EGENIS seminar: "Signalling, Solidarity, and Strategic Delusions", Dr Daniel Williams (University of Cambridge)

Some widely held beliefs seem absurd. They appear so radically at odds with the available evidence that it is difficult to understand how anyone could genuinely hold them. Unlike clinical delusions, however, they do not appear to be produced by a dysfunctional psychology. Such beliefs therefore generate a puzzle: How – and why – do functional psychological mechanisms give rise to absurd beliefs? Drawing on signalling theory and research in the psychological and social sciences, I clarify, defend, and explore the hypothesis that such beliefs are a strategic response to the signalling incentives generated by coalitions.