Our Mission
The Center for Neuropolitics contributes to the ongoing political dialogues by engaging the multi-disciplinary expertise of neuroscience, political science, neurology, psychiatry, psychology, and philosophy.
Skepticism and Politicization of Science:
Causes, Consequences, and Cures
Friday, February 20, 2026
Noon to 1:15 p.m. PST
FREE Virtual Event
Registration is Required.
Citizens’ trust in science, as well as their factual beliefs more generally, are increasingly connected to their political ideology and party preference. On a variety of issues such as COVID-19 and climate change, citizens’ acceptance of scientific knowledge depends on where they stand on the political spectrum. This lecture will discuss how this politicization is generated and what can be done to counter this development.
Keynote Speaker
Roderik Rekker, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Radboud University, The Netherlands
Roderik Rekker is a political scientist and psychologist at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. His research focuses on stability and change in political attitudes across time as well as political polarization over facts and science. He is also affiliated with the Institute of Philosophy at Leibniz University, Hanover (Germany).
Past Events
2025 Symposium: The New Language of Politics:
Populism, Authoritarianism, Fascism, and Beyond
October 31, 2025
The current political landscape is filled with a bewildering terminology, with old terms redefined and new terms entered into the lexicon: Competitive Authoritarianism, Patrimonialism, Ungoverning, Populism and more. Join us for the 2025 Symposium of the UC Irvine Center for Neuropolitics, when we will address how these terms reflect our political moment. The Symposium includes the Jerrold Post Lecture on Neuropolitics, given by Professor Steven Levitsky.
Agenda:
Lecture Presentations: David Beaver (beginning at 2:49), Shawn Rosenberg (32:17), Philip Dunwoody (54:24), Jeffrey Kopstein (1:17:01), Paulina Espejo (1:37:44), Russell Muirhead (1:59:50)
Jerrold Post Lecture: Steven Levitsky (Introduction by Carolyn Post) (beginning at 2:27:37)
Round Table Discussion (beginning at 3:04:33)
Summer 2025 Lecture
From Democracy to Autocracy: Suicide by False Belief (with Joe Pierre, PhD)
Spring 2025 Lecture
Political Incivility, Threat, and Polarized Politics (with Brian T. Gervais, PhD)
Winter 2025 Lecture
Authoritarianism, Threat, and Illiberal Political Judgements (with Philip T. Dunwoody, PhD)
2024 Symposium
Perspectives on Political Violence
Spring 2024 Lecture
How Partisan Identity Politics is Taking Over America (with Darren Schreiber, PhD)
Winter 2024 Lecture
Presidential Leadership and Disability (with Rose McDermott, PhD)
2023 Symposium
Conspiracy Thinking in American Politics
Spring 2023 Lecture
The Havana Syndrome: A Disorder of Neuropolitics? (with Robert W. Baloh, MD)
Winter 2023 Lecture
Liberals, Conservatives, and the Political Brain: fMRI Studies of Political Ideology (with Skyler Cranmer, PhD, Zhong-Lin Lu, PhD, James Wilson, PhD, & Seo Eun (Sunny) Yang, PhD)
2022 Symposium
Cognitive Decline and Political Leadership
Please visit the Events Page for complete event descriptions