Manos Tsakiris co-editor of “The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms”

NOMIS Awardee Manos Tsakiris (Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London) and colleague Leor Zmigrod (University of Cambridge) have co-edited the April 12, 2021 issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

The issue, “The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms,” includes an introduction penned by Tsakiris and Zmigrod and an article published by Tsakiris and the BIAS team. Tsakiris and Zmigrod have also written a Royal Society blog post explaining how the issue came about and describing the importance of conducting  innovative and cross-disciplinary research on the psychology and neuroscience of political ideology and behavior.

From “The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms” table of contents:

“At a time of significant ideological polarization and widespread misinformation, there is an urgent need to understand the psychological roots and consequences of political behaviour. The theme issue brings together state-of-the-art research at the intersection between neuroscience, computational cognitive science, and the study of socio-political attitudes, in order to elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms that underpin ideological behaviour. Contributions span a multitude of novel methodological advances in political neuroscience and experimental psychology, including neuroimaging of political identities, computational modelling, data-driven research, brain lesion studies, as well as theoretical and policy perspectives. These insights have the potential to shed light on the nuanced psychological processes underlying ideological divisions, extremism, misinformation, and dogmatism – illustrating that a biological lens on ideologies is possible and promising.”