Our Team - Political Cognition Laboratory

Political Cognition Lab

Political Cognition Lab is an interdisciplinary team composed of social psychologists and sociologists, which came into being from the need to scrutinise the question of political behaviour. Our goal is to explain the interdependencies between specific types of actions undertaken in the public sphere and different factors conditioning them, such as values and beliefs, personality traits, cognitive styles, demographic variables and many more.

What are the motivations and the barriers standing on the way to citizen participation? What is the origin of intergroup friendship as opposed to hostility? Who and why believes in conspiracy theories and trusts fake news? We aim to answer these, as well as many other questions by conducting various research projects.

The projects carried out within the framework of the Political Cognition Lab include both basic, as well as applied research, conducted as part of grants awarded by reputable national and international institutions. Our team consists of academics specialising in both quantitative, as well as qualitative research. We obtain insights by analysing data collected from representative samples reflecting the characteristics of our target groups and we use a wide variety of statistical tools (i.e. regression analysis, structural equation modeling, segmentation analysis). We also carry out experimental research – applying not only declarative, but also behavioural methods of data measurement. We seek insight into the research questions also by conducting in-depth individual interviews (IDIs) and focus groups (FGIs). The aim is to test varied research models and suggest innovative interventions, meeting the challenges of the contemporary world of politics.