Vulnerable Minds - by Liya Yu (Paperback)

About the Book

Liya Yu develops a novel political framework that builds on neuroscientific discoveries to rethink the social contract. She advances a new neuropolitical language of persuasion that refrains from moralizing or shaming and instead appeals to shared neurobiological vulnerabilities.

Book Synopsis

Neuroscience research has raised a troubling possibility: Could the tendency to stigmatize others be innate? Some evidence suggests that the brain is prone to in-group and out-group classifications, with consequences from ordinary blind spots to full-scale dehumanization. Many are inclined to reject the argument that racism and discrimination could have a cognitive basis. Yet if we are all vulnerable to thinking in exclusionary ways--if everyone, from the most ardent social-justice advocates to bigots and xenophobes, has mental patterns and structures in common--could this shared flaw open new prospects for political rapprochement?

Liya Yu develops a novel political framework that builds on neuroscientific discoveries to rethink the social contract. She argues that our political selves should be understood in terms of our shared social capacities, especially our everyday exclusionary tendencies. Yu contends that cognitive dehumanization is the most crucial disruptor of cooperation and solidarity, and liberal values-based discourse is inadequate against it. She advances a new neuropolitical language of persuasion that refrains from moralizing or shaming and instead appeals to shared neurobiological vulnerabilities. Offering practical strategies to address those we disagree with most strongly, Vulnerable Minds provides timely guidance on meeting the challenge of including and humanizing others.

Review Quotes

Liya Yu shows how neuroscience can provide a lingua franca to bridge the mental gap dividing racial, partisan, and ideological groups that are primed to dehumanize the other. Where banalities about tolerance no longer ring true, our 'disillusioned curiosity' can still lead us to understand the workings of our 'exclusionary brains.'

--Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Columbia University

Liya Yu's important book comes at a critical time when our increasingly divided world needs to better understand what brain and behavioral science powerfully tells us about being human. By revealing how our brains navigate our social world and process the experiences of fear, exclusion, and dehumanization, Liya offers us a path informed by science and evidence to create a better world where empathy, understanding, and belonging can be manifested and made real.

--Tim Phillips, founder and CEO of Beyond Conflict

Established systems are rarely challenged by big ideas in the way Yu does in this book. She takes on central concepts that ground our legal and political systems, holds them up to the light of neuroscience and psychology data, and discusses the implications for moving society forward. It is a wonderful example of interdisciplinary scholarship on the brain and society, and prudent reading given humanity's current crises.--Lasana Harris, University College London

This brilliant book will transform the way we think about identity, "race," and the innumerable and persistent conflicts that have been fed by false perceptions of difference between human beings. It is essential reading for everyone interested in resolving one of the central issues of our time.--David C. Johnston, Columbia University

About the Author

Liya Yu is a visiting fellow at the Institute of Medical Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians University, and in the Department of Political Science at National Taiwan University. In fall 2023 she will assume an assistant professorship at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. She holds a doctorate in political science from Columbia University. She is the coeditor (with Matt Qvortrup) of the Routledge Handbook of Neuropolitics (forthcoming 2024).