Gail Sahar at The Coop

Join us for an author event with Gail Sahar in conversation with Stephanie E. Goldenhersh, Esq., lecturer at Harvard Law School!

GAIL SAHAR demonstrates that the current emphasis on value differences, whether between conservatives and liberals in the U.S. or between religious and secular countries on a global level, ignores commonalities in the way people think about issues. Questions about the causes of events, from terrorist attacks to mass shootings to economic and public health crises dominate conversations across the US, and she proposes that focusing on perceived causes of social problems is a much more promising avenue for dialog than trying to reconcile fundamental belief systems. Informed by the latest psychological science, this new take on how to change attitudes has implications for anyone seeking to influence the viewpoints of others, from politicians and activists to ordinary people talking about current events at a dinner party.

Gail Sahar is a Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Her research focuses on attitudes toward controversial social issues, such as poverty, abortion, and terrorism. Gail earned her PhD at UCLA and her BA at USC. Since her childhood in rural Washington state, she has been fascinated by how intelligent people can have such drastically diverging opinions on the issues of the day and hoped to find ways to bridge the gap between ideological opposites.

Read Gail’s latest op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution here.

She will be joined in conversation by STEPHANIE E. GOLDENHERSH, ESQ, a Lecturer at Harvard Law School specializing in Family Law, Child Welfare, and Domestic Violence.