Lisa Janssen

Lisa Janssen

@lisajanssen.bsky.social

PhD at Ghent University | Political science | Affective polarization, political trust, and democratic legitimacy

1.7K followers265 following36 posts

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Why do citizens reciprocate? Open-ended responses point especially to fairness. Many respondents describe reciprocation as a way to restore balance or prevent the other side from benefiting from an uneven playing field.

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We test this in experiments in England and the US, exposing respondents to hypothetical democratic transgressions. Support for transgressions by one’s own side rises from 11.5% to 22.4% in England and from 10.9% to 25.2% in the US when the political opponent transgresses first.

The reciprocity effect is not dependent on affective polarization or other types of partisan attachment, suggesting that tendencies to reciprocate transgressions are more widespread amongst the general public.

Building on psych theories of negative reciprocity, we argue that democratic commitment is highly relational: when political opponents break democratic rules, citizens become more willing to support similar transgressions by their own side.

Lisa Janssen reposted

🌅📙 64.3 Is #AffectivePolarization harming democratic support? 💭 @lisajanssen.bsky.social & @turkenburgemma.bsky.social instead suggest an inverted U-shape pattern of #ModeratrePolarization & #ExtremePolarization using data from 🇩🇪🇬🇧 & 🇺🇸 🔗

ow.lyBreaking free from linear assumptions: Unravelling the relationship between affective polarization and democratic supportLISA JANSSEN, EMMA TURKENBURG

Lisa Janssen reposted

🚨 We're hiring! Join us at @LMU_Muenchen for the DFG-funded project "Democratic Persuasion: How to Make the Case for Democracy." Interested in making scholarly & societal impact? We’re looking for: 🔹 1 Postdoc (100%) 🔹 1 PhD researcher (70%) Starting: Oct 2025 | Apply by: July 8 More info ⬇️ (1/7)

Lisa Janssen reposted

Lisa Janssen reposted

Lisa Janssen reposted

❗️Short notice❗️ This Friday, Joep van Lit (Radboud University) will present key insights on democratic decay and the difficulties of democratic defence in our times. Everyone's welcome - no registration required! ➡️John Vincke room, T1 (Ghent) 🕒 11:00 - 12:00

Lisa Janssen reposted

‼️ New paper out in EJPR! With @mauritsmeijers.bsky.social, we use a new survey item that we fielded in surveys in five countries to examine who accepts party policy change. Check out the 🧵 by Maurits below for an overview of our findings!

Maurits Meijers@mauritsmeijers.bsky.social

Parties often change their policy positions, but what do citizens actually think about party policy change? In our new EJPRjournal article, @rdassonneville.bsky.social and I study party policy change acceptance among citizens in 5 countries (🇩🇪🇳🇱🇵🇱🇪🇸🇬🇧) ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 1/n

Amazing people, great discussions, and even better scenery! Really grateful to have joined this wonderful workshop at Villa Vigoni 🏞️

Claudia Landwehr@clandwehr.bsky.social

On my way back from our workshop "Contesting the rules of the game? Political conflict, polarization and procedural consensus" at the beautiful Villa Vigoni with wonderful colleagues! @arminschaefer.bsky.social @pcmagalhaes.bsky.social @saengler.bsky.social @kwalz.bsky.social @damienbol.bsky.social

Lisa Janssen reposted

Here is the second starter pack on researchers working on Political Behavior. The first pack filled up quickly. If you requested to be included and don’t see your name here, please reach out again—I might have missed your message go.bsky.app/CAMXbym

Pavlos Vasilopoulos@pavlosvas1.bsky.social

I haven't come across one yet, so I ended up creating a political behavior starter pack. Let me know if you want to be added go.bsky.app/MUYzY5P

Lisa Janssen reposted

Gisteren besteedde Eva Jinek een hele uitzending aan polarisatie in politiek en samenleving. Dankbaar dat ik een wetenschappelijke bijdrage mocht leveren. Oa over affectieve polarisatie en de rol van politieke elites. Aflevering hier terug te kijken eva.avrotros.nl/artikel/de-u...

eva.avrotros.nlDe uitzending van 20 novemberMet Natascha van Weezel, Özcan Akyol, Sarah de Lange, Laila Frank, Huib Modderkolk, Kustaw Bessems & Henri Bontenbal
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Our findings have important normative implications and question the belief that AP is always bad for democracy. Rather, it might be citizens positioned at the extremes - those extremely low or high in AP - that warrant attention.

Lastly, out research note has a crucial methodological contribution: We recommend future studies that aim to explore the relationship between AP and democratic support to account for possible non-linearity in their estimation strategies

We argue that though extreme AP may have an eroding effect on democratic attitudes by driving voters to view opponents as an existential threat, a moderate degree of AP can spur broader democratic involvement by making politics relevant to citizens

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The relationship between AP and the erosion of democratic norms may thus not be as straightforward as is often assumed 🤔 This challenges the assumption of linearity in the study of the consequences of AP, and emphasizes the need for more flexible estimation strategies.

In the note, we argue: 🫱 On the one hand, a healthy amount of AP may strengthen democratic attitudes by raising the stakes and spurring democratic involvement 🫲 On the other hand, extreme AP may have an eroding effect by driving voters to view opponents as an existential threat

Lisa Janssen reposted

The NotLikeUs research project just launched its website! 🧑‍💻 notlikeus.be   This project is a collaboration of Political Science researchers from seven Belgian universities (KULeuven UAntwerpen, UCLouvain, UGhent, ULBruxelles, UNamur, VUBrussel).