Political Psychology

Is the American socioeconomic ladder sturdy, offering a good chance for people to move up and down? Or is it rickety, leaving most people stuck where they are? Psychologists at Princeton University and Memorial University of Newfoundland have found that...

People who believe that political views are rooted in biology are more prejudiced against their political opponents, according to research published in Social Psychological and Personality Science. The study of 452 U.S. adults found that people who believed biological differences were...

A person's moral foundations influences their willingness to take personal action to fight climate change, according to research published in PLoS One. Jonathan Haidt’s Moral Foundations Theory is a pluralistic model that identifies moral factors that can influence human motivation....

Marijuana use significantly increased and its perceived harm decreased among eighth- and 10th-graders in Washington state following enactment of recreational marijuana laws, according to a UC Davis and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health to be published online in...

New research examines whether being subliminally exposed authoritarian iconography encourages the public to comply with and support the state. The study of 123 adult residents of the United Arab Emirates --  a federation of absolute monarchies -- found that subliminally flashing images of...

Judges in the United States tend to give defendants longer sentences the day after switching to daylight saving time compared with other days of the year, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological...

Research has found that different interpretations of the Bible are linked to different political beliefs among Christians. The study, published in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, used data from the 2012 Religious Worldviews Study to examine the relationship...

In the wake of Donald Trump’s election, the overwhelming response among progressives was “how in the world did this happen?” Those of us who study the rise of political and moral polarization in the United States, however, were less surprised....

The nomination of the first woman presidential candidate by a major party has shattered some gender barriers, while at the same time reinforced certain stereotypes and double standards that still exist for women. Tessa Ditonto, an assistant professor of political...

Two new studies suggest that religious media outlets in the United States shape their viewers' attitudes about same-sex relationships. A longitudinal study published in Sexuality & Culture found that frequently watching or listening to religious media on the television or radio in 2006 predicted increased opposition to...

Presidents campaigning for re-election use better influential language in their re-election campaign than they did in their first campaign, according to a recent study published online this June in Electoral Studies. The study provides some explanation of the incumbency effect....

People who are open to experience are more likely to change their voting position, according to a recent study published online in Political Psychology. The study also found some evidence that extroverts are more likely to stay loyal to their...

Fear causes Whites high in implicit racism to be more supportive of voter ID laws, according to a recent study published online this September in Political Psychology. Soon after Emancipation, Whites feared newly freed Blacks’ political influence. As a result,...

Republicans embrace the conservative label more enthusiastically than Democrats are willing to self-identify as liberals, according to a new study by Jacob Neiheisel, an assistant professor in the University at Buffalo's Department of Political Science. But if liberal is a...

Does listening to Donald Trump's or Hillary Clinton's opinions humanize them to voters more than reading their opinions? A new study examining people's reactions to those with differing political views and found that when they watch or listen to those...