Anna Blom Kemdal, Filosofie Doktor

My research regards people’s attitudes in controversial issues, and how they explain reasons/causes for their own attitudes vs. someone with the opposite attitude. In earlier studies I found that people tend to explain their own and members’ of their ingroups attitudes more with external, and legitimate causes, whereas they explain opponents’ attitudes more with internal, and illegitimate causes. But I also found that they could correctly estimate the (opposite) pattern of causes in opponents’ answers to the same questions. In these studies I researched attitudes towards animal experimentation, increased immigration, and (in Israel) peace negotiations with Syria.

I am also interested in decision making, democratic deliberations, and democratic participation. I collaborate with researchers in other areas w ithin psychology, e.g. developmental psychologist Eva Hoff on young people’s self-esteem, and other scientific areas, like political scientist Malena Rosén Sundström, in a project on why young people do not become members of the traditional political parties as often.

I am currently working on a project where I, together with a former student from HKR, and a research team in Louisiana, USA, analyze chats from Incel fora from a social cognitive perspective.