Emma was recently interviewed about radicalization and polarization in relation to the vaccine debate. The interview was published in Dagens Nyheters Insidan and can be found here (in Swedish).
Student thesis on affective polarization
Ida Larsson at the Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg has authored a thesis about variations in affective polarization depending on specific traits related to different ideological stances using data from SOM. The thesis can be found here (in Swedish).
Emma on Swedish radio about radicalization process
Emma was on Swedish radio talking about our research on social factors behind radicalization. The program is found here, about 12 mins into the show.
Affective polarization in a multiparty system
Intergroup Threat and Affective Polarization in a Multi-Party System
Emma A. Renström, Hanna Bäck & Royce Carroll
Abstract
What explains affective polarization among voters and societal groups? Much of the existing literature focusing on mass political polarization in modern democracies originates in the US, where studies have shown that, while ideological separation has grown, political conflict increasingly reflects social identity divisions rather than policy disagreements, resulting in affective polarization. We focus on explaining such polarization in a multi-party context. Drawing on social identity theory and intergroup threat theory, we hypothesize that individuals who perceive an intergroup threat show stronger intergroup differentiation and increased affective polarization. We analyze the influence of perceived threat on affective polarization drawing on two large-scale representative surveys in Sweden (N = 1429 and 1343). We show that individual-level affective polarization is related to perceived intergroup threats among the voters in both studies, measuring affective polarization using social distance, negative trait attribution, and party like-dislike ratings.
Find the full paper published in Journal of Social and Political Psychology here.
New article on personality and compliance with recommendations during Covid
Who Follows the Rules During a Crisis?—Personality Traits and Trust as Predictors of Compliance With Containment Recommendations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Yvonne Schmeisser, Emma A. Renström & Hanna Bäck
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, many governments tried to contain the spread of the virus by legally restricting social life and imposing national lockdowns. The Swedish government did not enforce a national lockdown, but instead appealed to the individual’s self-responsibility to follow specific containment recommendations developed by the Swedish Public Health Agency. Sweden is thus an especially interesting case to study because of the potential influence of psychological and attitudinal individual-level factors that might contribute to compliance with containment recommendations. Drawing on previous literature on how individuals respond during health crises, we define and evaluate a mediation model that considers the role of personality traits and trust authorities to explain compliance. More specifically, we argue that we need to consider the role of trust in authorities to better understand the relationship between personality traits and compliance. In analyses based on a large-scale representative survey (N = 1,034), we find Conscientiousness to be directly linked to compliance, whereas Agreeableness, Neuroticism and Openness were indirectly related to compliance when trust in the Public Health Agency was taken into account.
Find the full paper published in Frontiers in Political Science here.
Emma has started a new position at Högskolan Kristianstad
From 1st of August, Emma has a new position at Högskolan Kristianstad.
Two new articles on the political psychology of Covid-19
In two recent papers, we explore the role of emotions in reactions to Covid-19 policies, political actions and health-related behaviors. The papers are published open access and are linked below.
Polarized democracy - presentation at webinar
Emma and Hanna have written a policy brief about the project Polarized democracy. The policy brief can be found here (only in Swedish).
The policy brief was presented at a webinar arranged by the Migration Studies Delegation and The Swedish Research Council. If you are interested in viewing the webinar, a recording of it will be posted on Delmi’s website.
Master thesis on intergroup threat, emotions and political attitudes and actions
Recently, the master thesis Threat and sensibility: An experiment on the effects of intergroup threat and emotions on political attitudes and actions, by Engla Olhagen Halling and Hector Wall, supervised by Emma, was defended at Lund University. The thesis can be downloaded here.
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the influence of threat inducing right-wing
populist communication on emotions, attitude and political action intentions. The
study applied an experimental design and was conducted on a UK sample. Participants
(N=390) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions; realistic threat, symbolic
threat or control group. After reading condition-specific vignettes, participants
answered questions regarding their emotions, followed by questions on attitudes
toward immigrants, support for policies concerning immigration and intention to take
political action. Results showed that participants exposed to the realistic threat
condition rated significantly higher scores on measures of anti-immigrant attitudes and
policy support but not on political action intentions. Both threat manipulations elicited
significantly higher levels of negative emotions compared to the control condition. In
the realistic threat condition, anger mediated increased anti-immigrant attitudes and
policy support, whereas, in the symbolic threat condition, disgust mediated increased
anti-immigrant attitudes. In conclusion, this study found some evidence that emotions
contribute to the perception and evaluation of threatening communication. The study
concludes that emotional responses to daily news may impact our attitudes.
Keywords: Intergroup threat theory, political attitudes, political action, mediation
analysis
Poster presented at the Association for Psychological Science virtual conference
26-27 May was the APS virtual conference where Yvonne presented some of our work on the interplay between the Big five and trust on compliance with recommendations during Covid-19.
The poster can be found here.
New paper about party cue effects on attitudes to a policy proposal
A new paper authored by Hanna, Emma and Annika Fredén was recently published in Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties.
This article focuses on how party identity can shape policy support or opposition to the controversial issue of legalizing cannabis in Sweden, which is strongly opposed by the public. In a survey experiment (N = 3612), we manipulated if a message that supported or opposed a policy proposal to legalize cannabis was presented by a representative of the own party or an outgroup party. Results showed increased opposition to the proposal when the ingroup party opposed the policy and when the outgroup party endorsed the policy. When the ingroup party endorsed the policy and when the outgroup party opposed the policy, attitudes to the policy were not influenced. We argue that prior attitudes moderate how ingroup- and outgroup party messages are processed and that voters do not blindly follow the party line. Only when the own party presents a position that coincides with the individual’s prior position, are attitudes strengthened and voters follow the party line. Attitudes are also strengthened as a way to increase distance to a disliked outgroup party. When the party cue contradicts prior beliefs (ingroup-endorse; outgroup-oppose), the information is ignored, which allows individuals to retain their view of the party, be it positive or negative.
The paper can be found here.
New research assistant
Recently, Britta started as our new research assistant. Britta is a licensed psychologist based in Gothenburg. Her research interest lies in how globalization and immigration are shaping modern politics, and how social and group psychology can help explain political polarization and radicalization.
Britta is specifically interested in ways in which emotions and intergroup dynamics are shaping decision-making processes and attitudinal shifts, and how such knowledge can be used to prevent further polarization. Britta has a background in clinical and applied research, investigating long-term effects of stress-related exhaustion as well as school interventions to build psychological resilience in children.
Thesis on changes in affective polarization during Covid-19
Recently, Anton Ekman, defended his licensed psychologist thesis at the University of Gothenburg. The thesis explored if affective polarization in Sweden had changed as a consequence of Covid-19. The thesis can be found here (only in Swedish). He found that left-wing oriented individuals had increased in affective polarization from 2019 before Covid19 to during Covid19 (August, 2020), while right-wing oriented people had become less polarized. The results are discussed in relation to the Swedish approach to handling Covid-19, and the political landscape in Sweden.
Exploring a pathway to radicalization. New paper out!
New pre-prints on political psychology in Covid times
We have two pre-prints out about political psychology during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The first one concerns how personality, the Big five, relates to trust in the government and health authorities, in predicting compliance with recommendations to contain the spread of the virus. It can be found here.
The second one concerns how different aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic elicit different emotions, anger, fear and anxiety, which in turn influence policy support and political actions. It can be found here.
New chapter about affective polarization in Sweden (only in Swedish)
Recently, Emma, Hanna and Yvonne co-authored a chapter for the annual SOM-institute’s book. The chapter describes affective polarization in the Swedish multiparty system and what factors, such as party identification and ideological position, may explain strength of affective polarization. An important finding is that affective polarization is present in Sweden similarly as has been shown in the US context.
The chapter is found here (only in Swedish).
New article on young people's motivation to engage in protests
A new paper was recently published in the Journal of Youth Studies. The paper explores social incentives to participate in protest activities, especially among young people. The paper can be found here.
ABSTRACT
As institutional forms of political engagement continue to decline, participation in protests steadily become more common. These trends are particularly strong among younger citizens. Previous research indicates that social factors can explain participation in political protests, and that younger citizens’ participation in protests is more affected by social ties than older people’s participation. Even though the desire for social affiliation is a fundamental human need, there are individual differences in the need for belongingness. The aim of the current study is to investigate if part of younger people’s higher level of participation in protests can be explained by individual-level differences in belongingness needs. More specifically, the study investigates whether a larger part of younger people’s participation is explained by need to belong (NTB), as compared to older people’s participation. In line with the hypothesis, results from a survey study of a representative sample of the Swedish population (N = 2034), show that only younger people’s participation is predicted by individual-level belongingness needs; the higher the NTB among young people, the higher the tendency to protest, while this effect is absent among older people. These results have important implications for our understanding of participation in protest activities and youth mobilization.
New paper on political participation in social media
A new paper, titled The Social Network: How Friends' Online Behavior and Belongingness Needs Influence Political Activity was recently published in Policy and Internet, and examines social influence in the decision to engage in political activities online.
Are people more likely to become more politically active through social media when they observe thattheir friends are active? Previous research has shown that an individual's likelihood of engagingpolitically is influenced by observations of how friends act through social media, but relatively little isknown about how such social influence through social media interacts with personality features. Weargue that individuals with high belongingness needs will engage in political activity if they believethat this is expected from the social groups they belong to. To evaluate this hypothesis, a surveyexperiment was designed (n=289) in Qualtrics. We had two experimental conditions (friends orextended network) in which we informed participants that the most shared or“liked”online materialamong their friends or extended network on Facebook was a specific petition. In a control condition,they were informed that they were shown a random petition. To increase the credibility of themanipulation, we asked participants to log into a fictive app that supposedly downloaded theirFacebook data. We show that individuals are more likely to engage politically if they observe that their friends have been politically active on Facebook, but only if they have high belongingness needs.
The paper is found here.
New affiliate researcher
This semester Magnus Lindén will work with us. Lindén is an associate professor in psychology at Lund University. His research interest lies in psychological aspects of aggression, abuse and human rights violations, especially in connection to armed conflicts and terrorism. Dr. Lindén has, among other things, investigated risk-factors of pro-torture attitudes in the war on terrorism and he is currently working with the Swedish military investigating individual difference factors and battlefield ethics.
Dr Lindén teaches on personality theory, the psychology of evil (genocide and war crimes) and work-and organizational psychology (with special focus on leadership and ethics). He has been awarded one teaching prize at Lund University.
If you want to read more about Dr. Lindéns work here is the link to his webpage. He has also written two posts for the conversation found here. We are delighted to work together this year!
New research assistant
We welcome Yvonne to our research group! Yvonne recently graduated from the Master of Science program in psychology at Lund University. Before she came to Lund, she lived in Germany. One of her main interests in psychology is how the perception of belonging to a specific group influences individuals concerning their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, as the categorization of others into “us” and “them” tends to happen quickly and sometimes even based on only minor attributes. Yvonne is primarily interested in the negative effect of this categorization on the interaction between and the attitude toward members of other groups. Considering the gain in strength of right-wing parties in many countries, Yvonne is especially interested in learning more about how these categorizations could contribute to polarized attitudes, racism, and xenophobia.