Latest posts

Open for Debate

What’s Wrong with the Individualistic Approach to Public Trust in Science?

Posted on 16 May 2022 by Gabriele Contessa

While academics and commentators have been worrying about distrust of science for some time now, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into stark relief the full scale of the problem as well as its practical consequences. In rich countries, a sizable portion of the eligible population refuses to get vaccinated against COVID-19 despite the widespread availability
Read more

Open for Debate

Sharing bullshit on social media

Posted on 2 May 2022 by Neri Marsili

It’s another dull day of commuting to work, and you are waiting for the bus. Bored, you open your phone and start scrolling the all-too-familiar, endless cascade of mildly uninteresting content posted by your friends on social media. And there it is, next to pictures of happy babies and pixelated dogs. A tik-tok video revealing
Read more

Open for Debate

The Hidden Problem in Moral Imagination

Posted on 18 April 2022 by Yujia Song

Be more imaginative? When we fail to treat someone in a morally appropriate way – say, being generous to the stranger in need, fair to the candidate who speaks with an accent, or patient with the friend struggling with anxiety — it is often thought that our lack of imagination is to blame: if only
Read more

Open for Debate

How Dehumanization Works

Posted on 4 April 2022 by David Livingstone-Smith

On February 1, 1893, an intellectually disabled Black man was burned to death in Paris, Texas.  His death was not accidental. It was the culmination of several hours of torture, witnessed by a crowd of more than ten thousand people—men, women, and even children—many of whom had travelled from surrounding areas on special excursion trains
Read more