Procedural justice refers to the fairness of decision-making procedures and whether authorities treat people with respect and can be trusted. Distributive justice refers to fairness of outcomes. Procedural justice is more important for people than distributive justice. The intergroup threat theory states that the higher levels of perceived threat result in higher levels of national identification. The greater levels of identification, the greater support for collective action. This occurs in both majorities and minorities.There are three types of threat:Realistic threatThis refers to a threat to material sources.Symbolic threatThis refers to a threat to own’s own culture, values and religious beliefs.Intergroup anxietyThis refers to anxiety felt about anticipating contact with unfamiliar outgroup members.Type of identificationCharacteristicsInclusivityAttitudes towards outgroup (e.g. refugees)EthnicShared background, ethnicity.LowNegativeCulturalShared culture, cultural maintenance.LowNeutral or negativeCivicParticipation in society, following laws.HighNeutral or positiveEthnicity is less important for cultural identification. Ethnicity and culture are less important for civic identification. National identification is often associated with less positive attitudes. Out-group prejudice may occur under conditions of threat. There is a positive correlation between ethnic and cultural identity conceptualization. There is a negative correlation between ethnic/cultural and civic identity conceptualization. A higher ethnic identity conceptualization is related to more prejudice and this does not hold for higher civic identity conceptualization. Realistic threat (1), sense of control (2), British identification (3), collective relative deprivation (4), symbolic threat (5) and relative gratification (6) were the key variables for wealthy citizens who voted leave during the Brexit....
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Political Psychology – Lecture 1 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]
Political psychology explains what people do by adapting psychological concepts in order to make them useful and relevant to politics and then apply these concepts to the analysis of a political problem.
A narrative refers to a sensible organization of thought through language which serves to create a sense of personal coherence and collective solidarity and to legitimize collective beliefs, emotions and actions (i.e. a story). A narrative is the underlying process linking the individual to political contexts. They are the stories that bind us as an explanation of confusing or inexplicable events.
Narratives can occur at three levels:
There are four principles underlying the conception of narrative:
The construction of social or national identity creates a sense of collective purpose and gives direction to future behaviour. The collective narrative is derived from collective memory.
Narrative provides access to the current structure of identity, revealing the ideological and experiential content of memory and the motivational anchor for a set of social practices. Narrative engagement refers to the fact that members of a society engage with collective stories of what it means to inhabit a particular political entity (e.g. Dutch), meaning that identity is rooted in texts that individuals construct to make sense out of their lives.
The discursive approach states that conversation is the mechanism through which individuals create reality and legitimize their positions within it. Political discourse analysis studies the way in which political leaders frame political issues to motivate adherence to a particular political agenda. However, this type of study does not link the narrative analyses to the individual mind. Social categories as rhetoric study how social categorization is a narrative process, involving the discursive aspects of social categories and its impact.
Narratives are intrinsically provocative as they evoke sentiments that correspond to the ideals individuals come to hold about a given social reality. This means that emotions are central to the narrative process.
The political being refers to a framework including different concepts to understand political behaviour.
.....read more Political Psychology – Lecture 2 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]A group member engages in collective action any time that the group member is acting as a representative of the group and where the action is directed at improving the conditions of the group as a whole. Collective action usually occurs in disadvantaged groups but can include members of the advantaged group on behalf of the disadvantaged group.
Social movements refer to participation in mass protest, petitions, strikes or sit-ins. There is a difference in commitment (i.e. high or low) and duration (i.e. limited or unlimited) in social movements.
There are different approaches to social movements:
The basic assumption of the breakdown approach states that collective action results from objective disadvantages. Symbolic interactionism states that social movements are phenomena emerging in the interaction between dissatisfied people. Structural functionalism states that social movements are a process to restore equilibrium in society.
Relative deprivation theory states that social movements emerge from high levels of relative deprivation in society. According to this theory, people compare their situation with a certain standard (e.g. others, ideological standard) and if one concludes that one does not receive what one deserves, then there is relative deprivation. There is group deprivation and individual deprivation.
The success expectation of collective action depends on the strength of the state (1), level of repression (2), party system (3), degree of access to policy (4) and dividedness of elite (5).
The social identity theory (SIT) states that people’s motivation to engage in collective action depends on whether they perceive an unstable hierarchy and illegitimacy of the hierarchy. This, in combination with the perception of alternatives, leads to collective action.
The intergroup emotion theory (IET) emphasizes that the role of group-based emotions and the appraisal of the situation lead to collective action. It explains how individuals feel emotions on a group level.
The appraisal theory states that appraisal, emotion and action are means by which people cope with events in their social world. There
.....read more Political Psychology – Lecture 3 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]In a crowd, there are intragroup processes (e.g. leaders and followers). There are also intergroup processes (e.g. police vs. protesters).
Common-bond groups refer to social groups based on attachment between group members (e.g. friends). The attachment is based on similarity (1), likability (2) and familiarity (3). There is more attachment to individual group members than to the group identity. Common-identity groups refer to social groups based on attachments to group identity (e.g. sports team). There is more attachment to group identity than to individual group members.
People in crowds often have no schema of behaviour or clear expectations about what is going to happen. However, there is a need that something needs to be done to address a common concern. Social contagion states that cognition (i.e. attitudes), affect (i.e. emotions) and behaviour spreads quickly among crowd members. Non-normative behaviour is more likely in crowds.
The traditional view of crowds is that crowds are outbursts of madness (1), crowds are irrational (2), crowds are a threat (3) and individual crowd members sacrifice their individuality (4). However, crowds are often non-violent (1), selective in their targets (2) and at the basis of social change (3). Crowds can be instrumental to individuals reaching their ideals. Meaningful crowd behaviour can be seen as collective action.
The mass society theory states that physical and social divisions between classes makes social order difficult to maintain as people might become vulnerable to manipulation and especially powerful in a single group when freed from hierarchical order.
Traditional research on crowd behaviour focuses on the individual. Zimbardo’s deindividuation approach states that anonymity leads to reduced self-observation and self-evaluation which, in turn, leads to fewer feelings of guilt and shame which lowers the thresholds for antisocial behaviour, making antisocial behaviour more likely. This has a strong focus on the individual and there is little attention to context.
Later deindividuation theories focus more on intragroup dynamics and underlying mechanisms that could explain why individuals show non-normative behaviour.
Public self-awareness refers to the concern about appearance and impressions made. Behaviour is monitored through other people’s standards (e.g. social norms). Private self-awareness refers to monitoring own behaviour regarding own standards (e.g. values).
Differential self-awareness theory of deindividuation states that a low public self-awareness will lead to the conception that there is no expected punishment by others for behaviour and that low private self-awareness will lead to deindividuation (i.e. no feelings of guilt). Low public self-awareness and low private self-awareness will lead to non-normative behaviour in crowds.
Lower accountability leads to low public self-awareness which leads to the notion that aggressive behaviour goes unpunished which leads to aggression in crowds. External attentional cues lead to low private self-awareness which leads to deindividuation which leads to aggression in crowds.
However, there is no strong support for deindividuation and non-normative behaviour although lower accountability does predict non-normative behaviour.
There are four reasons to study crowds:
Political Psychology – Lecture 4 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]Procedural justice refers to the fairness of decision-making procedures and whether authorities treat people with respect and can be trusted. Distributive justice refers to fairness of outcomes. Procedural justice is more important for people than distributive justice.
The intergroup threat theory states that the higher levels of perceived threat result in higher levels of national identification. The greater levels of identification, the greater support for collective action. This occurs in both majorities and minorities.
There are three types of threat:
Type of identification | Characteristics | Inclusivity | Attitudes towards outgroup (e.g. refugees) |
Ethnic | Shared background, ethnicity. | Low | Negative |
Cultural | Shared culture, cultural maintenance. | Low | Neutral or negative |
Civic | Participation in society, following laws. | High | Neutral or positive |
Ethnicity is less important for cultural identification. Ethnicity and culture are less important for civic identification. National identification is often associated with less positive attitudes. Out-group prejudice may occur under conditions of threat.
There is a positive correlation between ethnic and cultural identity conceptualization. There is a negative correlation between ethnic/cultural and civic identity conceptualization. A higher ethnic identity conceptualization is related to more prejudice and this does not hold for higher civic identity
.....read more Political Psychology – Lecture 5 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]Radicalization refers to the action or process of making someone more radical (i.e. extreme) in their political or religious beliefs. It includes a growing preparedness to strive for and support far-reaching changes in society. People are becoming increasingly motivated to use violent means against members of an out-group or symbolic targets to achieve political goals. It is best understood as a process driven by a combination of personality and contextual factors.
All terrorists have gone through a process of radicalization. However, not all who radicalize will become terrorists. Terrorism refers to deliberate and systematic violence performed by small numbers of people. The purpose is to intimidate the watching audience. It is generally a resistance to authority, although it can be difficult to distinguish terrorists and guerrilla fighters. One person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter. Communal violence refers to spontaneous and sporadic violence and requires mass participation.
It is not possible to predict who will become a terrorist based on demographic information. However, there are some demographic characteristics. Most terrorists are young men. They have both high and low education, depending on the cohort and the position in the group. Female terrorism is growing.
Radicalization can be studied using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It makes use of experimental studies (1), surveys (2), interviews (3), case studies (4), computer simulations (5) and participatory observation (6). A multi-method approach and data triangulation are the most viable ways of studying radicalization.
The psychopathological theories of terrorism state that terrorists suffer from psychopathology or are psychopaths. However, there is insufficient evidence for this hypothesis. In addition to this, terrorism requires functioning in groups and can be seen as pro-social in some cases.
The staircase theory of terrorism states that people become increasingly radical as they ‘climb’ the staircase of terrorism. There are several floors in this model:
The stage theory of terrorism states that people become increasingly radical and that there are several steps to take to terrorism. This model is focused on religiously motivated terrorism. The steps are pre-radicalization (1), self-identification (2), indoctrination (3) and jihadization (4).
It is possible that people have a shield of resilience, preventing them from radicalizing. This shield of resilience includes protective factors. After radicalizing, the shield of resilience flips and the risk factors that make it more likely that someone radicalizes become protective factors that make it less likely that someone de-radicalizes. People go through the stages of sensitivity (1), group membership (2) and action
.....read more Political Psychology – Lecture 6 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]Deradicalization refers to the process of becoming less radical. This applies to both behaviour and beliefs. It involves the cessation of violent actions (1), an increase in confidence in the system (2), a desire to be a part of society (3) and a rejection of non-democratic means (4). Deradicalization programmes often include an effort to prevent radicalization from taking place.
Disengagement refers to the disengagement of radical behaviour. It only applies to behaviour and does not apply to beliefs (e.g. no use of ideology-based violence).
It is not possible to categorize radicalized people in different stages because many individual activists do not fit in these categories. Typologies which work well for one movement may not work well for another movement. It is more useful to describe individuals involved in extremist groups along several dimensions or continuums. There are several relevant continuums:
These drivers are used to develop deradicalization and disengagement interventions. A lot of people join extremist groups when they are still minors. Outgroup threat is an important entry factor for extremist groups. There are several other reasons for entry:
There are also several reasons why people leave extremist groups:
People their relationships with family and friends tends to worsen when they are part of an extremist group and they tend to become less connected to society. People appear to have high self-esteem during group membership (i.e. people get self-esteem from group membership).
There are several objectives of deradicalization programmes:
However, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness of interventions. It is also unclear what this evidence should consist of and what indicators of successful deradicalization are.
The DIAMANT de-radicalization programme consists of a turning
.....read more Political Psychology – Lecture 7 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]The biological approach states that mankind is genetically predisposed to be violent. Behaviourism states that violence is socially learned through modelling and operant conditioning. However, aggression is probably a consequence of an interaction between nature and nurture.
There are different personality traits related to showing aggression in different contexts (i.e. dark tetrad of personality). Narcissism is more likely to lead to aggression in combination with a threat to the ego. Psychopathy is more likely to lead to physical aggression. Machiavellianism is more likely to lead to calculative use of aggression. Sadism is more likely to lead to aggression in combination with anonymity.
The security dilemma refers to a situation in which the actions taken by each state to increase its security has the effect of simultaneously decreasing the security of its neighbours. In conflict situations, the true motivations of neighbours are unknown. Therefore, the beliefs about the neighbours’ motivation and capabilities determine decisions.
The fundamental attribution error refers to the tendency to attribute another person’s behaviour or actions to their dispositional qualities rather than situational factors. This error can in conflict situations lead to a malignant (spiral) process of hostile interaction.
According to this spiral, an anarchic situation is the starting point of intractable conflict. Both countries have a fear of becoming military inferior. This leads to a win-lose (i.e. zero-sum) competitive orientation. The conflict inside the nation justifies the external conflict. This leads to cognitive rigidity (i.e. misjudgements of others). This, in turn, leads to the expression of hostility which results in hostility.
Deterrence refers to the use of threats to prevent someone from doing something. The effectiveness of deterrence depends on the credibility of the threat. Degenerate image refers to an image of whether a country equal in power is confused or lacking the will to respond to the actions of another country (i.e. no credibility for deterrence).
Image outgroup | Assessment | Emotions | Strategic preference |
Enemy (e.g. IRA) | High threat | Anger, envy, fear, distrust, respect | Containment |
Barbarian (e.g. Islamic extremism) |
Political Psychology – Lecture 8 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]Genocide refers to killing members of the group (1), causing serious bodily or mental harm to members (2), deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life to bring about physical destruction (3), imposing measures intended to prevent births (4) and forcibly transferring children to another group (5) with the intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.
In other words, it is an intent to annihilate people based on their group membership. It employs a systematic approach. However, it is a highly debated concept. There is no consensus on the definition. It is also highly politicized concept because acknowledging genocide legally means an obligation to take responsibility and intervene.
It is a highly emotionally laden term and the term is often used for propagandistic reasons. A lot of disciplines study genocide and all disciplines have a different perspective on it. People study genocide to understand why genocide is possible and to predict and prevent future genocide.
The situationist approach states that depending on the context (i.e. situation), people can easily become perpetrators in a genocide (e.g. Milgram’s research). Milgram’s research may account for the average citizen’s dutiful destructiveness but it does not account hate-driven cruelties. There are more factors at play during a genocide than authority (e.g. greed, personality, ideology, historical grievances).
This leads to the question of whether social psychology is fit to study genocide. However, it is most likely fit to study genocide but only in accordance with other disciplines. A lot of behaviour of perpetrators, bystanders, victims and instigators can be understood as the consequence of normal mechanisms of perception, learning, socialization and development.
There are different potential causes of genocide. At the micro-level (i.e. individual), perpetrator’s behaviour may be understood through personality. At the meso level (i.e. group), perpetrator’s behaviour may be understood through a pressure to conform to the group norm. At the macro-level (i.e. societal), perpetrator’s behaviour may be understood through global developments.
Waller’s theory states that genocide is possible because of ancestral shadow (1), identities of the perpetrators (2), a culture of cruelty (3) and social death of the victims (4). Baumeister’s theory states that genocide is possible because of idealism (1), threatened egotism (2), instrumentalism (3) and sadism (4).
According to Staub’s theory, the perpetrators often have an ideology of antagonism. This states that the group’s identity or self-definition includes enmity toward another group. Genocide may occur because of a combination of difficult life conditions (e.g. loss of national status) (1) and group conflict (e.g. history of conflict) (2). This states that the group’s identity or self-definition includes enmity toward another group. The difficult life conditions ensure that certain basic human needs are threatened (e.g. material needs, need for safety, need for self-esteem, need for freedom).
The cultural societal characteristics of the perpetrators include several aspects:
Political Psychology – Lecture 9 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]Reconciliation refers to the mutual acceptance by groups of each other. It consists of a changed psychological orientation toward each other. Forgiveness refers to the restoration of a positive relationship between perpetrator and victim. The negative emotions toward the perpetrator are replaced with positive emotions and behaviour. Forgiveness is one-sided, whereas reconciliation is not. Forgiveness makes one very vulnerable by returning to the victim role momentarily.
Forgiveness without appropriate actions by perpetrators or members of the perpetrator group can have harmful effects. Victimization diminishes the status of the victims in relation to the perpetrators. Reconciliation is often aimed at restoring this balance. It is possible to obtain some form of reconciliation through justice.
Victims suffer from chronic effects of trauma. This includes hyper-vigilance (1), chronic anxiety (2), insomnia (3), nightmares (4), tension-related physical problems (5), numbness (6) and anger (7). This can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder if it is prolonged. A consequence of PTSD is that victims are reluctant to enter the reconciliation context. Therefore, strong institutional support to safeguard victims is necessary.
After a political tragedy (e.g. genocide), the perpetrators can also suffer from trauma. However, the perpetrators often show no guilt (1), continue to dehumanize the victims (2) or believe it was the right thing to do (3). The bystanders often distance themselves from the victims and do not acknowledge what happened.
There are several challenges of the post-conflict society. Peacebuilding is often extremely difficult. The leaders are required to build coalitions and calm fears. The justice perception and reconciliation in a post-conflict society depends on the social context. There are several societal interventions that can increase reconciliation and forgiveness:
Political Psychology – Lecture 10 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]Political apology is a specific type of potentially reconciliatory behaviour. It is almost always an intergroup apology. Transitional justice refers to the transformation of authoritarian regimes and regimes involved in mass human right violations into democracies that overcome such histories and seek social reconciliation and restorative justice.
An apology refers to communications in which offending parties acknowledge responsibility or guilt for an offence and express regret or remorse to an offended party. An apology consists of an expression of remorse or regret (1), expression of responsibility (2), a promise of forbearance (3) and offers of repair.
A political apology is an official apology given by a representative of a state, corporation or another organised group to victims or descendants of victims of injustices committed by the group’s officials or members.
The sender and the recipient of a political apology can be an individual or a group. Apologies often have a bigger effect, even if the apology is one-to-one (i.e. the effect moves on to the rest of the group). Although an apology often contains compensation, this can be interpreted as insulting. There are several requirements of a redress claim:
Human injustice refers to the violation or suppression of human rights or fundamental freedoms recognized by international law. A redress can be an apology (1), an apology and compensation (2) and compensation only (3). With reparations, there is an expression of atonement. With settlements, there is no expression of atonement. An apology can be monetary and non-monetary. An apology can also be compensatory (i.e. directed at an individual) or rehabilitative (i.e. directed to a group).
Intergroup apology does not always lead to intergroup forgiveness. Guilt leads to motivation for apology (1), financial reparation (2) and acknowledgement of negative aspects of group history. There is mixed evidence for the link between apology and forgiveness. However, a failure to acknowledge transgressions can breed intergroup conflict in the future.
An apology promotes motivation to forgive but there is a stronger effect for low-identifiers (i.e. people who do not strongly identify with their group). There is also less of a desire to take revenge. People who do not strongly identify with their group are more likely to forgive following an apology.
There is research which suggests that there is no effect of an apology on forgiveness. However, it is possible that the participants in this research felt they were not in the position to forgive. If someone from the in-group states that it is okay to apologize, people are not more likely to forgive.
A transgressor is perceived as having more remorse when this transgressor apologizes. The perceived remorsefulness leads to
.....read more Political Psychology – Lecture 11 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]There is an important role of emotion in voting. Furthermore, there is an important role of narratives in voting. This is reflected in the content of the message, the identity (i.e. of the groups) and the values. The parents (1), school (2), friends (3), media (4) and events (5) are important in forming political attitudes.
There is a genetic component to political attitudes. About 30% of political attitudes is explained by genes. About 16% is explained by the shared environment and the rest of the political attitudes is explained by unshared environment.
Socialization explains more variance in political attitudes than genes but both are important. There are short-term factors that are important in explaining one’s voting behaviour (i.e. issues and candidates). There are also long-term factors that are important in explaining one’s voting behaviour (i.e. group loyalty and party identity).
There are four groups of political sophistication:
There are other groups of political activity:
First impressions are important in explaining voting behaviour. There are several trivial factors that form a first impression and tend to help explain voting behaviour (e.g. height; face).
Narratives and emotions are especially powerful in explaining voting behaviour when people have limited political knowledge. Leaders can elicit different emotions depending on party affiliation.
A feeling of fear and threat leads to higher approval ratings for strong leaders (e.g. Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis). In times of trouble, there is more support for a strong leader. The popularity of strong leaders goes up.
The theory of affective intelligence states that people normally vote for their party (i.e. the party they affiliate with most in neutral circumstances). However, when a person experiences anxiety (e.g. due to issues with party plans; personal issues with candidate), people tend to scrutinize certain topics (e.g. party plans; personal qualities of the leader). This leads to reduced importance of the party. This, in turn, can lead to a person voting for another party. Voting intention can change as a result of anxiety and the resulting scrutinization of the party.
Enthusiasm is a good predictor of voting behaviour. People look for information when they experience anxiety. There is no moderating effect of anxiety for comparative personal quality (e.g. looking at different candidates). People tend to look for information
.....read more Political Psychology – Lecture 12 [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]The media presents narratives. It makes use of cognition and emotions. The media bias refers to the idea that media are not objective. This leads to more distrust in the media and is more prevalent among right-wing. There is a media bias through four aspects:
Fake Facebook pages lead to less trust in social media.
The agenda-setting theory states that the media does not determine what people think but it determines what people think about. Media coverage is related to topic importance. If a candidate is perceived as doing well on a topic the media emphasizes, the candidate is perceived as doing well overall. The agenda-setting effect is stronger for people with low political interest (1), party involvement (2) and education (3).
Framing states that the media influences both the understanding and evaluation of a topic. The media focuses on a specific element of a topic and this leads to a different evaluation of the topic.
Emotions are a powerful force within the political communication process. They are integral components of news frames and exposure to news framing can cause an individual to have specific emotional reactions.
Equivalency frames refer to qualitatively different yet potentially relevant considerations. Issue-specific frames refer to frames regarding a specific topic. Generic news frames refer to frames regarding a wide variety of topics.
The appraisal theory states that the development of an emotional state depends on individual and subjective evaluations of that event, meaning that a cognitive appraisal of a specific event precedes emotional response to a news frame.
Emotions affect political participation and attitudes. An emotion frame has a direct effect on opinion. A positive frame leads people to be more likely to have a positive opinion and people are more likely to feel enthusiasm and contentment. Enthusiasm, in turn, affects opinion. A negative frame leads people to be more likely to have a negative opinion and people are more likely to feel fear and anger. Anger, in turn, affects opinion.
Contentment and fear are not strongly related to opinion. Message-induced anger leads to more attention and more careful information processing. Message-induced fear leads to a low willingness to process information. Enthusiasm is related to mobilizing action tendencies and deep-information processing. Contentment is associated with immobility and a failure to process a message.
Social media influences voting behaviour in several ways:
Political Psychology - Article summary [UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM]
This bundle contains everything you need to know for the course "Political Psychology" taught at the University of Amsterdam. It contains the following articles:
"Hammack & Pilecki (2012). Narrative as a root metaphor for Political Psychology".
"Van Zomeren, Spears, Fischer, & Leach (2004). Put your money where your mouth is! Explaining collective action tendencies through group-based anger and group efficacy."
"Wright, Taylor, & Moghaddam (1990). Responding to membership in a disadvantaged group: From acceptance to collective protest."
"Deax, Reid, Martin, & Bikmen (2006). Ideologies of diversity and inequality: Predicting collective action in groups varying in ethnicity
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