Neuroscience Lecture Series – Neuropolitics

Title: “What’s happening inside my enemy’s brain? Using neuropolitics to overcome dehumanization and polarization in liberal democracies”

Description: Currently, liberal democracies worldwide are in crisis. Not only are citizens losing trust in them but they are also destabilizing its very foundation through polarization and mutual dehumanization. This talk approaches this crisis through the viewpoint of our brains and the novel field of neuropolitics. What happens in our shared brains when we dehumanize someone else? Why do we find it so difficult currently to understand our opponents? Is there a way we can teach our brains to humanize each other again? The talk offers a new kind of social contract that is based on knowledge of our brain vulnerabilities, and how to overcome them.

Bio: Dr. Liya Yu is a neuropolitical theorist and political scientist. Her work is at the intersection of political theory and political neuroscience. She is the author of “Vulnerable Minds: The Neuropolitics of Divided Societies” (Columbia UP, 2022) and “Brain over Morality: How  Neuropolitics Strengthens Social Solidarity” (in German, Econ Ullstein 2026). She was educated at the University of Cambridge and Columbia University and has taught and researched in the US, Europe and Asia. She was nominated for the Progressive Science Voices Award Berlin 2024 and is the youngest board member of the German Federation of Scientists. She is affiliated with LMU Munich and the University of the Arts Berlin, and lives in Berlin.