The Brains that Pull the Triggers

On May 10, 11 and 12th, the Institute for Advanced Study of Paris organizes an international conference with the support of the George and Irina Schaeffer Center for the Study of Genocide, Human Rights and Conflict Prevention, "The Brains that Pull the Triggers". 

The conference will bring together scientists and scholars from the human, social and brain sciences to bear upon the question of transformation of seemingly ordinary individuals to repetitive agents of extreme violence in groups (Syndrome E). The menacing specter of such transformation in the human condition that has caused immense loss of life in the past, is a matter of grave concerns in contemporary civilization with the increase in global radicalization and discontent. In a special editorial, Nature magazine has described the first conference as “…a bold and important attempt to bring interdisciplinary approach to one of the biggest questions facing humanity”. 

The aim of the upcoming conference is to foster a multidisciplinary approach trying to elucidate the brain mechanisms of this behavior and its collective characteristics, and also to evoke the social, psychological, ethical and juridical aspects. The conference will be a culmination and synthesis of three years of studies and discussions and will conclude with plans for further actions.

Find out more and sign up for this event here.