Political Psychology

True confession time — During one Christmas — probably around 2002 or so — my family and I were spending the holiday with my widowed father, my sister, my brother, and his family. Late on Christmas Eve, I snuck into the living room and set out my gift to my brother — a life-sized…

It may not be what you think, but it makes sense — Right-wing extremists — really any extremists — are thought to be at the fringes of American society. They are poorly educated, unemployed, alienated, and in other ways disenchanted with a system that has failed them. Right? Not so fast. Robert A. Pape, a professor of Political Science at the University…

Yes, it’s nature and nurture, but what does that really mean? — Why do you believe what you do about politics? Where did those beliefs come from? Have you always had these beliefs or did they change over time? These are just a few of the questions that grabbed me as a graduate student of political psychology in Washington DC thirty years…

How an obscure interdisciplinary field holds the key to understanding our times — “How can they think that way?” “Can’t they see what is going on?” These thoughts may cross your mind scrolling through the news in our current political environment. Another person, who believes that a secret global cabal of elites is stealing children for sex trafficking and JFK Jr. …

One year on from January 6th and the events in Washington DC and with ongoing debates about Brexit, could the way ‘experts’ discuss political polarisation be a contributing factor in normalising more and more hate and anger? Maybe, according to analysis which suggests that by magnifying ‘divisions in society’ political…

During the heated Brexit referendum, the Financial Times published this graph. But it didn’t tell the full story. It was jumped on by many Remain voters as an explanation for why voters intending to vote to leave were ‘stupid’ enough to be ‘duped’ by lies from the Leave campaign. …

Independent thought in polarized times — In a story in the August 2021 issue of The Atlantic, people were reportedly coming into a hospital in Missouri wearing disguises and urging the healthcare workers to not let anyone know they wanted to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The concern was that their anti-vax family and friends would find…