In collaboration with the Association of Politics and Life Sciences and the LACPOP (UQÀM), the Centrer for the Study of Democratic Citizenship is happy to present the workshop:
Politics, Physiology, and Cognition: Advances in Theory and Method
Where and when: July 25 – 27, 10am to 5pm. President Kennedy Room PK1140, UQÀM (201 Avenue du Président-Kennedy, Montréal, QC H2X 3Y7).
Method Training Workshop
This workshop also aims to provide young scholars, especially in political science, with training in the use of cognitive and physiological methods. We have arranged for a group of experts to conduct a series of hands on methodology demonstrations, focusing on new technologies applicable to political science including the measurement of: implicit cognitive processing; skin conductance, and emotional facial expressions.
- Thursday July 25 from 10am to 3:30pm
- Workshop program
- Please click here to register
Conference
- Friday July 26 from 9am to 7:30pm and Saturday July 27 from 10am to 5pm.
- Conference program
- Please click here to register
About: Political scientists have increasingly been drawing on a broader, interdisciplinary literature on cognition, psychology and physiology. A growing body of literature demonstrates a connection between physiological processes such as genetics, neurophysiology, cognition and political attitudes. This research suggests that individual ideological development depends on a complex interaction between social and biological factors. Yet, the results emerging from this budding field have yet to be fully integrated into our understanding of public opinion: how and why do individuals develop different political attitudes.
Western democracies are experiencing significant challenges: the rise of nativist and populist political parties; intense debates around immigration and the accommodation of diversity; and a complex news environment that itself has become a source of public discussion and politicisation. To understand these phenomena, political scientists have increasingly been drawing on a broader, interdisciplinary literature on cognition, psychology and physiology. A growing body of literature demonstrates a connection between physiological processes such as genetics, neurophysiology, cognition and political attitudes. This research suggests that individual ideological development depends on a complex interaction between social and biological factors. Yet, the results emerging from this budding field have yet to be fully integrated into our understanding of public opinion: how and why do individuals develop different political attitudes.
This workshop assembles a cross disciplinary, international group of leading experts from communications, economics, philosophy, political science, neuroscience, and sociology to address pressing questions on the relationship between human cognition, physiology, and the development of political attitudes. For example, what is the relationship between ideological positions and physiological processes such as arousal? What are the physiological processes associated with prejudicial attitudes and how do these impact policy attitudes? How do differences in political attitudes effect reception with media and political messages? How does the connection with physiological processes affect how researchers should approach the study of politics? The focus of the workshop is on four critical areas in the application of cognitive and physiological approaches: 1) ideological differences; 2) social prejudices; 3) political communication; and 4) theory and practice. Please find the full program for this workshop listed below.
If you have any questions, please contact Jordan Mansell at jordan.mansell@linacre.ox.ac.uk.