Editor's note

Most people probably want to believe they would stand up against an authoritarian regime like Margaret Atwood’s Gilead, but who actually would and why? That’s a question my friend and I kept coming back to when we recently discussed the author’s new novel, The Testaments.

Whether we are talking about the submissive inhabitants of Gilead or the people who failed to stand up to Hitler in the 1930s, it is easy dismiss those who are complicit in maintaining a monstrous regime as evil or morally inferior. But the chances that you or I would behave any differently are slim, according to behavioural psychologist Nick Chater.

That’s because most of us are eager to conform to unwritten rules of appropriateness and would struggle to shake the feeling that the way things are done in the regime is the right way. Luckily, though, there will always be a few rebels – and they may have a few things in common.

Kicking against rulers is a dangerous business, however, as young Iraqis, who recently took to the streets in protests that left more than 100 people dead after a brutal suppression, tragically experienced.

And in health news, scientists are beginning to understand the food preferences of our gut microbes.

Miriam Frankel

Science Editor

Top stories

Jasper Savage/Hulu/Channel 4

Would you stand up to an oppressive regime or would you conform? Here’s the science

Nick Chater, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick

We all like to think of ourselves as heroes. But according to science, the vast majority of us wouldn't be prepared to rebel against totalitarian rulers.

Anger on the streets: protesters in al-Tayaran square in central Baghdad on October 4. Murtaja Lateef/EPA

Violent crackdown against Iraq protests exposes fallacy of the country’s democracy

Balsam Mustafa, University of Birmingham

Why young Iraqis to took the streets in protests that left more than 100 people dead after a brutal suppression.

TL Furrer/Shutterstock

Gut microbes can be picky eaters – here’s why it matters

Tim Spector, King's College London

Scientists are beginning to understand the food preferences of our gut microbes.

Politics + Society

Environment + Energy

Business + Economy

Cities

Arts + Culture

  • How Banksy’s latest trademark row could backfire

    Enrico Bonadio, City, University of London

    Forced into selling his own merchandise to stop others doing the same, the artist could end up facing other similar challenges because he trademarks rather than copyrights his artworks.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Featured events

Do editors pander to audiences more than they should?

Bonar Hall University of Dundee, Dundee, Dundee City, DD1 4HN, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — The Conversation

Polly Curtis on the future of journalism

Bonar Hall University of Dundee, Dundee, Dundee City, DD1 4HN, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — The Conversation

NeuroMeditation with music

East Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB11PT, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Anglia Ruskin University

Doing what you love: the aesthetics of work motivation

Portland Building, Portland Street, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3AH, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Portsmouth

More events
 

Contact us here to have your event listed.

For sponsorship opportunities, email us here