About

Valence is a software tool designed to facilitate the use of Cognitive Affective Mapping (CAM) in academic research, conflict resolution, and political activism.

Cognitive Affective Mapping (CAM) draws from the theory of emotional coherence developed by Paul Thagard. The method was refined by a research team at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of Thomas Homer-Dixon and Paul Thagard, including Michael Lawrence, Manjana Milkoreit, Steven Mock and Tobias Schröder.

An earlier software tool, "Empathica," was created under the supervision of Paul Thagard by Alex Bass, Rob Disano, Ian Forneri, James Kendle, and Corey Manning.

Valence was developed under the auspices of the Ideological Conflict Project (ICP), an international, interdisciplinary research team based at the University of Waterloo that seeks to advance understanding of how beliefs, ideas, and emotions influence behavior during conflicts using methods drawn from the field of complexity theory. ICP researchers who contributed to the design of the software include Thomas Homer-Dixon, Scott Janzwood, Jordan Mansell, Steven Mock, Jinelle Piereder, Carter Rhea, Tobias Schröder, and Paul Thagard.

The Ideological Conflict Project is funded by an Insight Grant of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), 2018-2021.