Political Psychology

Why do opponents of same-sex marriage really oppose it? A UCLA psychology study published online today in the journal Psychological Science concludes that many people believe gay men and women are more sexually promiscuous than heterosexuals, which they may fear could...

Is Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump attractive to women? He certainly thinks he is. "What’s the secret of my popularity? Honestly, it’s my looks. I’m very handsome," Trump said last year. But does research back him...

If you are one of the millions of people who have listened to the podcast “Serial” or watched Netflix’s series “Making a Murderer,” you may believe there are innocent people in prison. But long before the cases of Adnan Syed,...

Religious affiliation appears to have little to no influence on American's attitudes toward policies designed to counteract income inequality, according to a new study published in Political Research Quarterly. The study used data from the 2013 Economic Values Survey conducted...

Craig Anderson is no political scientist. But the Distinguished Professor of psychology at Iowa State University could have predicted voter support for the presidential candidates taking a strong anti-Muslim stand. Months before the presidential campaign, Anderson and his colleagues conducted...

Journalists from around the world will file countless reports from Iowa in the final days leading up to the caucuses. According to the latest Iowa State University/WHO-HD Iowa Caucus Poll, voters rely on a variety of these reports for political...

Teens without homes, many of whom have suffered at the hands of those entrusted with providing them care and kindness, often refuse to seek warmth and nourishment at shelters. But there's new evidence that drop-in centers -- safe havens with...

Mental health conditions are more common among prisoners than in the general population. Estimates suggest that as many as 26 percent of state and federal prisoners suffer from at least one mental illness, compared with nine percent or less in...

How often you watch weather reports from your local TV news outlet could shape your beliefs about the global climate. According to research published in the journal PLOS One, people who pay more attention to their local TV weather forecasts...

Whether people with a highly conformist personality type are more prejudiced towards minority groups or more accepting of them depends on the political culture they live in, according to a report published in Psychological Science. Authoritarianism refers to a set...

It's not news that liberals and conservatives are lousy at winning each other over. But if they really care about making even modest in-roads with each other, they'll pay attention to research showing that arguments based on a political opponent's...

American politicians who openly express religious views may be more successful because even voters who think that religion should not play a role in politics view them as more trustworthy compared with non-religious candidates, according to a study published in...

The presence of high-profile women as candidates for public office encourages young American women to become more involved in politics, but primarily when those candidates are Democrats, according to a study published in Political Research Quarterly. In recent years, an...

An angry state of mind makes people’s political view more extreme, and makes them view themselves as more polarized from their political adversaries, an article published in PLoS One reports. A team of psychologists, led by Michaela Huber of Technische...