New insights into the political psychology of intergroup relations
BORIS DOI
Subtitle
how personality and emotions shape "our" attitudes towards "them"
Abstract
Comprised of four empirical articles, this cumulative dissertation provides new and topical insights into the political psychology of intergroup relations. Concretely, the dissertation in its entity adds to the psychological illumination of conceptions of nationhood, attitudes towards immigrants and populist attitudes as individual-level political phenomena, which are all inextricably linked to social identities that set the ingroup (“us”) against the outgroup(s) (“them”). Adopting a political psychology perspective, the main argument is that these intergroup attitudes are driven by inter-individual, psychological differences both in personality traits as deep-seated, stable characteristics and in emotions as situationally reactive, intrapsychic processes.
Each of the four articles contributes to the relevant literature by qualifying, refining and/or expanding existing theoretical and empirical insights, often in various ways. In this vein, a first key contribution lies in providing the very first systematic personality-based explanation of varying conceptions of nationhood (article 1). Second, the recently growing literature on the psychological underpinnings of populist attitudes is supplemented by new evidence on both dispositional and affective explanations, which take the concept’s multi-dimensionality and non-compensatory nature seriously and challenge previous assumptions around the populist personality (article 2) or the role played by external crises (article 4). A third important contribution is offered by connecting different literatures to provide a more comprehensive account of the emotional mechanisms connecting pandemic threat with anti-immigrant attitudes in a real-world situation (article 3).
Each of the four articles contributes to the relevant literature by qualifying, refining and/or expanding existing theoretical and empirical insights, often in various ways. In this vein, a first key contribution lies in providing the very first systematic personality-based explanation of varying conceptions of nationhood (article 1). Second, the recently growing literature on the psychological underpinnings of populist attitudes is supplemented by new evidence on both dispositional and affective explanations, which take the concept’s multi-dimensionality and non-compensatory nature seriously and challenge previous assumptions around the populist personality (article 2) or the role played by external crises (article 4). A third important contribution is offered by connecting different literatures to provide a more comprehensive account of the emotional mechanisms connecting pandemic threat with anti-immigrant attitudes in a real-world situation (article 3).
Date of Publication
2024
Year of graduation
2023
Theses Type
dissertation
Language(s)
en
Author(s)
Faculty/Graduate School
Institute
Access(Rights)
open.access
Primary OA Publication
true