2022 ERC STARTING GRANT
In the project “Affective Polarization and Democratic Attitudes” Assoc. Prof. Selim Erdem Aytaç from the Department of International Relations will examine the effects of antipathy, distrust, and negative emotions that individuals hold towards the supporters of opposing political parties. Focusing on how such processes of affective polarization affect people’s democratic attitudes, the project will generate comparable observational and experimental data from multiple countries. With this project, Dr. Aytaç aims to establish the causal relationship between affective polarization and changes in democratic attitudes through novel empirical approaches, and also to identify reliable and generalizable experimental interventions to reduce affective polarization in multiple contexts. Wholehearted congratulations to Assoc. Prof. Selim Erdem Aytaç for this outstanding accomplishment and best wishes for his continued success.