Professor Leonie Huddy, Stony Brook University, will visit the department on 3-6 March, where she will give a research talk, hold a “brown bag workshop” and be available for individual meetings. Please note the different dates! Find a short talk abstract below.

• Thursday, 5 March, 10:00-11:00: Leonie Huddy will give a talk entitled “Partisan Polarisation Unpacked: Democratic Backsliding, In-Party Loyalty, and Out-Party Animosity”. The talk will take place in the large meeting room (1330-126). All are welcome.
   
• Wednesday, 4 March, 12:00-13:00: Leonie Huddy will hold a brown bag workshop entitled “Crafting Impactful Research: From Research Question to Publication” (room 1341-315). The workshop will be an interactive conversation on how to select and develop strong research questions, craft significant contributions, and get them published. You are all welcome and welcome to bring your lunch. The workshop is aimed at PhD students, postdocs, and assistant professors as well as other interested faculty.
   
• In addition, Leonie Huddy has time for some individual meetings on Wednesday, 4 March before noon and Friday, 6 March before 1:00 p.m. (before participating in Louise Halberg Nielsen's PhD defence). If you would like to meet with Leonie Huddy, please contact Lene Aarøe (by Friday 20 March before noon, if possible).

Abstract

Affective polarization is defined and measured as the difference in feelings towards one's own versus an opponent political party (Druckman et al 2024; Iyengar et al 2019). This measure is not unitary, however, and masks two distinct phenomena: (1) loyalty and identification with one’s in-party, and (2) animosity towards an out-party. Positive and negative forms of partisanship are strongly related – strong partisans dislike the other political party in a deeply sorted and competitive political environment. But they are not identical. Some Americans feel attached to their party without disliking out-partisans, and other partisans feel animosity towards out-partisans in the absence of strong in-party identification. In this chapter, the psychology of in-party loyalty and out-party animosity and examine its consequences for the weaponization of democracy, and support for political violence. Some of the effects of polarization occur because party loyalists are motivated to defend their political party and maximize its electoral success. This type of polarization should be responsive to perceived threats against the in-party and decline when such threats decrease. In contrast, the negative effects of out-partisan animosity, akin to other forms of prejudice, may be more stable and difficult to mitigate. We discuss the implications of our findings for future psychological research on partisan polarization.

Short Bio:

Leonie Huddy is Distinguished Professor and former Chair of the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University (SUNY). She holds a PhD in Social Psychology from UCLA. Her research focuses on political identity, intergroup relations, emotions, gender and politics, and public opinion and has been published in leading journals including American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Political Psychology. She is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology (now in its 3rd edition) and former co-editor of the journal Political Psychology. She is the past president of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP). She is among the most cited scholars in political psychology worldwide.  See more on Professor Huddy’s Google Scholar page.