In this episode, we learn about neurosociology from Rengin Firat of the University of California, Riverside. In her own work, Professor Firat uses brain scans to understand more emotional or visceral dimensions of social class, race, ethnicity, group cohesion, loneliness, agency, and other major concepts of interest to sociologists. She discusses ideas about the role of emotion in social and moral life, and other ways that the human brain's workings influence how society operates.

Rengin Firat is an Assistant Professor of Sociology from the University of California, Riverside. She recently published “Opening the “Black Box”: Functions of the Frontal Lobes and Their Implications for Sociology” in Frontiers in Sociology and "A Novel Measure of Moral Boundaries: Testing Perceived In-group/Out-group Value Differences in a Midwestern Sample" in Socius.