Research directions
Overview
My research activities are interdisciplinary, multi-method and cross-national. They are located at the intersection between social and political psychology and contribute to a societal approach of social psychology. My research refers to relevant work in related social science disciplines such as sociology, political science, and communication, but remains firmly anchored in social psychological research paradigms and theoretical models.
Most of my research is concerned with asymmetric intergroup relations across different social and political contexts (e.g., between national minorities and majorities, between the “people” and the “elite”, between high- and low status groups). My studies examine socio-cognitive, identity-based and normative processes that emerge from such asymmetric intergroup contexts, and relate them to socially relevant, contemporary issues (e.g., populism, social inequality, vulnerability, multiculturalism, life-course transitions). The analysis of these processes is based on an interdisciplinary social representations perspective that combines theories of intergroup relations, social legitimacy, and ideological beliefs. In terms of methods, I mainly analyse national and cross-national survey data, but I also use experimental approaches, as well as qualitative methods such as focus groups and interviews. My current research is organized around four axes that often intersect with each other:
Populist representations
In this axis, we examine the social and roots and psychological processes underlying populist forms of social order, understood as widespread, yet heterogeneous conceptions of society based in an irreconcilable opposition between a morally superior “people” and an immoral “elite”. Our study programme follows an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and cross-national framework to study the attitudinal structure, antecedents, and outcomes of left- and right-wing populist representations across (mainly) European countries. In our research, we use both secondary survey data (e.g., ESS) and our own cross-national survey data from the Populist Representations Survey (10 countries). We further develop experiments examining the role of uncertainty, emotions, and relative deprivation in the formation of populist attitudes, and we also carry out interviews and focus group discussions with young people to reach a deeper understanding of the individual, group-based and contextual factors underlying populist thinking and behaviour.
Collaborators : Matteo Cavallaro (Postdoc), Anna Cortijos-Bernabeu (PhD), Vanessa Juarez (PhD), Jérôme Voumard (PhD)
Contemporary Youth: Transitions, Well-being, and Political Behaviour
This research has emerged in the framework of the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) LIVES: Overcoming vulnerability. It develops a social psychological approach to life course transitions in young adults, and extends it to the study of young people’s well-being, health, and political behaviour. The research analyses how young adults experience and regulate life course transitions, how they cope with subjective and objective forms of vulnerability, and how they construe themselves as members of a political and civic community. We also develop a framework bridging social identity and social network approaches that studies how group membership and personal networks promote or hinder successful coping with life course challenges. Some studies focus on young adults in general, whereas others examine the construction of representations of the political in low status groups (e.g., apprentices, vocational students). In this research, we use a variety of methods, including survey data (e.g, nation-wide survey of army recruits), experiments and qualitative approaches (focus groups).
Collaborators : Eric Widmer (UNIGE), Anahita Mehrpour (PhD), Vanessa Juarez (PhD)
Cultural diversity and multiculturalism
A longstanding research interest concerns various topics related to cultural diversity and multiculturalism. In this research, I focus on the asymmetrical relations between national minorities and majorities and use a social justice approach to examine attitudes towards minorities, majorities, and cultural diversity in general. A basic claim in these studies (with Jessica Gale) is that different types of social justice principles regulate the relations between minorities and majorities: majorities are associated with various forms of individual justice, whereas minorities are associated with forms of collective (group-based) justice. In other studies (with Emanuele Politi), we have looked at the social psychological implications of national citizenship (naturalization) policies that regulate the passage from (immigrant) minority to (national) majority groups.
Collaborators : Jessica Gale (U Leuven, UNIL), Emanuele Politi (U Leuven), Eva Green (UNIL)
Social justice, welfare, and inequality
A fourth axis of research is focused on attitudes towards social justice and inequality. We examine formation of public opinion towards social policies mainly in the context of national welfare state arrangements (“welfare attitudes”). These studies rely on national and international survey data, and seek to understand the psychological, social, and contextual factors that underlie opposition to or support of various (redistributive) social policies. These studies highlight the often conflicting and ambivalent role of subjective evaluations of one’s social position, in terms of perceived material vulnerability and different types of relative deprivation. They also emphasize the importance of social and institutional trust in the development of social justice attitudes.
