ISPP 2025 Annual Meeting
3-6 July 2025
President: Christopher M. Federico (University of Minnesota, USA)
Program Co-chairs: Christina Farhart (Carleton College, USA), Xiaowen Xu (William & Mary, USA), Andrea De Angelis (University of Milan, Italy)
Conference Program (PDF)
ISPP hosted its largest conference with approximately 880 registered in-person attendees, as well as 23 registered attendees participating virtually. The four-day event featured 173 sessions and activities.
The theme for the 2025 ISPP Annual Meeting in Prague was “Social Identity, Political Conflict, and the Future of Democracy.” The conference centered on the intersections and interplay between different types of identity (national, ethnic/racial, partisan, etc.) and their consequences for democratic values and practice. Once of the conference’s key questions was how to protect robust, socially diverse democratic societies.
In addition to the presidential address delivered by the ISPP president, Christopher Federico, there were two additional keynote speakers
- Martina Klicperova-Baker (Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences) – Psychology of Democracy: A Matter of Life and Death
- Anna Kende (ELTE, Eotvos Lorand University) – Fragile Identities in Politically Unstable Societies
Beyond these addresses, three special symposia were organized. The first was a memorial to Dr. James Liu, organized by Katarzyna Hamer-den Heyer, Robert Zhang, and Ayu Okvitawanli (Session 111: In memoriam for James Liu: global consciousness and global social identifications in a cross-cultural lens). The second, organized by Leonie Huddy, was in honor of Dr. David Sears’ 90th birthday inspired by a chapter he wrote from a book compiled by Kristi Monroe with reflections on political psychology from former presidents (Session 172: The Long View: Reflections on Political Psychology). The third focused on political issues relevant to the Czech Republic hosted by Martina Klicperova (Session 13: Know your hosts: Political Psychology of Czechs and Moravians).
Two special roundtables were offered. The first was organized by Magdalena Bobowik, Emanuele Politi, and Johana Vollhardt who explored meaningful ways to engage with Palestinian scholars and their communities, inviting scholars to share their insights and experiences with collaboration (Session 106: Where are Palestinian scholars? Reclaiming Space for Palestinian Scholarship). The second was organized by Chris Karpowitz and his co-editors of the Handbook of Innovations in Political Psychology, Cara Wong, and Ethan Busby where they shared and promoted the 2025 Handbook release (Session 66: Progress and Promise in the Study of Political Psychology).
The conference featured 173 sessions, including 3 special interest panels, 2 special roundtables, 3 ECC roundtables, 2 poster sessions (July 3 and 4), numerous blitz sessions, the Caucus of Concerned Scholars (Session 5), and the Scholars Under Threat Roundtable (Session 54), in addition to the presidential and keynote addresses.
Award Winners
Keynotes
Christopher M. Federico (ISPP President, University of Minnesota) – Presidential Address – Making Sense of the Link(s) Between the Psychological and the Political: An Extended Belief-Systems Approach
How can we make sense of the enormous volume of research on the links between psychological variables and political preferences that has accumulated in recent years? In particular, how does ideology – or political preferences more generally – relate to psychological variables that reflect a tendency to be open versus closed? Answers to this question in political psychology have been varied. On one hand, much evidence suggests that individual difference variables that reflect high (versus low) needs for security and certainty predict conservative (versus liberal) preferences. On the other hand, some evidence suggests an extremism model: individuals on both the right and the left become defensive and rigid when the validity of their established commitments are threatened are challenged.
In an effort to reconcile these divergent sets of findings, I offer an extended belief systems approach to the relationship between psychological variables and political preferences in this talk. This approach suggests two principles. First, self-reported needs, traits, and motives (understood as individual differences) can become political belief-system elements (like ideological labels, partisan affiliations, issue positions, and value commitments)— which are governed by belief-systems principles. Second, belief systems, once formed, become central to the self and are thus valued and defended. The extended belief-systems approach argues that multiple processes link (different kinds of) psychological variables and political preferences. These include both (1) individual-difference factors or processes govern the formation of symbolic political identifications and preference formation and (2) more-situational processes that reflect the defensive consequences of holding preferences that are central to the self-concept. After describing some general principles of this approach, I review current evidence and point toward unresolved questions that researchers interested in link between psychological processes and political preferences need to attend to more carefully in future research.
Anna Kende (ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) – Fragile Identities in Politically Unstable Societies
Social and political psychology often considers social relations within stable and long-standing democracies as a “default” context for human existence. However, for most people worldwide, especially in our turbulent era, reality is shaped by social and political tensions. These include nationalism, homophobia, prejudice against indigenous and immigrant communities, and the rise of populist, authoritarian, and illiberal politics that exploit these divisions. Political instability—characterized by low social cohesion and trust, lack of solidarity among citizens, and an inability to resist destabilization—may thus be a more common context of existence than stable liberal democracies.
Political instability can both result from and contribute to fragile collective identities. These identities arise from individual and collective historical experiences of conflict, structural inequalities, and the inability to reconcile with difficult collective memories. They are driven by a need for control in unpredictable social, political, and economic circumstances. As such, fragile identities play a critical role in fueling societal tensions and intergroup conflicts.
This talk will explore the dual impact of social, political, and historical contexts, as well as fragile identities, on intergroup relations, including attitudes, conciliatory preferences, collective action, and solidarity. It will draw on studies investigating the structural oppression of Roma people in Europe, intergroup conflicts in post-colonial societies, and the conditionality of solidarity with refugees in contexts characterized by political instability. These studies highlight the potential of social psychological research that considers the normative and contextual dimensions of intergroup relations, rather than focusing on individualistic solutions to collective problems.
Martina Klicperova-Baker (Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences) – Psychology of Democracy: A Matter of Life and Death
Elections have consequences. Political regimes matter. Our world is speckled with zones of democracy and zones of dictatorship. They predetermine to a great degree our chances to live either civil, fulfilling, rich, and long life in a trustworthy community or a life which will likely be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” to quote T. Hobbes. Democracies increase chances for peace (Pax democratica); it can be applied both internationally and nationally: a) on the international level, the empirical law suggests that real democracies do not wage wars with each other; b) on the national level, it has been documented that democratic countries kill fewer of their own citizens than autocracies. Should not psychology be more involved in these matters? Let us search for ways to explain the mechanisms of democratic peace, analyze the many paradoxes of democracy, assess democratic political culture, create a network of “Psychology of Democracy,” and search for additional ways how to make a difference.
Call for Papers / Conference Theme / Submission
Conference Theme: Social Identity, Political Conflict, and the Future of Democracy
President: Christopher M. Federico (University of Minnesota, USA)
Program Co-chairs: Christina Farhart (Carleton College, USA), Xiaowen Xu (William & Mary, USA), Andrea De Angelis (University of Milan, Italy)
Submission Deadline: 8 December 2024 (EXTENDED), 11:59 PM (CET, UTC+1)
Our Call for Papers can be viewed HERE
Event Site
Please check our EVENT SITE with more information and details about our meeting in Prague.
