Imaginative Contagion and Moral Corruption 

The Proteus Effect describes how individuals’ attitudes and behaviour conform to those of the avatar they play as in virtual reality (Yee and Bailenson 2007; 2009; Waggoner 2009; Yee et al. 2009; Montola 2011). Participants assigned taller avatars behaved more confidently in a subsequent non-virtual negotiation task than participants assigned shorter avatars, in line with … Read more

Alex Fisher

Alex Fisher is affiliated with the University of Cambridge.

Ambient Smart Environments and the Thesis of the Extended Mind

According to the Thesis of the Extended Mind (TXM), some genuinely mental operations can be partly constituted by activities involving material tools, artefacts, and devices (Clark & Chalmers, 1998). When the fit is right, and certain conditions met, such external resources and human biological cognition can form an integrated system – an ‘extended mind’. The … Read more

Ben White

Ben White is affiliated with the University of Sussex.

Caroline Bollen

Caroline Bollen is affiliated with Delft University of Technology.

Narrative identity, technology and virtue: being and becoming empathetic in the digital age

As digital technologies become increasingly intertwined with everyday life, so does their potential impact on the construction of personal identity and (moral) character. Applied normative questions surrounding the relation between identity and digital technologies require a philosophical and moral framework on the nature of identity. Historically, theories of self often relied on a substantial-self approach … Read more

The Characterization of (Gen)AI: Insights from Literary Studies

At the end of 2022, generative AI (GenAI) became available for the general public. Large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, allow users to produce texts about any topic in the style and voice of their choice. The question how we should read the textual output of LLMs has been addressed in the field of … Read more

Emmy Stevens

Emmy Stevens is affiliated with the Tilburg Center of the Learning Sciences, Tilburg University.

“TikTok Gave Me ADHD”: On User-Algorithm Relations in Platformed Diagnosis

Trying to understand political subjectivity in the digital age is doomed to fail if we do not take into account the fundamental role of technology in shaping subjective experiences and intersubjective interactions. However, the field of political theory has been slow to fully incorporate these dynamics into its foundational concepts and methodologies. In response to … Read more

Anthony Longo

Anthony Longo is affiliated with the Department of Philosophy, University of Antwerp.

Digital Humanities Tilburg