Soziale Kognition und Entscheidungsforschung

Sozial- und Wirtschaftspsychologie

Abgeschlossenes Projekt

EU-Projekt "Concealed Object Stand-Off Real-Time Imaging for Security "

CONSORTIS (Concealed Object Stand-Off Real-Time Imaging for Security) is a project in EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7). The project will develop a demonstrator for stand-off real-time concealed object detection for future implementations of high throughput security screening for European mass-transit markets and infrastructure security. The technological approach will build on and extend current millimetre-wave imaging technology.
The technological development will be accompanied by an ethical assessment of the values that pertain to the production of security using objection detection technology (privacy, participation, and others).
Part of the ethical research involved in CONSORTIS are two empirical studies that put attention on political decision-making processes and the role individuals have therein. For one basic tenet of political philosophy is that political decision-making must flow from the individual’s sovereignty (with related concepts such as dignity or consent). As social psychological research has repeatedly shown, one fundamental element that drives people’s acceptance of political action is procedural justice, i.e. the justice involved in decision-making processes.
In the social psychological part of CONSORTIS, then, the cognitive processes underlying procedural justice are examined. To this aim, two empirical studies will be conducted that aim at identifying justice requirements in view of the use of body scanners. Those studies will examine (a) whether risk capacities have an influence on justice perceptions, and whether (b) procedural justice, referring to the processes leading to the use of security technology, enhances perceptions of legitimacy and thus acceptance. The results will provide insight into the way political processes have to be shaped in order to meet people’s sense of justice and legitimacy. In more detail, the first study will show what influence different capabilities of risk literacy (the ability to judge levels of risk) have on justice reasoning. The second study will show how procedural justice can influence judgments of legitimacy in view of security measures.

Project leader: Prof. Dr. René Ziegler
Work package leader: Andreas Wolkenstein, M.A.

Project start: January 2014
Project end: February 2017

Contact:
Andreas Wolkenstein, M.A.
Schleichstr. 4
D-72076 Tübingen
+49 7071 2978346
andreas.wolkensteinspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de

Links:
CONSORTIS Webpage: http://www.consortis.eu


Mora data:
Full name: Concealed Object Stand-Off Real-Time Imaging for Security
Duration: From 2014-01-01 to 2017-02-28
Programme: FP7-Security
Subprogramme area: SEC-2012.3.4.-5
Total cost: EUR 5 132 840
EU contribution: EUR 3 953 449
Contract type: Small or medium-scale focused research project