Why do groups of people inflict violence on unarmed neighbors? (Germany, Rwanda, Darfur, Nanking....). Here's the neuroscience point of view.
The shootings at Sandy Hook sparked debate ranging from gun control to bulletproof windows. But the most fruitful approach may be to prioritize our discussion of mental illness.
I am the scientific advisor for the TNT television drama, Perception, starring Eric McCormack and Rachael Leigh Cook. Learn more about the show.
Why do groups of people inflict violence on unarmed neighbors (think Germany, Rwanda, Darfur, Nanking....)? How do ingroups and outgroups form, neurally-speaking? How does social context and obedience to authority navigate mass behavior?
Here's my take on these questions, through the lens of neuroscience.
Interested in synesthesia? Watch a lecture I gave at the University of Sydney in Australia.
Watch an experiment in which we studied time perception by dropping volunteer subjects from a 150 foot high tower. Free fall.
To liberalise or prohibit? I recently joined Eliot Spitzer, Julian Assange, Vicente Fox, Russell Brand, Richard Branson and several others for an online debate.
Think it's unlikely for a scientist to be featured on the cover of an Italian fashion magazine? Me too! But strange things happen...
Listen to David discussing Sum -- and actor Jeffrey Tambor reading stories from the book -- on WNYC's Radiolab.
Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia has been awarded the Montaigne Medal, Eric Hoffer Award for Books.
Want to know how neuroscience will force major changes in our criminal justice system? Read David's article The Brain on Trial in The Atlantic. Now anthologized in 2012 Best American Science and Nature Writing.
