This course reviews how several different aspects of human psychology influence public opinion and political behavior at the mass level. How we discuss politics with others, our positions on major policy issues, the decision to vote in elections, how we interpret political information, and more, are all shaped (at least in part) by psychological factors.
Over the term, we will cover several different aspects of political psychology, including various theoretical underpinnings, personality, partisanship and other forms of identity, morality, media and misinformation, and neurological and evolutionary factors, among other topics. Along the way, we will relate core principles learned in each unit to central questions and challenges in political science more broadly.