Political Psychology

What effect does politician corruption have on the publics they serve? Ramos et al. explore in their paper from this month's issue. Read the full piece for their findings on corruption's toll on perceived morality & justice of society & what it means for people's well-being. doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Check out the thread below about my new article with @fatiherol.bsky.social and @aleksks.bsky.social in @ispp-pops.bsky.social !

We show that better sleep quality is associated with being more likely to vote, but that poor sleep quality leads to more engagement in non-electoral political acts.

New in @ispp-pops.bsky.social: “Waking up to politics: How sleep quality relates to political participation”: doi.org/10.1111/pops... With @nmicatka.bsky.social & @aleksks.bsky.social, we examined how sleep quality relates to voter turnout & non-electoral participation across multiple countries.🧵1/8

now out at @ispp-pops.bsky.social from me, Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, and Tomasz Baran, "Rebels without a cause: Collective narcissism and political contrarianism" -->

Figure 1: Coefficient plots: NFC and AE as a function of national CN and IS (Study 1). Plot based on estimates in Table S2.

Figure 2: Coefficient plots: NFC and AE as a function of GN, VN, national CN, and national IS (Study 2). Plot based on estimates in Table S5.

Figure 3: Coefficient plots: NFC and AE as a function of GN, VN, national CN, and national IS (Study 3, Wave 1). Plot based on estimates in Table S8.

Is narcissism bad for democracy? Federico et al. examine the relationship between collective narcissism and politically contrarian attitudes ("need for chaos" & "anti-establishment"). Read the full piece for their full findings and what they mean for democracy. doi.org/10.1111/pops...

The algorithmic curation of information online can exacerbate polarization and support the spread of misinformation.

This review makes the case that social media algorithms amplify content from extreme parties, especially the far right, and threatens democracy.
www.science.org/doi/full/10....

February is here, and so is the latest issue of Political Psychology! We'll be highlighting all 12 special issue articles and 14 original articles throughout the month, but if you can't wait to see what's in store, check out the full issue now! buff.ly/l4gb7cg

Call for ISPP 2026 Awards Nominations

ISPP’s nominations process for all 2026 Awards is now open. We encourage members to recognize outstanding contributions to the field by submitting a nomination.

Award recipients will be honored during the 2026 ISPP

Registration is now open for International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP)’s 49th Annual Scientific Meeting, taking place 16-19 July 2026 in Newcastle, United Kingdom.
👉 Register here: bit.ly/isppannualme...

Applications are open for the 2026 ISPP Academy!
The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) Academy takes place July 13–15, 2026 at the University of Newcastle, UK.
Deadline: March 1, 2026
Apply here: https://bit.ly/3LTXX1E

📣 Applications Now Open: ISPP 2026 Early Career Scholar Travel Awards

ISPP is pleased to announce the 2026 Early Career Scholar Travel Awards, supporting early career researchers to attend ISPP's Annual Meeting in Newcastle.

For more information and to apply, visit docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

First graph: Study 1 (Right-wing cause). Second graph: Study 2 (Left-wing cause)

Relationship between political ideology and collective action intentions (Study 1). The shaded area represents the 95% CI.

Relationship between political ideology and collective action intentions (Study 2). The shaded area represents the 95% CI.

How much does extremism—independent of ideology—determine participation in collective action? Marinthe et al. present two studies in their paper from our December issue that suggest extremism could play a role in the intention to and act of participating. Full paper: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Average of contact intentions with refugees index over time. The horizontal lines denote 95% confidence intervals.

What role does authority play in people's decision to reach out to, or avoid, outgroup members? In their article from our December issue, Ditlmann & Turkoglu study how those in positions of power can dissuade or encourage intergroup contact. Read open-access for more: buff.ly/ngzqYhz

Difference between boycott intentions and behaviors in France, Belgium, and Canada.

Difference between boycott intentions and behaviors at different levels of minority awareness among French participants.

Difference between boycott intentions and behaviors at different levels of environmental awareness among French participants.

What divides the fans who intend to boycott major sports events from the ones who follow through? Bertin & Grippa investigate calls to boycott the 2022 World Cup, finding that those who more strongly identified with fan culture tended to renege on intentions to tune out. doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Voting preferences by conceptions of nationhood. Bars represent the vote share of all parties by Conceptions of Nationhood across all panel waves and respondents in the main models.

How do national identities become politically activated? From our December issue, Antonia C. May finds that the salience of immigration-related coverage in the media is connected to the activation of national identity in electoral/political cognition. Read open-access: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

All you'll feel is doom and gloom: Multiple perspectives on the associations between economic anxiety and conspiracy beliefs

The relationship between economic anxiety and COVID‐19‐related conspiracy beliefs in the three waves of the present study. The values represent standardized coefficients derived from a cross‐lagged panel model. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

What is the relationship between economic anxiety and conspiracy beliefs? Findings from Adamus et al. in our December issue suggest that conspiracy beliefs may lead to feelings of economic anxiety, but not the other way around. Read open-access: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

If girls run the world (Beyoncé, 2011), why are women still underrepresented in governmental bodies? Hanna Kim proposes that meritocratic ideology plays a role in the denial of a gendered imbalance in her article from our December issue. Read more online: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Polarization on social media: Comparing the dynamics of interaction networks and language-based distributions.

Retweet network of five communities of Twitter authors: Antivaxxers (black), public health actors (yellow), republicans (red), democrats (blue) and unorthodox (green). Reproduced with permission from Ojea Quintana et al. (2022). (A) PRE‐pandemic declaration (B) POST‐pandemic declaration.

Speaker landscapes for the tweets before and after declaration of the COVID‐19 pandemic, marking the speakers of the communities found by Ojea Quintana et al. (2022): Antivaxxers (black), public health (yellow), republicans (red), democrats (blue), and unorthodox (green).(A) PRE‐pandemic declaration (B) Post‐pandemic declaration.

What can over a million tweets about COVID-19 teach us about echo (echo echo) chambers (chambers chambers)? Durrheim & Schuld's piece finds that our understanding of opinion formation and expression on social media is much more complex than the accounts we follow. Read open-access: buff.ly/Wyfe9kf

OMG! What can we learn about political attitudes from how individuals think of God? In our December issue, Wagoner et al. discuss how different conceptualizations of God can be a powerful predictor of political ideologies such as religious nationalism. Read the full piece online: buff.ly/XqDbdB3

What impact does ideological misalignment have on individuals' wellbeing? Cotan Utomo et al. explore in our December issue. They find that perceived difference in views on multiculturalism between an individual and society can have negative effects on wellbeing. Read more: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

How can we rebuild trust and support for democracy in a period of decreasing confidence and backsliding globally? In the final special issue article of our December issue, Figueirêdo Sales discusses Brazil's collective candidacies as one potential solution. Available online: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

How can political psychology help address issues like the housing crisis? Ribeiro, Poeschl, & Santos present an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the perspectives on the crises and propose a path forward to make meaningful & collaborative solutions possible. doi.org/10.1111/pops...

What does everyday peacebuilding look like? Rincón-Unigarro et al. examine a Colombian city's annual mixed-race festival as a large-scale collective action to build trust and social cohesion through shared cultural expression and communion. Read the full piece online: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Peacebuilding at center stage & in the spotlight. Action! Montiel et al redefine "political theater" via performance exercises w/ leaders of 2 groups in territorial conflict, finding bringing it to the stage can help avoid taking it to the mat by building trust & bridging differences buff.ly/ojNULYK

What decreases interreligious tensions in a multicultural polity? Köbrich et al. investigate in our December issue & find that knowledge of outgroup practices is one condition of weaker coreligionist preferences. Read for more on the increases/decreases exclusive preferences: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

The effects of perspective‐taking on multiple dimensions of discrimination: Can one size fit all? Perspective-taking reduces discrimination, but research has taken a one-size-fits-all approach, focusing on single attributes triggering discrimination, particularly ethnic origin, and has paid insuf...

Can one size fit all? Find it out in our new article on the effects of perspective-taking on multiple dimensions of discrimination. Fresh from press @ispp-pops.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1111/pops...

The first of December's special issue articles is a discussion on Israel-Palestine relations with Daniel Bar-Tal. Read the full conversation for Bar-Tal's insights as the leading scholar behind the Theory of Intractable Conflict. Available open-access: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

A new paper finds ideological bias in research analyses:

Research teams composed of pro-immigration researchers estimated more positive impacts of immigration on public support for social programs, while anti-immigration teams estimated more negative impacts.
science.org/doi/10.1126/...?

With December being a busy month, we're starting out the features on our December issue now with an editorial introducing the special issue articles. Read this piece and the rest of the December issue online now: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....