1. Overview of the TeDCog Lab#
Our Mission#
The TeDCog group is an interdisciplinary group hosted mainly in the School of Psychological Science at the University of Bristol that examines the pressure points between human cognition and online technologies, and the consequences for democracy that arise from those pressure points.
Meet the team#
TeDCog is headed by Stephan Lewandowsky.
In 2023-2024, other key members of the group at Bristol are:
The Bristol team is working closely with several other key members all around Europe who are also active participants in the TeDCog group and who are affiliated with one of the projects being hosted by TeDCog.
The TeDCog group has a homepage on the UoB School of Psychology website.
Current Projects#
The following projects are currently being hosted by the TeDCog group (click on the links to each project’s homepage to find out more):
RAO#
Reclaiming individual autonomy and democratic discourse online.
We aim to develop cognitively and technologically sound solutions to restore people’s autonomy online.
Other nodes Max-Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin Northeastern University, Boston
Funder: Volkswagen Foundation, Germany.
Project Manager: Louise Evans
JITSUVAX#
We develop tools to train and assist healthcare professionals to confront vaccine-related misinformation.
Other nodes: University of Cambridge University of Erfurt, Germany University of Turku, Finland University of Coimbra, Portugal ORS-PACA, Marseille, France
Funder: EU Horizon 2020.
Project Manager: Ginny Gould
PRODEMINFO#
We examine how people’s differing conceptions of “truth” can be used to design interventions to protect democratic discourse.
Other nodes:
Technical University of Graz, Austria
Funder: European Research Council, Advanced Grant.
Project Administrator: Richard Westaway
JIGSAW#
We use inoculation theory to develop scalable interventions to protect online consumers against misleading and false information.
Other nodes: University of Cambridge
Funder: JIGSAW (Google incubator).
More information about the group, including a list of recent publications, can be found on our homepage.
The core meetings#
The TeDCog group is organized around weekly meetings. All members are strongly encouraged to attend because the meetings allow for discussion of ideas and keep everyone informed about current developments. The weekly meetings also regularly feature external speakers from all around the world.
The weekly meeting is being held on Thursdays 1-2pm UK time. This is a hybrid seminar style meeting (you can attend virtually or in-person). The schedule for the current academic year can be found here.
In addition, some sessions are followed by another 45 minutes set aside for professional development. See the “syllabus” here.
Please email a request to join the mailing list to get updates on the meeting schedule, agenda, and Zoom/meeting room links. You cannot be a member of the group without being on the mailing list.
We designed and will run the group meetings by considering the 10 rules published here.