In recent years, important political and societal topics, ranging from climate change to conspiracy
theories, dominated our daily news. These dominating topics have in common that they rely from our
beliefs: We believe the veracity of climate change or its absence, a theory or political idea and
whether vaccines help or hurt. What astounds us is the persistence of these beliefs. Once installed, it
seems difficult for people to update their beliefs in accordance with information provided by science
or mainstream media. The aim of this research project is to study the mechanisms underlying belief
updating with a cognitive neuroscience approach which should be seen as complementary to the
ideas developed in social psychology. Two ideas are central to the project. A first idea is that our
belief system and the way our beliefs are changed or updated, is evolutionarily shaped following the
same rules used for cognitive control. Second, recent work indicated that subjective experiences play
a pivotal role in activating cognitive control mechanisms. To complete the theoretical parallel drawn
between cognitive control and belief updating we investigate the functional role of experiencing belief
updating as aversive and relate it directly to the aversive experience of cognitive control. The current
research proposal lays the groundwork for future collaborations between a cognitive neuroscience
and a social psychological research approach to belief updating.