Cartoon brain illustration representing brain and behavioral science research

Research & Science

Engagement with Brain & Behavioral Science

Since 2010, Beyond Conflict has bridged brain and behavioral science with conflict resolution to develop new tools that reduce conflict and advance peace.

Overview

Since 2010, Beyond Conflict has led the way in bringing together the fields of brain and behavioral science, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding to foster new frameworks to address intractable conflict, violence, and social cohesion.

Beyond Conflict started this work in partnership with MIT and organized major conferences at the MIT media lab with leading scientists, practitioners, and policy makers.

Beyond Conflict / MIT Media Lab Conferences

MIT Press Coverage

Research Initiated and Funded by Beyond Conflict

Starting in 2010, Beyond Conflict began engaging brain and behavioral scientists to better understand what shapes human behavior in the context of conflict and reconciliation. Over the past decade, BC has focused this engagement on a set of critical challenges with the goal of initiating new research that can shape strategies and interventions.

1. Development of racial bias in children

2. Deepening Identity-Based Polarization

3. Islamophobia, Anti-Immigration, and Collective Blame

4. Decoding Dehumanization

5. Empathy, Narratives, and Identity

6. Cross-Sector Collaboration: Translating Science for Peace

Reports and Publications

Scientific Partners

Research and Policy Advisory Committee

  • Joshua Greene — Professor of Psychology, Harvard University
  • Rebecca Saxe — Neuroscientist, MIT
  • Linda Tropp — Director of the Intergroup Relations and Social Justice Lab and Professor of Social Psychology, UMass Amherst
  • Judy Barsalou — President, El-Hibri Foundation
  • Melanie Cohen Greenberg — Director of Peacebuilding, Humanity United
  • Rose McDermott — David and Mariana Fisher University Professor of International Relations, Brown University; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
  • Philip Rubin — President, Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Innovation Fellows

  • Emile G. Bruneau — University of Pennsylvania
  • Marika Landau-Wells — Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
  • Evan DeFilippis — PhD Candidate in Organizational Behavior and Psychology, Harvard
  • Elizabeth Herman — Borders and Boundaries postdoctoral fellow, University of Pennsylvania
  • Michael Niconchuk
  • James Walsh — Postdoc Fellow, Harvard’s Moral Psychology Research Lab

Research Partners

Beyond Conflict is working with a distinguished group of social scientists carrying out cutting-edge research and developing real-world interventions.

Development of Racial Preference

  • Michael T. Rizzo — Assistant Professor, University of Illinois
  • Marjorie Rhodes — Professor of Psychology, NYU
  • Steven O. Roberts — Associate Professor of Psychology, Stanford

Deepening Identity-Based Polarization

  • Michael Pasek — Assistant Professor, University of Illinois Chicago
  • Samantha L. Moore-Berg — University of Pennsylvania
  • Joshua Greene — Professor of Psychology, Harvard
  • Evan DeFilippis — PhD Candidate, Harvard
  • Alex Landry — Ph.D. student, Stanford Graduate School of Business
  • Trisha Dehrone — PhD candidate, Social Psychology, UMass Boston
  • James Walsh — Postdoc Fellow, Harvard’s Moral Psychology Research Lab
  • Nir Eisikovits — Director, Applied Ethics Center; Professor of Political Philosophy, UMass Boston
  • Dana Miranda — Associate Professor of Philosophy, UMass Boston
  • Fiery Cushman — Director, Harvard’s Moral Psychology and Research Lab; Professor of Psychology
  • Eric Knowles — Assistant Professor of Psychology, NYU; Director, NYU Politics and Intergroup Relations Lab (PIRL)
  • Nour Kteily — Professor of Management & Organizations, Northwestern
  • Sam Perry — Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Oklahoma
  • Larry Bobo — Dean of Social Science, W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences, Harvard
  • Diana Mutz — Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication; Director, Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics, UPenn
  • Ashley Jardina — Associate Professor of Political Science, George Mason University
  • Lilliana Mason — SNF Agora Institute Associate Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins
  • Justin Gest — Associate Professor of Policy and Government, Schar School, George Mason University
  • Jennifer Richeson — Philip R. Allen Professor of Psychology, Yale; Director, Social Perception and Communication Lab; member of President Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
  • Maureen Craig — Assistant Professor of Psychology, NYU; Director, Diversity and Social Process Lab
  • Clara Wilkins — Director of the Social Perceptions and Intergroup Relations Lab; Associate Professor, University of Washington

Decoding Dehumanization

  • Emile G. Bruneau — University of Pennsylvania
  • Rebecca Littman — Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of Illinois Chicago
  • Boaz Hameiri — Tel Aviv University
  • Nour Kteily — Professor of Management & Organizations, Northwestern
  • Linda Tropp — Director, Intergroup Relations and Social Justice Lab; Professor of Social Psychology, UMass Amherst
  • Alexandra Scacco — Senior Research Fellow and Vice Director of the Institutions and Political Inequality unit, Berlin Social Science Center

Trauma

  • Wendy d’Andrea — The New School
  • Sarah Bernabaum — The New School
  • Veronika Engert — Max Planck Institute
  • Biz Herman — Borders and Boundaries postdoctoral fellow, University of Pennsylvania
  • Bessel van der Kolk — Professor of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine; President, Trauma Research Foundation
  • Licia Sky — Co-Founder and CEO, Trauma Research Foundation
  • Sarah Ryan — social psychology lab manager, University of Illinois, Chicago

Empathy, Narratives, and Identity

  • Rebecca Saxe — Neuroscientist, MIT
  • Marika Landau-Wells — Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley
  • Susan Fiske — Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University

© 2026 Beyond Conflict. All Rights Reserved.

Site by