B Franks
Biographic Data
| ID | 19577 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B Franks |
| GIVEN NAMES | B |
| FAMILY NAME | Franks |
| SIGNATURE | FRANKS B |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6667-6172 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1935 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Dialogicality and Conspiracy Theory
This study investigates how people who believe in conspiracy theory (CT) hold those beliefs. It considers whether believing a conspiracist explanation of an issue or event permits or precludes also believing a non‐conspiracist explanation—that is, the degree to which endorsing CTs can be dialogical. Dialogicality involves the coexistence of conspiracist and non‐conspiracist beliefs in advancing claims and contrasts with the view that all conspira…
Beyond “Monologicality”? Exploring Conspiracist Worldviews
Conspiracy theories (CTs) are widespread ways by which people make sense of unsettling or disturbing cultural events. Belief in CTs is often connected to problematic consequences, such as decreased engagement with conventional political action or even political extremism, so understanding the psychological and social qualities of CT belief is important. CTs have often been understood to be "monological," displaying the tendency for belief in one …
Increasing water intake in pre-school children with unhealthy drinking habits
Psychology, Social
Communication involves intrinsically social and psychological processes, hence theories of communication should interface with theories and findings from social psychology. Social psychology studies the interdependence of mind and social settings at three levels (which are themselves interdependent), relating the mind to social settings of increasing complexity—the micro level of interpersonal interaction, the meso level of relations between indi…
Social construction, evolution and cultural universals
This paper discusses the connection between social constructionism and universals in the generation of mind. It proposes a new concept of Cultural Construction, distinct from social construction, and suggests that the latter succumbs to a Paradox of Sociality in which a socially constructed mind is non-social. Cultural construction avoids this paradox, and is best explained by an approach that roots learning in flexible evolutionary dispositions …
Insights from Societal Psychology
In this paper we demonstrate that societal psychology makes a unique contribution to the study of change through its focus on the 'contextual politics' of change, examining the different interests at stake within any social context. Societal psychology explores the contexts which promote or inhibit social and societal change and can be seen as a bridge between social and political psychology. It focuses on how the context shapes the ways in which…
The Roles of Evolution in the Social Sciences
This paper discusses some widespread but often not fully articulated views concerning the possible roles of biology and evolution in the social sciences. Such views cluster around a set of intuitions that suggest that evolution's role is “ballistic”: it constitutes a starting point for mind that has been, and is, superseded by the role of culture and social construction. An implication is that evolved and the socially constructed aspects of mind …
Conspiracy theories as quasi-religious mentality
Conspiracy theories (CTs) can take many forms and vary widely in popularity, the intensity with which they are believed and their effects on individual and collective behavior. An integrated account of CTs thus needs to explain how they come to appeal to potential believers, how they spread from one person to the next via communication, and how they motivate collective action. We summarize these aspects under the labels of stick, spread, and acti…
The Nature of Unnaturalness in Religious Representations
The cognitive anthropological approach has provided a powerful means of beginning to understand religious representations. I suggest that two extant approaches, despite their general plausibility, may not accurately characterise the detailed nature of those representations. A major source of this inaccuracy lies in the characterisation of negation of ontological properties, which gives rise to broader questions about their ontological determinacy…
Idealizations, Competence and Explanation
The connection between idealizations, competence and multi-level explanations in cognitive psychology is discussed, in response to Patterson's ([1998]) reply to Franks ([1995]). I argue that idealizations are inherent in competence explanations and as a result, such explanations cannot be formulated in the multi-level terms widely used in the cognitive sciences. Patterson's argument was that neither competence nor performance involve idealization…
On Explanation in the Cognitive Sciences
The ‘classical cascade’ of explanation through three ‘levels of description’ is a central methodological underpinning of the cognitive sciences. I argue, however, that it often fails to provide adequate explanations, in particular in conjunction with competence theories. This failure originates in the idealizations in competence descriptions, which either ‘block’ the cascade, or produce a successful cascade which fails to explain cognition.
A Guide to the Literature on Aggressive Behavior
Water, Land and People
Stability of questionnaire response
Conspiracy theories as quasi-religious mentality
Conspiracy theories (CTs) can take many forms and vary widely in popularity, the intensity with which they are believed and their effects on individual and collective behavior. An integrated account of CTs thus needs to explain how they come to appeal to potential believers, how they spread from one person to the next via communication, and how they motivate collective action. We summarize these aspects under the labels of stick, spread, and acti…
Insights from Societal Psychology
In this paper we demonstrate that societal psychology makes a unique contribution to the study of change through its focus on the 'contextual politics' of change, examining the different interests at stake within any social context. Societal psychology explores the contexts which promote or inhibit social and societal change and can be seen as a bridge between social and political psychology. It focuses on how the context shapes the ways in which…
The Nature of Unnaturalness in Religious Representations
The cognitive anthropological approach has provided a powerful means of beginning to understand religious representations. I suggest that two extant approaches, despite their general plausibility, may not accurately characterise the detailed nature of those representations. A major source of this inaccuracy lies in the characterisation of negation of ontological properties, which gives rise to broader questions about their ontological determinacy…
Dialogicality and Conspiracy Theory
This study investigates how people who believe in conspiracy theory (CT) hold those beliefs. It considers whether believing a conspiracist explanation of an issue or event permits or precludes also believing a non‐conspiracist explanation—that is, the degree to which endorsing CTs can be dialogical. Dialogicality involves the coexistence of conspiracist and non‐conspiracist beliefs in advancing claims and contrasts with the view that all conspira…
The Roles of Evolution in the Social Sciences
This paper discusses some widespread but often not fully articulated views concerning the possible roles of biology and evolution in the social sciences. Such views cluster around a set of intuitions that suggest that evolution's role is “ballistic”: it constitutes a starting point for mind that has been, and is, superseded by the role of culture and social construction. An implication is that evolved and the socially constructed aspects of mind …
On Explanation in the Cognitive Sciences
The ‘classical cascade’ of explanation through three ‘levels of description’ is a central methodological underpinning of the cognitive sciences. I argue, however, that it often fails to provide adequate explanations, in particular in conjunction with competence theories. This failure originates in the idealizations in competence descriptions, which either ‘block’ the cascade, or produce a successful cascade which fails to explain cognition.
Stability of questionnaire response
Water, Land and People
A Guide to the Literature on Aggressive Behavior
On Explanation in the Cognitive Sciences
The ‘classical cascade’ of explanation through three ‘levels of description’ is a central methodological underpinning of the cognitive sciences. I argue, however, that it often fails to provide adequate explanations, in particular in conjunction with competence theories. This failure originates in the idealizations in competence descriptions, which either ‘block’ the cascade, or produce a successful cascade which fails to explain cognition.
Idealizations, Competence and Explanation
The connection between idealizations, competence and multi-level explanations in cognitive psychology is discussed, in response to Patterson's ([1998]) reply to Franks ([1995]). I argue that idealizations are inherent in competence explanations and as a result, such explanations cannot be formulated in the multi-level terms widely used in the cognitive sciences. Patterson's argument was that neither competence nor performance involve idealization…
The Nature of Unnaturalness in Religious Representations
The cognitive anthropological approach has provided a powerful means of beginning to understand religious representations. I suggest that two extant approaches, despite their general plausibility, may not accurately characterise the detailed nature of those representations. A major source of this inaccuracy lies in the characterisation of negation of ontological properties, which gives rise to broader questions about their ontological determinacy…
Insights from Societal Psychology
In this paper we demonstrate that societal psychology makes a unique contribution to the study of change through its focus on the 'contextual politics' of change, examining the different interests at stake within any social context. Societal psychology explores the contexts which promote or inhibit social and societal change and can be seen as a bridge between social and political psychology. It focuses on how the context shapes the ways in which…
The Roles of Evolution in the Social Sciences
This paper discusses some widespread but often not fully articulated views concerning the possible roles of biology and evolution in the social sciences. Such views cluster around a set of intuitions that suggest that evolution's role is “ballistic”: it constitutes a starting point for mind that has been, and is, superseded by the role of culture and social construction. An implication is that evolved and the socially constructed aspects of mind …
Conspiracy theories as quasi-religious mentality
Conspiracy theories (CTs) can take many forms and vary widely in popularity, the intensity with which they are believed and their effects on individual and collective behavior. An integrated account of CTs thus needs to explain how they come to appeal to potential believers, how they spread from one person to the next via communication, and how they motivate collective action. We summarize these aspects under the labels of stick, spread, and acti…
Social construction, evolution and cultural universals
This paper discusses the connection between social constructionism and universals in the generation of mind. It proposes a new concept of Cultural Construction, distinct from social construction, and suggests that the latter succumbs to a Paradox of Sociality in which a socially constructed mind is non-social. Cultural construction avoids this paradox, and is best explained by an approach that roots learning in flexible evolutionary dispositions …
Psychology, Social
Communication involves intrinsically social and psychological processes, hence theories of communication should interface with theories and findings from social psychology. Social psychology studies the interdependence of mind and social settings at three levels (which are themselves interdependent), relating the mind to social settings of increasing complexity—the micro level of interpersonal interaction, the meso level of relations between indi…
Beyond “Monologicality”? Exploring Conspiracist Worldviews
Conspiracy theories (CTs) are widespread ways by which people make sense of unsettling or disturbing cultural events. Belief in CTs is often connected to problematic consequences, such as decreased engagement with conventional political action or even political extremism, so understanding the psychological and social qualities of CT belief is important. CTs have often been understood to be "monological," displaying the tendency for belief in one …
Increasing water intake in pre-school children with unhealthy drinking habits
Dialogicality and Conspiracy Theory
This study investigates how people who believe in conspiracy theory (CT) hold those beliefs. It considers whether believing a conspiracist explanation of an issue or event permits or precludes also believing a non‐conspiracist explanation—that is, the degree to which endorsing CTs can be dialogical. Dialogicality involves the coexistence of conspiracist and non‐conspiracist beliefs in advancing claims and contrasts with the view that all conspira…
Psychology (11 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Cognitive science (4 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Cultural Differences and Values (4 works)