Cognition

This track of research explores how we think about particular phenomena, and the (lack of) correspondence between expressed beliefs or attitudes and behaviors ‘in the world.’ It explores how social circumstances influence thought, especially with respect to social issues.

Journal Publications

al-Gharbi, Musa (2019). “Resistance as Sacrifice: Towards an Ascetic Antiracism.” Sociological Forum 34 (S1): 1197-1216.
al-Gharbi, Musa (2016). “From Political Liberalism to Para-Liberalism: Epistemological Pluralism, Cognitive Liberalism & Authentic Choice.” Comparative Philosophy 7(2).

Scholarly Work in Development

I am developing a project exploring public opposition to race-targeted assistance programs such as affirmative action.

It will begin by articulating a novel method for evaluating the relative power of racial tension, moral principles and economic anxiety for explaining variance in public attitudes about race-targeted assistance programs, and then chart attitudinal and demographic relationships across time in the General Social Survey (GSS), with replications in the American National Election Study (ANES).
Based on the outcome of these studies (a pilot has already been conducted with compelling results; the next step is to test replication of these findings across datasets and over time), the project will seek to develop more effective ways of talking about race-targeted assistance programs – leveraging contemporary research in the sociology of morality, social psychology and the cognitive and behavioral sciences – and then experimentally test the efficacy of these alternative approaches.

Public Sociology Examples

“Diversity-Related Training Doesn’t Work. This Might.” Heterodox Academy, 29 December 2020.
“If Everyone Else is the Problem, You Probably Aren’t Seeing Things Clearly.” Public Seminar, 8 June 2020.
“Academic and Political Elitism.” Inside Higher Ed, 27 August 2019.