Join us for this talk by Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioural Science at LSE, in which he will talk about his latest book, Beliefism.
Do you avoid people who are strongly against immigration? Or strongly for trans rights? Against abortion? For drug legalisation? We might like to think that we're tolerant, but many of us struggle to engage with people whose opinions differ strongly from our own-even if they might have something useful to contribute to the debate. That means we're falling victim to what behavioural scientist Paul Dolan defines as Beliefism: discrimination against those with different beliefs to us. Drawing on the evidence from across the social sciences, Dolan shows how easy it is for us to divide ourselves into opposing camps - and how harmful that can be.
Using the central metaphor of the duck-rabbit illusion - where the same image can be viewed as one animal or the other - the book shows that looking at an issue from only one perspective can lead to bad decisions and unnecessary conflict. The world would be a better place if there was less beliefism and Dolan shows how more tolerance is only possible "by design".
Meet our Speakers & Chair
Paul Dolan is Professor of Behavioural Science within the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science at LSE. Over three decades, Paul’s research in health economics and behavioural science has advanced understanding of wellbeing, equity, and behaviour change. He co-authored Mindspace (2010) and designed the ONS wellbeing questions. Author of best-selling books including Happiness by Design and Beliefism, his 120+ papers have over 36,000 citations. Paul also hosts popular podcasts and founded the Lifetime Wellbeing Cooperative™.
Discussant:
Lamprini Rori is Assistant Professor within the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She holds degrees from Sciences Po Paris and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, where she completed her PhD on the professionalisation of political communication in European socialist parties. Her research focuses on political behaviour, radicalisation, party change, and political violence. She is Principal Investigator of the HFRI project OnE-Offence, and has previously led research at LSE, Oxford and Athens. A member of the ECPR Steering Committee on Political Violence, she has published widely and is an active contributor to the study of political extremism and contemporary European politics.
Chairs:
Vassilis Monastiriotis is Director of the LSE Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece and Cyprus - Hellenic Observatory, Professor in Political Economy and Eleftherios Venizelos Chair of Contemporary Greek Studies at the European Institute, LSE.
Aristeidis Samitas is Professor of Finance, Vice Rector for Finance and Development, Director of MSc in FinTech and Director of the Financial Investments Lab within the Department of Business Administration at the School of Economics and Political Sciences, University of Athens.
Livestream: The event will be available to watch live, and no registration is required. The link to the livestream will be circulated closer to the date of the event.
More about this event
The LSE Athens Lectures series has been organised by the Hellenic Observatory of the London School of Economics for the period from 2014 to 2021. The series is relaunched in 2024-25 as a joint initiative of the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, MSc Programme Financial Technology, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens and the LSE Centre for Research on Contemporary Greece & Cyprus - Hellenic Observatory. For more information visit: www.lse.ac.uk/HO/Athens-Lectures
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