News

Polaris recently appeared on Dr. Rebecca Roache’s podcast, The Academic Imperfectionist.

In the episode, Polaris & Rebecca discuss Polaris’ work on self-control, neurodiversity, and how we culturally get self-control all wrong. Topics of discussion included Polaris’ journey into philosophy, his work-in-progress progress book “Against willpower: Self-control, agency, and society”, as well as about his work with Ronroo.

Check out the episode here! And, make sure to browse the podcast archives as well for Rebecca’s top-notch insights on how to work through procrastination, gain self-compassion, and get things done without grinding your teeth.

We’re excited to announce our upcoming event, Agential Capacities in Context!
We have a stellar line-up and an open call for papers for junior scholars.
Check out more information on the event’s website.

We’re excited to share the newest addition to our research group – Dr. Jussi Jylkkä!

Dr. Jussi Jylkkä holds doctorates in both Philosophy and Psychology. His research interests span metacognition, executive functions, consciousness, meditation and psychedelic therapies.

Dr. Jylkkä joins the group as a senior research fellow, and his position is connected to the “Enhancing metacognition, agency and resilience in AI-mediated work” research project, which is part of the larger Transform-AI research consortium.

Fresh off the press, a new open access article with Polaris’ postdoc Anssi Bwalya as lead author examines fixedness and malleability as a dimension of lay beliefs about self-control.

Published in Psychological Reports, this paper is part of our Agency as Experience and Capacity research project, and stems from Anssi’s doctoral dissertation at the University of Edinburgh.

“Measuring Self-Control Beliefs: A Multidimensional and Domain-Specific Perspective”
Authors: Anssi Bwalya, Polaris Koi, Hugh Rabagliati, & Nicolas Chevalier
Abstract: Self-control allows people to align their behaviour with intention in the face of a motivational conflict. Lay beliefs about self-control are associated with self-control performance. However, previous research has focused on whether self-control is seen as a limited resource in the short term and mostly ignored beliefs about whether self-control is malleable in the long term. We examined these two aspects of lay beliefs in two preregistered questionnaire studies with adult UK participants (n1 = 182, n2 = 199). In both studies, beliefs about the limitedness and malleability of self-control were relatively independent of each other. Moreover, limitedness beliefs varied depending on the self-control domain. Self-control beliefs were related to but relatively distinct from self-esteem, self-efficacy, and trait self-control. Beliefs about the malleability of self-control were moderately associated with beliefs about the malleability of overall personality, but not with beliefs about intelligence. Our results support a multidimensional and domain-specific approach when measuring self-control beliefs.

We’re excited to welcome our new research assistant, Emmi Vahtera, to the team!

Emmi was part of our organising team for last year’s conference on agency and disadvantage as a trainee, and she proved to be a powerhouse. I for one am stoked to get to work with her.

Emmi will assist our team with communications, research management, and associated tasks. She’s currently finishing her master’s degree in Philosophy, and she’s also served as chairperson of the philosophy student organization Dialectica.

Fresh off the press, a new open access article with Polaris Koi as lead author explores the choice of target groups in behavioural interventions, particularly in the climate context.

The paper is part of the interdisciplinary Climate Nudge project, showcasing collaboration between social scientists at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare and philosophers at University of Turku. It is part of the Humanities and Social Sciences Communications thematic collection on behavioural public policy.

“Nudge the rich! The case for targeting the top 10% in behavioural climate policy“
Authors: Polaris Koi, Jukka Sivonen, Vuokko Härmä, Sakari Karvonen, Helena Siipi
Abstract: In interventions for the common good, such as in the climate context, the choice of a target group does not directly determine the beneficiaries of the intervention. Instead, efficacy, acceptability, and fairness emerge as core considerations in targeting interventions. This paper examines targeting the top 10% by income and assets in climate interventions in light of the above considerations. Addressing the climate crisis requires significant changes in the consumption patterns of those who consume most. We argue that the behavioural public policy community should do more to specifically address the consumption patterns of the rich.

Fresh off the press is a new book by Dr. Joonas Martikainen, who is postdoc in the Agency as Experience and Capacity project.

The monograph, ‘Political Poverty: Losing Faith in Democracy’, delivers a new account of political agency, participation, and disenfranchisement. Drawing on phenomenology and critical theory, the volume enriches political theory by expanding on the motivational aspect of disengagement, such as on hope and a sense of belonging foster political participation.

For more info, see here.

On July 2-3, our group organised the Perspectives on Agency and Disadvantage workshop, bringing together scholars across philosophy, psychology, and law from all continents save for Antarctica.

The event was a tremendous success, if we may say so ourselves! We’d like to thank our speakers and participants for making the event so intellectually stimulating, student assistants for making everything run smoothly, and of course our funders the Kone foundation for making it all possible.

We plan on organising further events in the years to come — stay tuned!

Exciting news: Polaris Koi has just signed a publishing contract with Oxford University Press New York for his first monograph, Against Willpower: Self-Control, Agency, and Society.

The book argues that self-control difficulties are not individual failures. They are a societal problem: culture, policy, and language shape access to the strategies and behaviors that self-control is made of.

Drawing on the social model of dis/ability, Against Willpower develops a new theory of self-control, and applies this theory across a range of topics, including executive dysfunction and neurodiversity, intergenerational poverty, and criminology.

Against Willpower will be part of the Oxford Studies in Disability, Ethics, and Society series, edited by Rosemarie Garland-Thompson and Joel Reynolds.

We will organise a book workshop where experts gather to discuss the manuscript in London in April, 2026* – stay tuned for more news!

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*This was originally intended to be organized during Polaris’ Fulbright fellowship at UPenn, but owing to new border regulations at the US, the visit cannot be carried out for the time being.