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The Cognitive-Ecological Challenge of Diversity

Project description

Globalisation is challenging diversity

Globalisation is leading societies to become increasingly diverse regarding ethnicity and religion, habits, ideals, and beliefs. While diversity offers great opportunities, it also poses great challenges. The human tendency to derogate out-groups and minority groups threatens peace and cooperation in diversifying societies. The EU-funded CEC project will provide novel explanations to the formation of negative attitudes and stereotypes about out-groups and minorities. These phenomena arise as natural by-products of innocent cognitive processes and the structure of the external information ecology. The project argues that people associate out-groups and minority groups with their distinct attributes that differentiate them from in-groups and majorities. Distinct attributes have a high probability of being negative, and therefore, out-groups and minorities suffer a general evaluative disadvantage.

Objective

In light of the proceeding globalization, societies becoIn light of the proceeding globalization, societies become more and more diverse regarding peoples ethnic and religious backgrounds, their habits, ideals, and beliefs. While this increasing diversity offers great opportunities for Europe and the world, it also comes with great challenges. The human tendency to derogate out-groups and minority groups poses a particular threat to peace and cooperation in diversifying societies. Most available psychological explanations for the formation of negative attitudes and stereotypes towards others rely on peoples self-serving motivations, and therefore suffer from circularity. This leaves our understanding of some of societies greatest challenges largely incomplete. Based on the research that I have conducted over the past years, I propose a theoretical framework that provides novel explanations for the formation of negative attitudes and stereotypes about out-groups and minorities. Accordingly, these phenomena arise as natural by-products of innocent cognitive processes and the structure of the external information ecology. This cognitive-ecological framework argues that people associate out-groups and minority groups with their distinct attributes which differentiate them from in-groups and majorities. In the external information ecology, however, distinct attributes have a high probability of being negative, and therefore out-groups and minorities suffer a general evaluative disadvantage. In addition, the framework can explain why most existing stereotypes are negative. In the domain of news reporting, it can explain why news recipients form the erroneous impression that minorities are particularly dangerous, and why politicians and journalists attempt to counteract often backfire. The ERC Starting Grant would enable me to empirically test my framework, and if successful, it will renew our understanding of some of the most pressing societal challenges of our time.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

ERC-STG - Starting Grant

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) ERC-2020-STG

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Host institution

RUHR-UNIVERSITAET BOCHUM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 358 687,00
Address
UNIVERSITAETSSTRASSE 150
44801 Bochum
Germany

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Region
Nordrhein-Westfalen Arnsberg Bochum, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 358 687,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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