The Welfare Trait: how state benefits affect personality

Summer 2016 | Public lectures and events | Video

Contributor(s): Dr Adam Perkins, Dr Kitty Stewart | In this lecture Dr Perkins argues that welfare policies which increase the number of children born into disadvantaged households risk proliferating dysfunctional, employment-resistant personality characteristics, due to the damaging effect on personality development of exposure to childhood disadvantage. Adam Perkins (@AdamPerkinsPhD) is a Lecturer in the Neurobiology of Personality at King’s College London. Kitty Stewart (@kittyjstewart) is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Policy at LSE. Jason McKenzie Alexander is Professor of Philosophy, LSE. LSE's Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science (CPNSS), established in 1990, promotes research into philosophical, methodological and foundational questions arising in the natural and the social sciences, and their application to practical problems. The Centre's work is inherently interdisciplinary, and a full calendar of events contributes to a lively intellectual environment.