Talks for secondary students
A morning with Åsa Wikforss
Knowledge Resistance
Education
In this session, professor Åsa Wikforss will talk about knowledge-resistance, a phenomenon that questions well-established facts, and how to deal with this trend affecting our present society.
Why do people sometimes resist the facts? For instance, lately there have been a lot of speeches that question the reality of climate change, the utility of vaccines or the real impact of crime rates. It’s a puzzling phenomenon, given that knowledge has great value for us. In a society of polarization we trust the ingroup, not the outgroup, and protecting the beliefs of the group often become more important than striving for accuracy. The way social media and new forms of journalism work often reinforces this trend, that has serious political and social impacts.
The Swedish Professor Åsa Wikforss is an expert working precisely on the philosophical and psychological aspects of knowledge-resistance. In her conference she will speak about the mechanisms and types of reasoning that tend to protect one’s identity, and about the best way to counter this form of knowledge resistance that has negative consequences for our society.
Presenters: Laia Servera
Participants: Åsa Wikforss
This activity is part of Talks for secondary students
Related contents
A morning with Åsa Wikforss
Knowledge Resistance
Expert on the philosophical and psychological aspects of knowledge-resistance, Åsa Wikforss speaks about the mechanisms and types of reasoning that tend to protect one’s identity, and about the best way to counter this phenomenon that questions well-established facts and that has negative consequences for our society.
