Dr Nafees Hamid

Dr Nafees Hamid is a Cognitive Scientist of extremism, conspiracy theories, and political violence.

He is the Research and Policy Director of XCEPT in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and a Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation (ICSR). 

He has conducted face-to-face interviews around the world with members of jihadist groups, white nationalists, QAnon devotees, and many others. He was one of the lead researchers of the first-ever neuroscience studies on violent extremists. In his current role at King’s College London, he co-leads a multi-nation research project which explores the role of trauma and mental health on pathways to peace versus violence in fragile and conflict affected states.  

His expertise has been called upon by policymakers at the United Nations, US State and Defence Departments, UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, UK Home Office, the French Prime Minister’s Office, NATO, the EU Commission, and many other governmental and inter-governmental bodies around the world.

He has been featured in documentaries such as Netflix’s The Mind Explained, Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole, NatGeo’s Breakthrough, Vice’s Cyberwars, and many others. His TV appearances include those on the BBC, CNN, and MSNBC. He has published in major newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, CNN, and others. He and his colleagues were profiled in TIME magazine for their breakthrough research on the neuroscience of terrorism. 

He has also acted as a consultant on films related to his areas of expertise. 

Suggested talks: 

How to create devoted employees

In this talk, Nafees draws on his ground-breaking neuroscience research on countering extremism, and his practical experience helping governments re-engage disaffected members of society, to explain how businesses and organisations can turn their employees into ‘devoted actors’. With a Gallup poll showing 30% of employees are actively disengaged – not just disengaged, but resentful of their companies – this is a crucial issue for business and wider societies. He will explore why a business mindset of material carrots and sticks fails to motivate the actively disengaged; how companies can counter-engage, channelling employees’ energy and even their subversiveness into positive outcomes; and how you can turn your worst into your best.

How to negotiate conflict

Governments across the world have called on Nafees’ expertise to improve their conflict negotiation – including the UK’s negotiation with the Taliban – and for every type of conflict a government faces there is an equivalent in professional life. Nafees sees business leaders making the same mistakes governments do, and shares the vital tools he’s acquired in resolving conflict, including the power of being heard, symbolic concessions, and acknowledgements, and the lessons he learned at a Buddhist monastery, and later supported by neuroscience, on avoiding emotional burnout and the vital difference between empathy and compassion.

How to create devoted actor consumers

Does mass media persuasion actually work? The answer: not the way we think it does. When Western governments found their anti-extremist messaging was falling flat, despite the best efforts of the biggest marketing firms in the world, they turned to researchers including Nafees for an explanation. The truth is any kind of persuasion – whether it’s religious conversion, turning people away from radicalisation, or enticing them to try a new product – only becomes effective with an element of social interaction. In this talk, Nafees blends evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and his practical experience to explain how companies can use harness social interaction to build community around them, and turn their customers into devoted actors – passionate advocates of their brand.