Research

How does the mind's immune system work? Can we boost our immunity to bad ideas? Can we strengthen mental immune systems against failure? How?

What really matters and why? What would a responsible, shared "map" of what matters look like? Learn about my work in mattering theory.

Critical thinking skills have never been more important. Can we inoculate ourselves against bad ideas and toxic ideologies? How?

Where do values come from? What are they for? Can we upgrade our understanding of right and wrong, and become better versions of ourselves?

What is faith, and how does it help people? Can we promote trust, hope, and other "prosocial" attitudes with sanctioning stubborn dogmatism? How?

How did humanity's capacity to reason evolve? In this scholarly paper, I show that it evolved to facilitate the alignment of mental states.

How does dialogue work? Can we make it work better? What norms must we obey to resolve our differences and forge real understanding? 

Can we bridge our ideological differences? How? Can we prevent thinking from becoming ideological in the first place?

You can find many of my articles and essays here.