Document Actions

An appeal in Auschwitz

University of Oregon psychology professor Paul Slovic to speak in Poland, with a call for the international community to justify inaction when genocide is obvious

 UO psychologist Paul Slovic
“Our gut feelings will give us the moral intuition that genocide is wrong, but moral reasoning will cause us to lay out reasons to act.” -- Paul Slovic, UO prof; founder of Decision Research

AUSCHWITZ, Poland -- The international community should take formal steps to justify inaction when conditions of genocide exist anywhere in the world. So says Paul Slovic, a University of Oregon psychology professor, who wants a formal process that requires nations to carefully weigh and publicly justify action or inaction in cases of intentional mass murder. “If they were required to deliberate, I think it would be really difficult for nations not to take action,” he says. “This is something nations aren’t required to do and don’t really do now.”

Slovic is a keynote speaker May 18 at a seminar on the prevention of genocide in Auschwitz, Poland, hosted by the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation.

  • For the full story, click here. (You will leave the University of Oregon Web site and be linked to a news release prepared by the National Science Foundation, which has funded much of Slovic's research on how psychic numbing blocks a response to genocide).
  • Also available at the NSF Web site is a videotaped interview with Slovic, which was recorded in a UO Media Services studio on campus.

(Also available is a high-resolution mugshot of Slovic)

Slovic will deliver a talk with the same message on campus, at 4 p.m., Friday, May 23. (click here for information)

Research Tidbits

The vice president for research and graduate studies (Rich Linton) oversees the research and graduate activities at the UO. Click here for more information.


A lot of UO research occurs in designated research centers and institutes, all of which involve interdisciplinary collaboration.

 

Science in the Northwest now has central Web showcase

Logo for Science Northwest, a collaborative regional news site for leading academic research institutions

Looking for the latest research news in the Northwest? Collaborating science writers at the leading Northwest research institutions now have a clearinghouse dedicated to the region's major institutions. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory now hosts Science Northwest. Check it out!

 


Personal tools