The neuroscience of group membership and its effects on action perception and empathy.

Group membership is an essential aspect of everyday human behaviour. Behavioural studies have shown
that people identify easily with a group which in turn can lead to in-group bias but almost nothing is known
about the underlying neural processes. In this project, we will use functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) to investigate how group membership concepts are represented in the brain and how belonging to a
certain group can lead to in-group bias by influencing implicit and explicit neural processes involved in action
perception, empathy and decision making. Studying these underlying neural processes is crucial for a better
understanding of how group identification can lead to discriminatory behaviour.