Abstract
This interdisciplinary volume brings together scholars in psychology, philosophy, comparative literature, media studies, religion, and linguistics to explore moral convictions from a myriad of perspectives, particularly in the ways that exploring moral and personal conviction can repair our social divisiveness and how ‘conviction can be used wisely, employed as a tool to understand ourselves and the world around us, and to avoid the dark side of conviction, which is often connected to unreflected and under-investigated aspects of action and human interaction’ (p. 5). The twelve chapters explore political conviction and its interlink with personal identity (chapter 2), the manifesto genre as a medium of conviction to incite positive change and extremism (chapter 3), ‘convincing atmospheres’ such as media, environmental, emotional factors to nurture critical thinking or spread pseudoscientific ideas (chapter 4) and further these pseudoscientific ideas as convictions lacking evidence (chapter 5). Further in the volume convictions are explored through the context of morality and moral commitments in decision-making and identity (chapter 6), religious convictions and their influence in public discourse and democracies (chapter 7), collective action shaped by moral conviction (chapter 8), the educational approach to moderating convictions (chapter 9), intellectual humility and the importance of understanding diverse convictions for fostering global citizenship (chapter 10), and finally, dialogical classrooms where dialogue helps students to challenge their convictions (chapter 11). The concluding chapter calls for further interdisciplinary research to explore methods of bridging divides. The volume uses numerous case studies within European media contexts and offers a historical and comparative analysis to global medial and political realms and would therefore benefit scholars and students globally from the mentioned disciplines as well as those interested in interdisciplinary approaches.