Joseph Foley

As a political and social psychologist, I'm interested in understanding the perceptual and group dynamics which predicate particular political positions, especially those which locate themselves in opposition to the status quo. 

My PhD research broadly interrogates how populism is a generalised response to perceptions of unfairness; both unfairness at a structural or systemic level, and at an intergroup level. Additionally, I'm interested in how individuals vary in how they fill 'the people', the main collective subject of populism, with social meaning.

Beyond this, I'm additionally interested in masculine identification, democratic attitudes, feelings of political resignation, and the endorsement of political violence as a means of political contestation.

Personally, I hope to contribute to the broader literature in a way which does not reproduce some of the elitist or paternalistic tendencies of academia. 

Publication(s):

Populist attitudes of Democrats and Republicans are differentially affected by changes in electoral fairness and democratic satisfaction, https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.70032