Advances in the Political Psychology of How Ordinary Citizens Relate to Government

The study of mass attitudes and behaviour towards politics has a long history with a rich variety of combinations of studying individual backgrounds, social interactions, media and political institutions to get a better grip on how ordinary citizens relate to government, why they differ and why they change. In this panel we want to focus on recent research on public or group attitudes and moods and on attitude and opinion formation of individuals. We welcome both conceptual and empirical contributions. The panel aims to include both comparative and single case studies, using quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods. Paper proposals for this panel should relate to such questions as: What are core political attitudes and expectations of citizens, how and why do they change and why do they differ between groups? What role do media, political parties, interest organizations and social movements, and elections and other political events play to relate citizens to the institutions of government? We in particular welcome papers using new insights in (political) psychology and methodological innovations.