IP-PAD (Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Adolescence & Democracy) – a Doctoral Network committed to exploring the intricate relationship between adolescent development and political engagement. In an era where today’s youth shape the democracy of tomorrow, understanding how their cognitive and brain development influences political behavior is more important than ever. Our approach integrates political science, developmental psychology, and neuroscience to tackle the pressing societal challenge of declining youth engagement with democracy.
Start of the project
Our journey started in 2023. We are funded by Marie Curie Training Network.
Goal of the project
Adolescence marks an important phase of development, shaped by both biology and culture. While political science has traditionally examined youth political engagement, it has often overlooked the intricate mechanisms at play. That’s where developmental psychology and neuroscience come into play, equipped with the tools to dissect how adolescents navigate social cues, exercise cognitive functions, and grapple with political concepts. IP-PAD stands for a unified approach. Recognizing that these disciplines have worked in isolation, we advocate for their fusion. Achieving a comprehensive understanding of adolescent political processing demands the integration of these two strands of inquiry.
Current status
The project runs from 2023 until 2026.
Researchers on this project
Publications on project IP-PAD
| Nr. | Citation |
| 1 | Jakob Kasper, Bert N. Bakker (2025). Alexa Bankert. When Politics Becomes Personal: The Effect of Partisan Identity on Anti-Democratic Behavior Public Opinion Quarterly |
| 2 | Gustavo Couto de Jesus, Maaike D. Homan, Diamantis Petropoulos Petalas, Bert N.Bakker, Joe Bathelt, and Gijs Schumacher (2025). An ERP-study on the extent to which partisanship conditions the early processing of politicians’ faces Social Neuroscience |
| 3 | Céline Laffineur, Jakob Kasper, Lysanne te Brinke, Bert N. Bakker & Gijs Schumacher (2025). Political Interest, Activism, and Affective Polarization: Dutch Adolescents and Adults are not that Different. Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap |
| 4 | Jakob Kasper, Gijs Schumacher & Bert N. Bakker (2025). Establishing the Construct and Predictive Validity of Brief Measures of Affective Polarization. European Journal of Political Research |
| 5 | Céline Laffineur, Bert N. Bakker & Gijs Schumacher (2024). The Social Nature of Political (Dis)Interest: Conceptualizing and Validating Political (Dis)Interest as a Social Identity. Preprint |
| 6 | Gustavo Couto de Jesus, Maaike D. Homan, Diamantis Petropoulos Petalas, Bert N.Bakker, Joe Bathelt, and Gijs Schumacher (2024). An EEG-study on the extent to which partisanship conditions the processing of politicians’ faces. Preprint |
More about the project
Learn more about project IP-PAD through our selection of external publications.
- Should voters ban TikTok? The young voter is there (Dutch)
- Is it time to also let 16-year-olds vote? When young people are calm, they make wise decisions (Dutch)
- Students prefer to choose very left or very right: they are sensitive to one-liners (Dutch)
- Childhood personality might not predict political ideology in adulthood, new findings suggest
- Factsheet IP-PAD
- IPPAD.eu
