Research interests:
- Party identification and the social identity approach
- Negative party identification and out-group derogation
- Empirical social research (quantitative and qualitative)
- Online surveys and experimental techniques
- The voters of the right
Dissertation project:
Party identification revisited - the theory-adequate measurement of party identification as social identity
Using the social identity approach, I aim at conceptualizing party identification (including negative and multiple party identifications) more precisely. As the current measure of party identification does not allow a theory adequate measurement, I am exploring the possibilities for a new indicator, drawing on social identity research (Mael and Tetrick 1992; Leach et al. 2008; Postmes et al. 2013). Earlier studies often used the standard measures for party identification as a filter question, so the exisiting and new measures could not be explored independently. In addition, new measures were never asked for all parties in a party system which does not allow the measurement of multiple party identifications.
My resarch design provides a new and unique insight into the mechnisms of party identification and the relationship of the exisiting and new measure, as well as the distribution and effects of negative and multiple party identifications.
This project was founded by a grant from the Fritz Thyssen-Stiftung (~29.000 Euros, applied together with Prof. Schumann).