Episode 1 - With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies? with Will Blakey A Bit More Complicated

[UPDATED AUDIO] In this episode, Manny and Dylan chat with Will Blakey, a post-bac researcher at UNC. Will, along with social psychologist Kurt Gray, recently published a Substack article about our changing perceptions of evil in the world, and a psychological phenomenon known as “concept creep.” Why do we see more villains in the world now compared to 30 years ago?

Notes:


Will and Kurt’s Substack article.
Haslam (2016) Concept Creep: Psychology's Expanding Concepts of Harm and Pathology, Psychological Inquiry, 27:1, 1-17
Haslam et al. (2021) Concept Creep and Psychiatrization. Frontiers in Sociology.
Concept Creep example #1 and example #2.
Gray & Wegner (2012). Morality takes two: Dyadic morality and mind perception.
Pinker (2011): The Better Angels of Our Nature.
Ferguson (2009): Pinker's List: Exaggerating Prehistoric War Mortality
The Progress Paradox