The Psychology Behind Political Polarization

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Pages: 2

This week, political psychologist, Alex Theodoridis lectured on the psychology behind political polarization. First, he discussed the recent political climate between democrats, republicans, and independents. He mentioned that individuals usually identify with either of these parties, but there is also so-called “leaners.” Theodoridis then explained his work as a political psychologist. He elaborated that he studied how much people identified with a certain party at the “gut level” using the implicit association test (IAQ). The test, which measures people’s response time to certain phrases provides a good indicator of the subconscious association of a person with a specific party. He shared that the IAQ tended to be accurate in identifying