Dr. William Cunningham\, University of Toronto
The inevitab ility of prejudice?
Early research from social cognitive neuros
cience bolstered an already pessimistic view of intergroup cognition and em
otion. Brain responses to outgroup members occurred quickly (within 100s of
milliseconds) and to stimuli that people reported not being able to see. A
lthough control was possible\, the brain signals associated with control ha
d later ironic negative side effects for cognitive control. In this talk\,
I will review the theory and evidence that appears to support an ‘inevitabi
lity of prejudice’ view\, but also present new(er) data that may allow for
a more optimistic view on prejudice and the reduction of group bias. Specif
ically\, I will suggest that group categorization is flexible and dynamic\,
and that the reconstrual of social group membership may allow for changes
in automatic processing in social perception and evaluation without the cog
nitive costs of suppression.
William Cunningham's research takes a social cogniti ve neuroscience approach and explores the cognitive and motivational proces ses underlying emotional responses. His main area of focus is the affective evaluations of people and objects that guide thought and behaviour.
Annually the Department of Psychology hosts a Colloquia Series throughout the academic y ear.
LOCATION:Room 100 - Wesbrook Building GEO:0.000000;0.000000 URL;VALUE=URI:https://psych.ubc.ca/events/event/department-colloquium-dr-wi lliam-cunningham/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:20161106T090000 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR