We’re excited to announce that during our Annual Meeting on November 2, 2025, we will be giving away 5 copies of Vulnerable Minds: The Neuropolitics of Divided Societies by our keynote speaker, Dr. Liya Yu!
Register for the meeting here: https://tinyurl.com/NRPmtg2025
This is a FREE and virtual meeting, open to all! Nu Rho Psi membership is NOT required to attend or for giveaway eligibility – invite your departments, friends, family, and other clubs & honor societies you feel may be interested!
About Vulnerable Minds: The Neuropolitics of Divided Societies
“Exclusionary identity politics are unravelling post-Cold War liberal democracies, yet there is little focus on what kind of cognitive conditions drive the recent shift towards nationalism, racism and intergroup identity conflicts. This book lays out how we need to radically reframe our current epistemological and normative assumptions about how we function neurocognitively in hyperdiverse and divided societies.
It is the first book to systematically theorize what the political neuroscience research of the last two decades on racism and identity exclusion mean for our current post-Cold War reality, making it a neo-Hobbesian attempt of pitching the social contract anew to those whom we disagree with most in society.
It singles out dehumanization of others as one of the most significant disruptors of political cooperation in today’s liberal democracies. Dehumanization is presented as a universal human brain ability, which we might never be able to fully overcome, but have to learn how to manage and address as citizens, public representatives and activists. ” – https://LiyaYu.com
“Neuroscience research has raised a troubling possibility: Could the tendency to stigmatize others be innate? Some evidence suggests that the brain is prone to in-group and out-group classifications, with consequences from ordinary blind spots to full-scale dehumanization. Many are inclined to reject the argument that racism and discrimination could have a cognitive basis. Yet if we are all vulnerable to thinking in exclusionary ways—if everyone, from the most ardent social-justice advocates to bigots and xenophobes, has mental patterns and structures in common—could this shared flaw open new prospects for political rapprochement?
Liya Yu develops a novel political framework that builds on neuroscientific discoveries to rethink the social contract. She argues that our political selves should be understood in terms of our shared social capacities, especially our everyday exclusionary tendencies. Yu contends that cognitive dehumanization is the most crucial disruptor of cooperation and solidarity, and liberal values-based discourse is inadequate against it. She advances a new neuropolitical language of persuasion that refrains from moralizing or shaming and instead appeals to shared neurobiological vulnerabilities. Offering practical strategies to address those we disagree with most strongly, Vulnerable Minds provides timely guidance on meeting the challenge of including and humanizing others.” – Columbia University Press
You can learn more about Dr. Liya Yu on our Annual Theme & National meeting page: https://nurhopsi.org/annual-theme
If selected, you must be present in the meeting to receive your copy.
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