POL 346 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Group Decision-Making, Motivated Reasoning, Social Influence
30 Aug 2018
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Document Summary
What is political psychology: the application of theories and findings from the study of human psychology to the study of politics, not psychoanalyzing politics actors and diagnosing them with mental illnesses. It is also the practice of studying politics in order to learn new things and understand human psychology. Political actors are humans: how we think, feel, and behave are all influenced by human psych. Psychology fluencies us at both the individual and social/group level. Can we make them more or less rational: how does our basic human nature influence politics? ex. Genetics, personality, basic human cognitions and biases, emotions, group memberships/identities, etc: how does our environment influence politics? ex. Where we live, socialization, the people we interact with, the media, the political environment we live in, etc: how does psychology influence who gets elected and what they do once elected? ex. Group decision making of elites, campaign strategies, etc.
