Hometown: Reykjavik, Iceland
Undergraduate Major: B.A., Psychology
Undergraduate Institution: University of Iceland, 1999
Research Interests
My research interests revolve around the question of whether there are meaningful psychological antecedents and consequences of adhering to different political ideologies. More specifically, I study both individual differences and situational conditions associated with right vs. left-wing political orientations. I primarily utilize the theoretical conception of political ideology as an example of motivated social cognition (Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003) and focus in particular on understanding the role of perceptions of uncertainty and threat in forming political orientations. In my research I aim to span the distance between cognitive processes and societal factors, and my research methods range from controlled laboratory experiments to the testing of complex structural equation models based on large international surveys.
