RESEARCH THEMES

Leadership

overview

Leaders are shaped by institutions and the context in which they emerge. But maybe they are also special personalities. The Hot Politics Lab analyzes these three factors and their interaction to understand leadership in modern democracies. In one paper we analyze how differences in party organizations explain which voters parties follow. We also analyze how the aspirations of political parties influences the degree to which they adopt change. More recently, we have investigated (and found) personality differences between politicians, and the effect it has on their language. For example, we find that liberal politicians use more complex language than conservative politicians, across time and contexts. 

Publications

Nr.Citation
Bert N. Bakker, Jaidka, K., Dorr, T., Fasching, N., & Lelkes, Y. (accepted for publication). Questionable and open research practices among quantitative communication researchers . Journal of Communication.
Martijn Schoonvelde, Gijs Schumacher & Bert Bakker (2019). Friends With Text as Data Benefits: Assessing and Extending the Use of Automated Text Analysis in Political Science and Political Psychology. Journal of Social and Political Psychology.
Denise Traber, Martijn Schoonvelde & Gijs Schumacher (2019) Errors have been made, others will be blamed: Issue engagement and blame shifting in prime minister speeches during the economic crisis in Europe. European Journal of Political Research.
Gijs Schumacher & Ingo Zettler (2019). House of Cards or West Wing? Self-reported HEXACO Traits of Danish Politicians . Personality and Individual Differences.
Martijn Schoonvelde, Anna Brosius, Gijs Schumacher & Bert Bakker (2019). Liberals Lecture, Conservatives Communicate: analyzing complexity and ideology in 381,475 speeches . PLoS One.
Mariken van der Velden, Gijs Schumacher & Barbara Vis (2017). Living in the Past or Living in the Future? Analyzing Parties’ Platform Change In Between Elections,The Netherlands 1997–2014. Political Communication.
Gijs Schumacher & Kees van Kersbergen (2016). Do mainstream parties adapt to the welfare chauvinism of populist parties? Party Politics.
Gijs Schumacher, Marc van de Wardt, Barbara Vis & Michael Baggesen Klitgaard (2015). How Aspiration to Office Conditions the Impact of Government Participation on Party Platform Change . American Journal of Political Science.
Gijs Schumacher, Catherine de Vries & Barbara Vis (2013). Why do Parties change Position? Party organization and environmental incentives Journal of Politics.