Welcome to this week’s episode of The Mindbridge Podcast: Where Science Meets Human Rights! This podcast invites human rights defenders to teach and learn from brain and behavioral scientists about how we can all use science to do human rights work that is more efficient and impactful.
Today, we are joined by Dr. Pasha Dashtgard & Gabbi Kearns to discuss polarization and bridging divides!
DR. PASHA DASHTGARD is the Director of Interventions for the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). He has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the Department of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine, and was formerly a postdoctoral Fellow at Loyola Marymount University’s Psychology Applied Research Center (PARC).
He attended Columbia University, Teacher’s College for his MA in Mental Health Counseling and an Ed.M in Education. Formerly PERIL’s Director of Research, Dr. Dashtgard now leads PERIL’s Interventions team, overseeing the implementation and scaling of PERIL’s in-person prevention-based resources, toolkits, workshops, and trainings, as well as PERIL’s online interventions aimed at bolstering psychological resilience to propaganda. Pasha’s research interests include masculinities, online radicalization, applied interventions, PTSD, and large-scale mental health policy/service delivery. Projects include analysis using his Male Supremacy Scale (Dashtgard, 2022) and its intersections with online behavior, and various projects intervening with populations beset by misinformation, conspiratorial thinking, and political polarization.
GABBI KEARNS is a proud Midwesterner who lives in New York City. She joined Braver Angels in 2022 as a field reporter before coming on as the Director of Social Media, and now, the Director of Communications & Marketing. She also volunteered for Braver Angels as the former Blue Co-Chair of the NYC Alliance.
Prior to Braver Angels, Gabbi worked for NBC News as an assistant producer, where she led the digital strategy for the education division, wrote and produced live broadcasts, reported on trends in education, and managed social media. During the 2020 election, she worked as a political organizer and deep canvasser in her home state of Michigan. Gabbi graduated from Michigan State University and has a master’s from Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she focused on the convergence of adult learning, political polarization, and media.
Mindbridge is the nation’s leading non-profit using brain and behavioral science to empower human rights defenders.
We conduct programming, support partnerships, and direct research at the intersection of psychological science and human rights. Through these efforts, Mindbridge is growing a science-driven community that gives human rights defenders access to the hearts and minds of those they serve.
To learn more about how we use brain and behavioral science to empower human rights defenders, find us at mindbridgecenter.org, read our blog on Psychology Today, and follow us on social media.
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