 It's all a little bit of you know, and I like that so much because what I wanted to start with I Was with with IpDead in the very beginning from 2000 or it was 2001 till 2012 And I saw it you know grow and I saw a lot of other things and now I'm back since a couple of years And I must say I very much enjoy it I've been talking to Stephanie who's the great master of of knowledge of ceremony and of management and of a number of other things a big hand for her So I've been talking to her about the program the substance and all that kind of things and at a certain moment I thought it is important to share with you tonight Something which will be on the agenda for the next years and that has to do with social neurosciences now Social neurosciences combines the breath of social sciences including economics and psychology With the depth of neuro and biology sciences It including research on please don't be upset on hormones and on heart rhythms and on Electrodermal activities. I'll come to that in a second the concept itself was coined in 1993 by a couple of Americans together with somebody from another part of the world Personally my interest in this field Started now about ten years ago When I was invited to be one of the three directors of a national program in the Netherlands on What her role is of brain cognition behavior biology for three social fields one was Education the other was Health and the third was crime justice Insecurity corruption etc. And I was became responsible for that particular field the Dutch government gave 21 million euro over a runtime of six years to develop the knowledge base on Social neurosciences and what can we learn from it? How can we how can we use that kind of knowledge for developing interventions? I will share with you a couple of examples. How can we how can we train students in that field? How important is it? How dangerous is it? There are a lot of ethical issues when you deal with research into hormones and research dealing with Brain and cognition, so that was the reason why I Why I participated in this well, this is in Dutch with the only interesting word is neuro lap Neuro lap is the follow-up of the program that I had the pleasure to co-direct which was Evaluated of course dear friends Everything is evaluated in the world also a national science program on brain and cognition I think rightly so so what was evaluated and that led to a follow-up, which was the Neuro lap and L and L stands for the Netherlands. Okay now What what is the relationship with this field of study and Development well there's a lot to say about that but let me start with this Absolutely monumental World Bank development report from 2015 the World Bank then Absolutely discover the importance of relationship between mind society and behavior and The World Bank said we know enough well not enough, but we know a lot about classic Variables, you know like a person social economic status certain attitudes family situation political preferences, etc We need to go further this report set and the report dig into Different types of thinking in line with the Nobel Prize winner Carnamon fast and slow thinking it looked into Experience and duration of stress in relation to your position in the world it looked into a person's executive functions for the psychologists other psychologists in the room Okay, the abbreviation well-known is e f executive functions executive functions dear friends regard a person's capability to direct attention to shift perspectives to retain Information in your working memory and to control your impulses dr. Varsen Welcome to see you in particular because you go a long way back and together with me and you know your sparser from the World Bank He's a senior your advisor in evaluation now. It's a great man As are you all because you are here with if that if that not the new thing But the continuous thing in development evaluation and that's why I think it's important to go back to my slide so the World Bank in 2015 was of the opinion that the development policies and Should use more that kind of knowledge and that they were not adequately Let's say addressed and discussed the World Bank in that report difference was also very critical About the way in which what it called standard economics addresses and again a quote the messy and mysterious internal workings of actors and Internal workings of actors with that is meant What people think what people do what their motivations are what their stress levels are how dangerous how happy they are Biopsychological aspects so the bank said we we are talking a lot of about a lot of things But we don't talk enough about these inner workings of of actors of people In the same time a colleague of my Brad Asbury and I we published a paper in the American Journal of Evaluation where we looked into what standard? Evaluations were doing with mechanisms This is a paper which is called opening up the black box and it's still often relatively often cited We too held the plea for focusing more on our mechanisms and biopsychological and other types of mechanisms The interesting thing is that as the World Bank was showing and as a lot of other organizations have been showing and a lot of other You know academics have been showing Usually well not usually often these mechanisms are not articulated by policymakers So we still often have the following situation and I apologize for the gender Mistakes that are made in this cartoon bank. So you see two old guys I may say that because I'm old myself Who who are not in your let's say in policy making but they they are talking to each other and they say One said to the other as a miracle occurring and the other is saying I think you should be more explicit here in Step 2 now take that that cartoon to the world of evaluation and to the world of development policies How many times do we implicitly not think there is a miracle happening? Well the idea of opening up the black books and searching for also social neurosciences mechanism is to prevent that we think in terms of Miracles and mysteries and of course that is central in the evaluation But in particular in evaluation it is relevant that we not only you know pay attention Let's say to the research design or to do the utilization or to the interaction with stakeholders and others all very important But also it is important to think about the knowledge basis that the foundations the social and behavioral and social Neurosciences fields that are happening and where things are happening that are rather important for evaluators You all know this kind of pictures. This is a theory of change. It's a kind of artwork You know with bullets and lines and arrows and boxes and boxes saying these are the mechanism The Sun is shining which is true for today and for the last days But the Sun is not always shining and according to some the Sun is shining too much Said this is not what I will be talking about a little later in the restaining 10 to 15 minutes max Steffi, you're killing me if I talk too long. Okay. Well intellectually not physically Okay, so this is not what I'm talking about. This is a check exactly what is not Focusing on real substantive underlying mechanisms. So I think I Have said enough before going into six examples of what social neurosciences have to share have to what we what we can learn From that but before I'm there I first want to make a critical point. The point is the following the number of books papers reports studies websites on complexity and development Evaluation and complexity and development. They are numerous just a couple of titles embracing complexity Harnessing complexity complexity and complicatedness the handbook on complexity and evaluation I can go on for at least a couple of minutes the interesting thing is that this phenomenal magnitude of attention paid to institutional complexity to macro social complexity is completely not the case when you talk about complexity within the actors within the persons within, you know the behavior the cognitions then the Nervous system the endocrinological system and we are all people with hormones and you know nerves And we have a number of other things then we are in the end part of that large and complex institutional system So what social neurosciences is doing is opening up the black books to find out what kind of Mechanism what kind of processes are taking place there? So we're not talking about macro institutional complexity We're talking about the complexity inside and between humans. So here we go This is where I want to be but a little bit of an introduction is not too bad Although I must say when I see all of you, you know with the so-called Wavering machines or how do you call it? I think I am allowed to undress I Start with my jacket Yeah, we'll last till about two o'clock tonight So there's no train back. Okay. So what is social neurosciences? Social neurosciences brings together a variety of scientist disciplines Methodologies dedicated to investigating the biological mechanism of social interaction and vice versa how social circumstances contacts situations and developments policies Influence neuro and bio mechanisms and this field dives into the problem of the mutual Influence of biology and social mechanisms just as one an example There are many examples since the field started in 1993 This is by Katchi opi and some other people including his wife Neuro and the chronology of social isolation when I read this some seven years or some five years ago in a pre-publication Version I was shocked how much Social isolation is doing to a person's body is doing to his heart to her heart is doing to brains Etc. This is fascinating the World Bank also paid attention to it when it talked about stress and Children I come back to that in a second But really this is some of the fields where these things are happening a couple of other recent things new franches in social Neuroscience some 18 chapter by the way you can get is all free I mean not that they are not you know trying to sell their stuff But the number of their reports and publishes and even books are free So new frontiers and social neuroscience is what so social about the social brain and other paper is on the neuro evolution of Empathy and caring for others why it matters for morality Morality dear friends is part of our business in the world of development Evaluations and here finally this is an example by my good friend Jack Fan Hong who is professor at Utrecht and in Cape Town University, South Africa testosterone and dominance in humans behavioral and brain mechanism Okay, so you're with me You're with me. I hope maybe you're not with me. That's too bad for me maybe also a little bit for you, but We go now into relevance of SNS for development society including evaluations I have six issues to share with you. Okay, here we go Are you still with me by the way? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is this social desirable behavior? That's an artifact of question of questionnaires be careful if you use questionnaires It's full of artifacts including social desirability if you do measurements on the body. There is no social desirability It's the body Okay, so first social neuroscience and child development Studies are there now and not only a few showing that kill the children and poor families differ dramatically from children in richer families with regard to their cognitive and Non-cognitive abilities Resulting in a loss of human potential for themselves and society Children frequently exposed to stressful events show a persistent activation of a major part of the neuro endocrine system That is related to stress and memories. So that's one It's this is this is the most simple one because all of you know that attachment problems Attachment, you know the famous Bulby research on attachment between father and mother and mother and child and father and child etc etc Research now is done Longitudinally how to stimulate parents or caretakers to learn to attach to their babies Maybe in the not-too-distant future to their grandparents. Who knows this this learning how to attach and measuring You know by a biological responses may sound strange because maybe some of you and maybe all of us Assume that every father and mother has the inborn desire to realize attachment Unfortunately, the world is different But luckily social neuroscientists now are looking into that they are looking into the impacts of Programs like the Oregon Parenthood management training where fathers and mothers and other caretakers are trained how to how to attach and There is neuro and bio feedback giving to these parents During the experiment during the evaluation to find out what they think about it because it's not only that you know these things But you also have to have a let's say an experience with it other so-called supportive Parenting activities and programs in early childhood They are also developed and evaluated and results show that these programs are important for the development of brain structures Including the area critical to the development of memory the hippocampus and without memory dear friends Even now Google is everywhere. We are nowhere memory is important number three emotion detection and Regulation now regulation I have to be careful. This is not governmental regulation. This is not legislation and regulation Oh, no, this is how to regulate emotions and how to regulate detection of emotions. Okay It's a field of study that is of direct relevance when dealing with for example mediation victim care Implementing recommendations from TRC's Truths and reconciliation committees and we have quite a few of that kind of commissions Often it is believed in those worlds according to one of my better students who did a study on that that if you organize a couple of Meeting days where you know the chairperson of the truce a reconciliation committee You know gives a talk and people walk around and there is a little drink that you know afterwards You know, it's all settled and maybe you have to do that a couple of times But research shows that in order to detect what emotions are in order to to yourself read the other person to understand What neuro mirrors mirrors mirroring is doing now? What is what it is doing to your amygdala never forget that word since if you do not know it already That little thing which is crucial for for emotion experience emotion labeling and next Through your your HPA access to your behavior through stress and other hormones that little thing that that that amygdala is almost taking care or Unfortunately, not in a number of situations How you detect and how you deal with your with your emotions? So, you know meetings only with truce a reconciliation committees forget it dear friends The World Bank was already talking about it the World Bank has recently also published and brought about papers talking about the relevance of of these executive functions in the current society where you need to have Soft skills as the bank calls it This functions in an in EF make life difficult make life very difficult Well, luckily we now have measurement techniques developed by Social neurosciences people that help you to Evaluate whether or not these interventions and I have a number of them here for you for you print it Whether or not they are working whether or not they have an impact. So you see Neuropsychological training you see mindfulness training you see Nutritional supplement that is sometimes called the omica three factor Psychophysiological feedback and also medication. So, you know this whole thing dealing with with emotion regulation is not not only sociologically or criminologically or psychologically important, but also from this perspective Let me hurry up with two final Topics number five is violent and antisocial behavior including corruption and fraud Which is not violent immediately at at first sight, but can be very violent There is a lot of research now going on dealing with this issue five minutes, okay There's a lot of research going on in the field of violent and antisocial behavior, which is directly related To levels of arousal so people have different levels of arousal some people they need a lot of sensation seeking In order to to be let's say for themselves a happy person and now there is a lot of also You know interventions being developed to try to remedy dysfunctions in to some extent the executive function but also in what is called the low low versus high arousal Mechanisms and to share with you one of the indicators is low heart rate Physiology now don't be worried if you have a low heart rate It's not that you're going to be a criminal tomorrow You can also become a fantastic player or a superb Policymaker, but sometimes it works in the direction of of antisocial behavior I'll come to point six point six is of a completely different nature It is how in this case you and DP? By the person by the the current head of this organization the evaluation department Indra Nairo is using Knowledge funds and a professor from Harvard who also has an own company to train his staff The evaluators how to deal with their own emotions how to deal with their own Uncertainties how to be capable to detect, you know emotion problems in others and his idea is To train his his staff with these things and to do, you know things together with the staff and Reading a work that is being published by the colleague from Harvard University with the own company He's a rather well-known man So there you see that brain and cognition social nurses is part of what you see right for you right below Neuro leadership there is a special journal for that nowadays the neuroscience of Leading effective teams and in drawn now and I row is is using that kind of knowledge in his work within UN DP Okay, so Time is almost up. I come to five conclusions conclusion one For those of you that may think I'm not sure that I'm sure that nobody sings it But you never know that you know biological Social neurosciences Knowledge is a kind of leading to deterministic fallacies That is you are born with a certain heart rate You were born with a certain amygdala functional with your hippocampus or with your HPA axis That is forever and forever no way that new bunch of research shows Plasticity in the brains plasticity in your genes change ability So the old-fashioned terrible idea that nature versus nurture is the thing There is and in the 70s when I was studying behavior and social sciences Nobody believed in biology and and maybe now some people believe a little bit too much This is actually it's a waste of time these things go together And that is one of the biggest things that social neurosciences have the have discovered Second ethics transparency governance are crucial dear colleagues. You never can do a start I mean we in general cannot do studies without paying attention to ethic But as soon as you talk about you know the biology of people That's more in-depth than the let's say a number of Attitudinal surveys or talking about learning from evaluation No, if you do this you have to be very very careful in ethics transparency and governance But of course we all are so number three and four and five The idea having this knowledge is that you yourself Well, I mean it's for true for you It's true for me, but it's true for all our you know beneficiaries of programs are in a better seat In a better driving position of their own life I mean if you know that you have certain dangers if you know that you you have a short You know problem you you you want to move on you cannot you cannot completely address and Guide your impulse control system that is relevant for all of us is relevant for everybody So when you know these things you are in a better driving position Number four slowly but steadily more empirically tested social bio and neuro interventions are becoming available Let me I'm not going into detail, but you saw a couple of them There are also more trying to help people in their executive functioning where you are learned let's say to To change your your your decision-making on the basis of these interventions, and it's it's not Institutional it's micro it's within the working brains of people Finally applying social neurosciences in the developing world with all its Institutional complexities with all its unbelievably deep problems as poverty, but also terrorism and Evaluate the role that social neurosciences play is Much so important compared to doing only some experiments with students at Leiden University or wherever it is So actually it's it's a fascinating field the field urine to try to to to work together with with with all these insights My final words are it is five years ago dear friends that the monumental World Bank report on mind society and behavior Has been published. There is progress and in my mind I think this this type of knowledge as is is relevant for understanding the inner workings of Actors decision-makers civilians victims whatever you call it that are part of what you were doing in your Program, so I expect that in the next couple of years Slowly but steadily a little bit more social neurosciences will end up in your programs in your evaluations and in your personal life and with that I Stop my presentation Thank you