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Pxphere / CC0 Public Domain
Pxphere / CC0 Public Domain
  • What makes an individual become an extremist?
  • What is extremism?
  • Why would people eradicate themselves and submit to an authoritarian collective?

This seminar will discuss how to understand extremism, how it occurs, and why a person would join an extremist group.

We are very excited to welcome Alan Fiske and Henrik Syse to speak at this seminar.

Professor Alan Fiske is a psychological anthropologist and professor at the University of California Los Angeles. He has previously published a book presenting a theory of the moral and social-relational motives behind most violence. He studies how psychology, ontogeny, natural selection, neurobiology, and culture jointly shape human sociality. His research currently focuses on the emotion often called being touched, also called Kama Muta. Kama Muta is the sudden feeling of oneness – of love, belonging, or union – with a family, a person, a nation, a God or a group.

Professor Fiske will be discussing extremism and how it can be understood through his research on Kama Muta.

Research Professor Henrik Syse is a philosopher and peace researcher at the Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO). He has lectured and published widely on problems within moral philosophy, political philosophy and the ethics of warfare. At PRIO he works on the ethics of war, historically and systematically, as well as on the relationship between religion and the use of armed force.

This is the sixth seminar in the series PSYOPS - The Psychology of Political Struggle. The series is a collaboration between PRIO, the Department of Psychology (UiO) and Psychology Students Without Borders Oslo.

Coffee, tea and an afternoon snack will be served.