Dr. Jimena Zapata

Personal information

Jimena Zapata is a practising lawyer with over 17 years of experience and a solid background in humanities, linguistics, and public policies. Recently, she completed her PhD in Philosophy at LMU Munich and the University of Granada (Bi-national Cotutelle Programme) and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Philosophy of Mind and the Cognition, Values, and Behaviour Research Group (Mi3 lab) at LMU. Her research lies at the intersection of philosophy of mind and language and moral psychology. She investigates the mechanisms of harm in conversations, focusing on the impact of individual and collective responses against so-called hate speech.

Research interests

• Experimental moral philosophy
• Social and political philosophy of language
• Philosophy of mind
• Moral psychology
• Public policies
• Philosophy of law
• Ethics

Selected publications

• Zapata, J., Deroy, O. Ordinary citizens are more severe towards verbal than nonverbal hate-motivated incidents with identical consequences. Scientific Reports 13, 7126 (2023).
• Zapata, J., Sulik, J., von Wulffen, C. et al. Bystanders’ collective responses set the norm against hate speech. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 11, 335 (2024).
• Zapata, J. A collective turn in the philosophy of hate speech. Doctoral dissertation. LMU. (2023).