Time: Monday, 22 May from 12:15 – 13:15 (coffee and light lunch will be served from 12:00).

Place: NHH, Aud N (Agnar Sandmo Auditorium).

Title: The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony.

Abstract: What happens to people when they define themselves in terms of group memberships? I argue that groups are central to how we define ourselves and this provides an opportunity for solidarity—even with complete strangers. Different identities become salient at different times—and when a particular social identity is active, it can have profound effects on our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This talk will explain how key principles of social identity are key for understanding the biggest societal challenges, including intergroup conflict, polarization, misinformation, climate change, and democracy.

You have to sign up to attend this seminar.

Jay Van Bavel, a psychology and neural science Professor at New York University, is a central part of the project team and a visiting professor at NHH (SOL).

In this open guest lecture, Van Bavel will give a 45-minute talk based on his recent book “The Power of Us”, covering a broad selection of modern research on social identity and the importance of the social groups you belong to (12:15-13:00), followed by discussion / Q&A at the end (13:00-13:15).

This seminar is made possible by the Toppforsk NFR-grant “Freedom to Choose” at FAIR, led by Alexander Cappelen and Bertil Tungodden (Department of Economics, SAM) and Hallgeir Sjåstad (Department of Strategy and Management, SOL) at NHH, seeking to integrate the disciplines of behavioral economics and psychology to build a better understanding of human agency and the valuation of freedom.