Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London
The Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London

Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology,
Royal Holloway, University of London

The Warburg Institute,
School of Advanced Study,
University of London

Bio

Manos Tsakiris is Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London where he leads the Lab of Action & Body and the INtheSELF ERC-funded project. He is also leading the BIAS (Body & Image in Arts & Science) project, funded by the NOMIS Foundation, at the Warburg Institute, School of Advanced Study, University of London.

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Research

What is the link between the body and the self? How do we become aware of ourselves and of others? How do we relate to and respond to the images that power human culture? These are some of the key questions that we research.

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People

Academics are fortunate enough to spend their whole career surrounded by young minds. A privilege that few other professions can give you. These are the people who make our research possible, successful and most enjoyable. The people to whom I am grateful for their creativity, skills and openness.

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Publications

Since 2003, our research has resulted in numerous publications in peer-reviewed international journals. In addition to the research articles we publish, we think it is important to take the time to consolidate our findings in original theoretical and review papers.Several of our papers are among the most-cited articles in our field of research (source: Thomson Reuters Citation Thresholds).

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News

We are trying to stay on top of things, be aware of the most important news in our field and whenever possible to contribute to what is timely and important.

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Media

Our research has attracted interest from media around the world, and has appeared in major international news organizations, such Reuters, BBC, The Times, The Guardian, El Pais, Le Figaro, Wall Street Journal, El Mundo, Huffington Post, and Scientific American.

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Events

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Ideas

under construction

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Engagement

under construction

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Consultancy

under construction

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BIAS:
Body & Image
in Arts & Science

The 'Body & Image in Arts & Sciences' (BIAS) project is an innovative interdisciplinary research program that merges perspectives from cognitive neurosciences and psychology with those from the humanities and arts to study the performative power of images. It attempts to do so at the Warburg Institute, the premier institute in the world for the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture, inspired by Aby Warburg’s unparalleled interdisciplinary vision on the history of images. In line with the Institute's commitment to building bridges across the boundaries between the humanities, arts and sciences, BIAS will seek to forge new and innovative synergies across the disciplines.
The BIAS project is supported by the NOMIS Distinguished Scientist Award that enabled us to form a new research team and neuroscience lab hosted at Warburg.

The BIAS approach

There are currently four research themes that the BIAS team is developing in parallel, ranging from the role of affect in visual politics, the effects that specific types of visual framing of refugees in the media have on their dehumanization, the development of new methods to decode the mental representations of self-images and how we perceive expressiveness and authenticity in dance. Across all themes, the performative power of images is in center stage.

Images, whether it is art, photojournalism or photography in general, mediate our experience of the world, especially in a culture powered by images at an unprecedented level. Traditional and social media in the digital age, modes of visual framing, alternative facts and debates about post-truth and fake news mediate our relations to other human beings, and make our negotiation between what is real or fake, tangible or not, progressive or conformist, genuine or inauthentic challenging.

Intuitively, one would think that studying the performative power of images should start by studying the visual system of the brain. BIAS adopts a rather unorthodox approach as we suggest that the brain’s visual system may in fact be the wrong place to look for what really matters when it comes to the power of images. This is because the defining feature of their power is another, often overlooked dimension: our embodied responses to them. In other words, why and how images move us, literally and metaphorically (1). In particular, understanding the power of images entails an understanding of how an embodied brain embedded in a given culture engages with images. Therefore, with BIAS we set out to investigate the role of embodiment in a culture powered by images. Our previous research in psychology and social neuroscience have highlighted the role that such embodied mechanisms play in shaping cognition (2), and BIAS uses such insights to break new ground in long-standing debates in the arts and humanities but also to open up new research avenues for sciences.

(1) Freedberg D (1991). The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. University of Chicago Press

(2) Azevedo, R. T., Garfinkel, S. N., Critchley, H. D., & Tsakiris, M. (2017). Cardiac afferent activity modulates the expression of racial stereotypes. Nature Communications, 8, 13854

Ongoing Projects

Visceral Grounding of Visual Politics
Visual Framing of Refugees and Dehumanization
Perceiving authenticity in dance movements
The Mind’s Self-portrait