Center for Conflict and Cooperation at NYU

Political violence is often treated as something extreme or exceptional.

But, much of the underlying psychology is not. It emerges from familiar processes: When people strongly identify with a group, threats to that group feel deeply personal and can escalate to violence.

discussed these issues in a BBC radio special on political violence called "How Not to Kill a Politician" that aired this week.

Listen to the full interview here with Alison (Ali) Goldsworthy: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7uWbmkJQC9AJBBAubCOqts?si=NOtRiC8pQVyrLoi1TpPVFw&nd=1&dlsi=e4164136380946bf

Last week, we curated a diverse audience of over 150 experts—ranging from academics, journalists, and tech—to join us for a special screening of The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, and for a panel discussion with Dr. Jonathan Haidt, Producer Jonathan Wang, Dr. Jay Van Bavel, and Dr. Anni Sternisko.

Check out our newsletter reflecting on the documentary, and see The AI Doc in theaters now!

https://www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/reflections-on-the-ai-doc-or-how

Democracy doesn’t require perfect truth—but it does require something more fragile: independent voices. The “wisdom of crowds” depends on independence between judgments. If a single actor can speak through thousands of inauthentic accounts, the apparent consensus of the crowd stops being informative.

The most dangerous outcome is not a single viral lie—it is synthetic consensus: the illusion that “everyone is saying this,” which can quietly bend beliefs and norms.

We explain how AI is changing public discourse and what we can do about it.

Substack summary: https://www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/when-ai-can-fake-majorities-democracy

Original policy forum paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adz1697

When AI Can Fake Majorities, Democracy Dies Quietly The new threat of "malicious AI swarms”—and how to defend the public sphere

Our lab gave several talks about AI at the Psych of Tech Conference this year! Check them out below:

Keynote address by Dr. Jay Van Bavel, explaining how AI can both entrench and overcome intergroup bias: https://youtu.be/XtIPjSrXAhM?si=Hxh0R2EQgkjnnK5w

Dr. Laura Globig's talk on how we can use AI to help us break out of our echo chambers: https://youtu.be/t1IWjiEMfZ0?si=JZVtpWPohDqxvFEg

Dr. Steve Rathje's talk on how interacting with sycophantic AI chatbots affects us: https://youtu.be/Z77xCzsfcgE?si=rZ50clmOMQJFhO3f

Closing Keynote 11/14, Jay Van Bavel 9th annual Psychology of Technology Institute’s “New Directions in Research on the Psychology of Technology” conference, University of Virginia’s Darden Scho...

In a recent substack post, we cover why—despite seeing the same video evidence—partisans are disagreeing over the tragic shooting by an ICE agent.

Check out the post at the link below or find it on the Power of Us substack (link in our bio): https://www.powerofusnewsletter.com/p/why-video-evidence-is-unable-to-create

Research at the CCC is a blast! Check out what a day in the life looks like for a postdoctoral researcher in our lab.

This video describes a day in the life of a researcher at New York University My Postdoc Steve Rathje made this video and it provides a sneak peak into what it looks like to work at the Center for Conflict and Cooperation at NYU | ww.centerconflictcooperation.com Let us know what you think!

Negativity spread like a virus long before social media.

This new paper in Nature Magazine used epidemiological models to explain the viral spread of rumors during France’s Great Fear of 1789: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09392-2
Rumor spread was more likely in certain contexts (towns with higher wheat prices, greater inequality, more literacy, better road connections, etc.).

In other words, psychological and structural factors interacted to shape information spread, as Steve Rathje and Jay Van Bavel discussed in their recent paper on the psychology of virality: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364661325001731

Can reading a book make you a better person?📚💭

Reading is on the decline. But people who received weekly book excerpts and podcasts instead of guided meditations, showed the greatest reductions in aggression and the largest growth in compassionate love, positive attitudes, and altruistic intentions.

Read our newsletter here:

Can reading a book make you a better person? Issue 178: Research from our lab investigates if reading non-fiction books can make us more prosocial and less polarized.

Our new paper explains the of public health.

Identifying with a social group can shape people’s beliefs and values, leading them to act in ways that have important consequences for their health and well-being. From the rise of vaccine hesitancy to the success of smoking cessation programs, identity plays a critical role in public health.