Political Psychology Advances: Public Opinion, Political Preferences, Identity and Conflict

This section, sponsored by the Political Psychology Standing Group and the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP), surveys important topics in political psychology research in Europe and the world following the successful tradition of the 2011, 2009, 2007, and 2005 ECPR conferences in Reykjavik, Potsdam, Pisa, and Budapest respectively. The goal of the section is to address the advances in research examining the psychological aspects of public opinion, political preferences, identity and conflict, hosting panels with theoretically driven empirical research papers from senior and junior international scholars. The section proposes to showcase the following research topics: personality in politics, political ambition and motives, political decision-making, political scandals, political marketing, political communication and the Internet, leadership and policy fiasco’s, political knowledge, party or candidate preference, political opinions, political values, political emotions, and neuropolitics. In addition, the section invites papers on political socialisation structures and processes, political identity development, political distrust and cynicism, political violence and terrorism, multiculturalism, fanaticism, group identifications, and civic competence. The purpose of the section is threefold: First, to further scientific discussion and research across all national scientific communities in Europe on the above topics. Second, to invite presentations from internationally renowend scholars outside Europe in order to strenghten research collaborations outside our European borders. Third, to foster strong bonds between the ECPR Political Psychology Standing Group, and the International Society of Political Psychology, which for the first time will co-sponsor the section by offering travel grants to a number of promising junior scholars. Upon completion of the conference, the Political Psychology Standing Group intends to proceed with a publication of selected papers from the Political Psychology Section panels, as the second volume of work on the state of the art developments in European Political Psychology. The first volume, showcasing work presented at the 2011 ECPR General Conference in Reykjavik is currently under production with Palgrave titled ‘Palgrave Handbook of Global Political Psychology’ with a publication date July 2013.