you think.”

Turi talks with the philosop…

“People are drawn to conspiracy theories to satisfy particular unmet psychological needs - epistemic, existential and social.”

Turi talks with Professor Karen Douglas of the University of Kent, to und…

"A lot of beliefs that are fundamental to who we are and to how we think about the world are influenced by things that appear to be arbitrary and irrelevant to the truth of the matter.”

Turi talks wit…

Turi speaks with Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen about how emotion drives the political agenda. What are emotional epochs? Are we all responsible for the growth of "angry populism"? Is it justified? H…

"The more intelligent someone is, the more polarized their opinions on climate change become. More intelligent Republicans are actually more likely to be climate change deniers, while more intelligen…

“The struggle [is]...because of some of the ethics and practices of traditional journalism, there's an inclination or habit to quote both sides. Even though there really aren't both sides."

Turi talks…

“You may think that the feeling you're feeling is happening because of you. But in reality that's actually a performance that's being scripted by some very clever search engine in Silicone Valley."

Tu…