What we do

Can narratives about role models from disadvantaged groups — who overcome social disadvantages and defy systemic discrimination through acts of resistance — drive social change?

The HERMES project (Healing Effects of Role Models for Empowerment and Solidarity) answers this question by examining two pathways to social change:

  • Among advantaged groups: perceptions of disadvantaged groups' empowerment and solidarity towards those groups.
  • Within disadvantaged groups: expressed solidarity and experienced empowerment.

To do this, HERMES employs:

  • Online experiments
  • Field experiments in exhibition settings
  • Virtual Reality (VR) interventions

The project integrates social science, communication, arts, activism, and digital innovation. Findings will enhance the effectiveness of interventions for meaningful social change.

Aims

HERMES seeks to understand the effect of disadvantaged role models in promoting social change with and within less privileged groups.

Our goals are:

To understand if, why, and when narratives featuring these role models influence:

  • Group empowerment perceptions
  • Support for empowering initiatives, such as interpersonal solidarity, policy support or engagement in real empowering actions.
  1. To craft innovative tools for social interventions.
  2. To measure real solidarity behaviour.

Funding

This project has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Universities, with the National Grant “HERMES: Healing Effects of Role Models for Empowerment and Solidarity” (PID2023-151315OA-100) for the Research Groups (‘Culture, Cognition, and Emotion’ Consolidated Group: IT1598-22).

This project has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Universities, with the National Grant