Structural and functional characteristics of the political brain

This internship is part of the Hot Politics Lab (UvA), an interdisciplinary research group using cognitive psychology, political science and adjacent fields to explain salient socio-political themes.

Inspired by an expression from the works of Ziva Kunda, Milton Lodge, Charles Taber and Antonio Damasio, we view that politics not always involves cool, rational processes. Cognition is hot and as such, emotional and cognitive biases drive (political) information-processing and decision-making. In our lab, we investigate behavioural and electrophysiological manifestations of such biases, often among individuals with different political convictions.

For the coming academic year 2021-22, we are looking for four enthusiastic and highly motivated students that are interested in the crossing between cognitive neuroscience and political science, and wish to further develop their skills with collecting and/or analyzing EEG, fMRI and EDA/EMG data. A good understanding of key analytical methods using such techniques is essential. Experience with R and/or Matlab is required. Basic command of Dutch is a plus.

In the HPL, we value open science and preregistered reports. The intern student(s) will be involved in the process of preregistration (experimental design and data collection), in data analyses and in reporting of the study findings (please note that new data collection may be subject to covid19-related restrictions applied at the time of the internship period).

For more information, please contact dr. Diamantis Petropoulos Petalas, via [staat bij de werkgever]