Project description
From the pandemic, and climate change to terrorist attacks: multiple threats could, or will, fundamentally change our way of life. Even the perceptions of threat can disrupt society. Threats can ignite protests and foster support for anti-democratic policies, and can ultimately lead to violence. In Under Pressure, we study how individuals perceive and manage these threats, and how these perceptions influence their political attitudes and behaviors to counter these threats.
The world has been threatening to humankind: famine, war, terrorist attacks and the COVID-19 pandemic. Some people adopt political preferences that they perceive to address the threat. But how complex is the link between threat and political preferences? In our project, we study how people perceive and manage threats and adopt political attitudes and behaviors to counter these threats. Under Pressure aims to inform citizens with knowledge on how to mitigate threats and safeguard society’s stability.
Timeline and funding
Our project kick-off was in January 2023 and the project will continue until 2027. Under Pressure is backed by an additional grant from the Dutch Research Council NWO. That allowed for a collaboration with Professor Viacheslav Dziundziuk from Ukraine, broadening our insights into global perspectives on threat perception.
Researchers on this project
Project publications
| No | Publication |
|---|---|
| 1 | Linda C. Bomm, Paul K. Bergmann, Bert N. Bakker (2025). Threat and Worry (Often) Go Together; Salience Stands Apart – Patterns Across Descriptives, Correlations, and Ideological Associations Preprint |
| 2 | Linda C. Bomm, Delaney Peterson, Bert N. Bakker (2025). Replication Value Usage and its Performance for Large Sample Sizes - Commentary on Isager et al. (2025) MetaPsychology |
| 7 | Bert N. Bakker & Gijs Schumacher (2025). Using measures of psychophysiological and neural activity to advance understanding of psychological processes in politics. Handbook of Innovations in Political Psychology |
| 9 | Delaney Peterson, Matthijs Rooduijn, Frederic R. Hopp, Gijs Schumacher & Bert N. Bakker (2025). Loneliness is positively associated with populist radical right support. Social Science & Medicine |
| 13 | Linda C. Bomm, Gijs Schumacher, Frederic Hopp & Bert N. Bakker (2025). The Structure and Correlates of Societal Threat Perceptions: A Network Approach. Preprint |
