David Canter

Professor David Canter, the internationally renowned applied social researcher and world-leading crime psychologist, is perhaps most widely known as one of the pioneers of "Offender Profiling" being the first to introduce its use to the UK.

Vladimir Putin in 2018

How Does Putin Think?

David Canter considers the sorts of psychological processes that may be shaping Vladimir Putin’s actions.

1 year ago
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Sample of ELIZA chat

The Robot Will See You Now

David Canter follows his concern that psychologists are losing contact with people by considering how computers are presented as replacements for human ‘intelligence’. This ignores the importance of in situ person to person contact, which has been shown by the COVID pandemic to be so crucial for people.

1 year ago
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scene from Metropolis people at Moloch

Are Other People Hell?

David Canter discusses the alienation between people that is being generated by a combination of fears of interpersonal contact and the power of the internet. Is a new world emerging in which isolated avatars replace social interaction?

1 year ago
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Immix Quartet performing

If Music Be…

My absence from these pages has been a produce of many forces. Paradoxically, pandemic-related lockdown has made access through the […]

1 year ago
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Aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing

The Comfort of Strangers

David Canter considers how disasters and tragedies can bring out the best in what it means to be human, and sometimes the worst.

2 years ago
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Tear gas released at US Capitol

Harnessing the Power of a Mob

David Canter considers what the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington tells us about the power inherent in a crowd.

2 years ago
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Collage of COVID 19 in public spaces

Why Does Social Science Not Bite?

David Canter considers why the social sciences failed to influence behavior in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. The virologists had been preparing for a new virus for some years, so were already ahead of the game when they had to start creating a new vaccine. What preparations had social psychologists, sociologists or anthropologists for the inevitable emergence of a new pandemic?

2 years ago
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Donal Trump on election night

The Trump Conundrum

David Canter, a psychologist observing from the United Kingdom, struggles to explain how Trump got 70 million votes in the United states

2 years ago
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