Threat and politics

In June 2022, I have received a NWO VIDI grant for his project “Under pressure: studying the causes and consequences of societal threats”. The 800.000 Euro’s will allow me to build a research team to study this topic. What is the project about?

With a pandemic, climate change, and terrorist attacks, we have seen threats that could have, or will in the future, fundamentally alter our way of life. The perceptions of threat can disrupt society as threat fuels protest, support for anti-democratic policies, and even leads to violence. In this project, the researchers will study how people perceive and regulate threats and adopt political attitudes and behaviours to counter these threats. The project will inform citizens how to deal with the threats of the 21st century and prevent threats from disrupting society. The project will start January 1st 2022 and in the coming years, I will hire 2 PhD students to work with him on this project. More information about the VIDI can be found here: https://www.nwo.nl/en/news/101-researchers-receive-nwo-vidi-grant-worth-800000-euros

Relevant publications

  • Brandt, M., & Bakker, B.N. (2022). The complicated but solvable threat-politics relationship. Trends in the Cognitive Sciences, 26(5), 368-370
  • Brandt, M.J., & Bakker, B.N. (2022). Threat-politics perceptions are intertwined with emotional processes. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 26(9), 733-734
  • Malka, A., Lelkes, Y., Bakker, B.N., & Spivak, E. (2022). Who is open to authoritarian governance within western democracies? The role of cultural conservatism and the protection-based attitude package. Perspectives on Politics.
  • De Vries, C.E., Bakker, B.N., Hobolt, S.B., & Arceneaux, K. (2021). Crisis signalling: How Italy’s coronavirus lockdown affected incumbent support in other European countries. Political Science Research and Methods, 9(3), 451-467. (Open access)