Hear about the latest research in Psychology.

Calendar invitation circulated by Internal Seminar Coordinator: Suzanne Aussems with TEAMS link

Speaker 1: Hessah Alshaalan

Title: Conformity on moral, social conventional, and decency issues in the United Kingdom and Kuwait

Abstract: When pondering a decision, people often rely on others. This is the case for everyday decisions (e.g., which restaurant to choose for dinner), but even more so for perceived difficult decisions, such as ethical or moral decisions. Classic studies in social psychology (e.g., Asch, 1952) have shown how social influences change the way a person thinks, behaves, and talks to fit in with group responses, even in such a way as the person giving a response that they know is wrong. The current research investigated whether adults change their judgements relating to morality, social conventions, and decency under group pressure in the UK (Study 1) and Kuwait (Study 2).

Speaker 2: Weize Zhao

Title: Simulation to the political polarization process on social media

Abstract: There is a growing concern that online community can make users become polarized, especially in the field of political discussion. Our research uses an agent-based model to simulate the process of political opinions in a highly-connected social network, and we assume that agents’ decision making (choice of political attitude) is guided by psychological motivations. Finally, we examine the simulative outcomes under different parameter sets.