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Welcome to the Hot Politics Lab. We do research on the role of emotion, language and personality in politics. The Hot Politics Lab is an interdisciplinary research group combining experiments, physiological measurement and automated text analysis to analyze the role of emotions, personality and language in politics. We analyze topics such as populism, persuasion and party strategies.

The Hot Politics Lab is run by Gijs Schumacher (Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam), Matthijs Rooduijn (Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam) and Bert Bakker (Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam).

Presentation OnderbuikNL Results

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Is politics hot? Do politicians evoke physiological responses? We will present the first findings from our OnderbuikNL project on May 8th at Spui25 (20.00-21.30). We will show which physiological responses people have to political ads they agree or disagree with. And whether left-wing and right-wing people have different physiological responses to negative political stimuli. Also, we will reveal who experiences physiological arousal when exposed to a picture of Geert Wilders.

We will also share some of our fun and not-so fun experiences with putting a (physiological) lab in the field.

Click here for a preview of our slide show.

 

Six paper presentations at MPSA

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The Hot Politics Lab members will present 6 papers at the Midwest Political Science Association Conference in Chicago (April 5-8). [We will update links to papers and slides in the next days]

1. Experimental Evidence of Loss Aversion Among Swedish Politicians (Gijs Schumacher and Patrik Ohberg). The paper shows that Swedish politicians desire more change in the party’s ideology and strategy when the polls indicate that their party is losing. You can view the paper here and find the slides here. Presentation: April 5, 8.00-9.30.

2. Ideological Differences in the Negativity Bias? Evidence from four replication studies across two political contexts (Kevin Arceneaux, Bert Bakker and Gijs Schumacher). This paper evaluates the link between the negativity bias and ideology. You can view the paper here. Presentation: April 5, 15:00-16:30.

3. Hot Politics. Physiological Responses to Political Communication (Bert Bakker and Matthijs Rooduijn). This paper analyzes physiological responsiveness to different political messages about immigration, EU, climate and inequality. Click here for the slides. Presentation: April 6, 11:30-13.00.  Read more>>

4. Explaining Personalization in Politics. Is it strategy, fashionable or personality driven? (Gijs Schumacher & Sander Kunst). The paper analyzes personalization by politicians in Danish and Dutch party congress speeches. Our main conclusion is that personalization is more of personal preference, rather than a time trend.  You can view the paper here. Presentation: April 7, 11:30-13.00.

5. Liberals Lecture, Conservatives Communicate. A cross-national, cross-temporal analysis of linguistic complexity and ideology in 381475 speeches by EU politicians (Martijn Schoonvelde, Gijs Schumacher, Bert Bakker and Anna Brosius). The paper shows that progressive politicians (liberals) use more complex rhetoric than conservative politicians, across time and countries. You can view the paper here. Presentation: April 8, 11:30-13.00.

6. An Expressive Utility Account of Partisan Cue Receptivity:  Cognitive Resources in the Service of Identity Expression (Ari Malka, Yph Lelkes and Bert Bakker).