Political psychology and COVID-19

Question 1

What is political psychology?

Answer 1

● an application of what is known about human psychology to the study of politics (Huddy et al., 2013)
● studies the psychological underpinnings of political behaviour and attitudes

Question 2

Sort of political topics could be explored? (Huddy et al., 2013)

Answer 2

• Voter behaviour
• Political attitudes
• The influence of emotion on political decision making
• The role of cognitive biases in political beliefs
• For an overview see McKee & Stuckler (2010)

Question 3

Impact of social identity on political attitudes and behaviour?

Answer 3

● The ‘political elite’

Question 4

Different approaches from psychology applied to politics?

Answer 4

● biopsychology
● neuroscience
● personality
● psychopathology
● evolutionary psychology
● social psychology
● developmental psychology
● cognitive psychology
● intergroup relations

Question 5

Personalities and politics :

Answer 5

• Refers to habitual and distinct patterns of physical and mental activity that distinguish one individual from another
• A dynamic system of psychological structures and processes that mediates the relationship between the individual and the environment
• Interactions among multiple subsystems (cognitive, affective, and behavioural), which convey, foster, and preserve a sense of personal identity (Caprara & Cervone, 2000)
• Can be viewed as consisting of traits or dispositions
• Basic tendencies to exhibit consistent, stable patterns of experience and action across situations (McCrae & Costa, 2008)
• Social learning theories have paved the way to more comprehensive account of personality
• Social environments set the conditions for the construction and functioning of personality
• A view of personality as a selective, generative and proactive system, not just reactive and adaptive
• Values and self beliefs related to evaluative motivational functions which concern peoples views of themselves and what they cherish in life
• Democracies rest on the notion of choice (voting for representatives, in referenda etc.)S

Question 6

“Personalization of politics”

Answer 6

describes a process where the influence of the candidate as an individual is enhanced at the expense of parties

Question 7

• Stereotype Content Model (SCM):

Answer 7

that we evaluate others through the perception of their intentions (warmth) and their capability to make those intentions a reality (competence) (Fiske et al., 2007)

Question 8

Falcão et al. (2023

Answer 8

synthesize evidence regarding the impact of voters’ evaluation of candidates’ traits on political outcomes and the effects of voters’ traits on voting

• Personality traits of these individual represent significant predictors of voting decisions
• Both warmth and competence represented robust short term predictors of evaluations of candidates, turnout decisions, demographic variables and partisan identifications

Question 9

Warmth

Answer 9

plays significant cross sectional effects on candidate evaluation when not controlling for implicit competence

Question 10

Competence

Answer 10

significant cross- sectional effect on candidate evaluation

Question 11

Openness to experience

Answer 11

could lead to greater support for democratic candidate through its positive effect

Question 12

Conscientiousness

Answer 12

may indirectly lead to lower support for a democratic candidate due to negative effect on citizen liberalism and policy mood

Question 13

How might these findings be used in a socially irresponsible way?

Answer 13

• Persuasive communication is particularly effective when tailored to people’s unique psychological characteristics and motivations (Hirsh et al., 2012)
• People’s personality profiles have been predicted from personal websites
• However, none of the five personality traits were not significantly related to any TikTok usage behaviours (Omar & Dequan, 2020)
• Matz et al. (2017) sought to test the effects of psychological persuasion on people’s behaviour in ‘real world’ contexts

Question 14

Matz et al. (2017)

Answer 14

• Three field experiments that reached over 3.5 million individuals with psychologically tailored advertising
• Found that matching the content of persuasive appeals to individuals’ psychological characteristics significantly altered their behaviour as measured by clicks and purchases
• Found that matching the content of persuasive appeals to individuals’ psychological characteristics significantly altered their behaviour as measured by clicks and purchases
• Line of research inspired a wholly new way of thinking about politically persuasive communications
  Aleksandr Kogan (University of Cambridge, School of Psychology; 2012-2018)

Kogan developed the quiz app “This Is Your Digital Life”, harvesting data from Facebook users who installed the app

• Profiling users based on their Facebook ‘Likes’ or preferences
• Then placed targeted, political advertising
• Company is reputed to have swayed opinions and voting behaviour, specifically:
• Donald Trump’s 2016 US presidential campaign
• Elections in India, Mexico and Kenya

Question 15

Real world examples

Answer 15

From John Bolton’s 2014 campaign, working to support Republican candidates for the Senate:
* The first targeted to individual’s who score highly on the neurotic scale
* The second aiming for ‘agreeable’ individuals

Question 16

Why might findings be used in a socially irresponsible way be a problem?

Answer 16

• Privacy of users’ data (Matz et al., 2020)o blurred lines between public and private information;
  o outdated practices of notice and consent;
  o challenge traditional Conceptualizations of privacy in the context of psychological targeting and profiling

Raises questions regarding individuals’ autonomy and freedom of choice as voters

Individuals may receive ideologically infused messages tailored to their personal fears, interests and preconceptions through social media (Richterich, 2018

Question 17

Is this socially irresponsible?

Answer 17

Data-driven psychological research played a major role in fuelling uncertainty regarding Cambridge

Question 18

Going back to 2020/21

Answer 18

● A time when there were no vaccinations, nor ‘cure’
● A ‘new normal’ of:
○ Lockdown/physical distancing from others
○ Regular handwashing
○ Wearing of facemasks
○ Complying with test and trace guidelines
A health crisis but one rooted in the political

Question 19

Lessons learnt from intergroup psychology

Answer 19

Research and commentary initially focussed on factors relating to individual risk or compliance
People’s social identities provide psychologically meaningful frames.
* People tend to come together in time of crisis
“All in the same boat” (Abrams et al., 2021)