Project description
Uncovering deep mechanisms of biases
Fuelled by prejudice and discrimination, intergroup conflict is a global phenomenon and one that has resulted in the worst tragedies in our history. Yet, modern interventions based on motivational theories have done little to reduce prejudice. A fresh understanding of the deep mechanisms of prejudices is needed. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, the EU-funded DeepBias project will use cutting-edge cognitive and physiological measures to advance our understanding of the sources of individual differences in prejudice. It will take a fundamentally different approach to researching intergroup prejudices. It will study how individual differences in implicit sensitivity to threat shape an individual’s prejudice.
Objective
Intergroup prejudice gives rise to some of the darkest aspects of human behavior, including discrimination, violence, and inequality. In recent years, the harmful repercussions of intergroup prejudice have become increasingly evident, with the global rise of populist, far-right political movements centered largely on the exclusion of ethnic and religious minority groups. But what factors shape an individual’s degree of prejudice, and why do some people generally tend to develop greater animosity toward social outgroups? The state-of-the-art typically explains individual differences in prejudice via complex attitudinal and motivational factors (e.g. political conservatism, need for closure). However, the deeper cognitive and physiological underpinnings of prejudice remain largely unexplored.
This gap in our theoretical understanding also has important practical implications: recent analyses suggest that most prejudice-reduction interventions – based on the current leading theoretical perspectives – have little or no effect, and can at times even increase prejudice. Taken together, these trends reveal that there is a pressing need for research that can provide a deeper understanding of the sources of prejudice, to fill this theoretical gap and help develop effective prejudice-reduction interventions and other means of countering bias.
In this Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action, called “DeepBias,” I take a fundamentally different approach to the study of intergroup prejudice, examining how individual differences in implicit (i.e. nonconscious, uncontrollable) sensitivity to threat shape an individual’s prejudice. In this work – building on recent pilot data I have collected in preparation for this MSCA – I utilize cutting-edge cognitive and physiological measures to advadvance our understanding of the sources of individual differences in prejudice beyond abstract beliefs and motivations to identify the lower-level biological and psychological sources of prejudice.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
You need to log in or register to use this function
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
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.
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.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
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.
2311 EZ Leiden
Netherlands
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.