The BPL Team
Lab Leader
Professor Friesen is interested in how social identities and individual dispositions interact with social and political contexts. Her methodological approaches draw from behaviour genetics, psychophysiology, personality psychology, experimental design, and other social and life science methods.
afries4@uwo.ca
@amandafriesen.bsky.social
Lab Members
Jamie Chow
Project Director
Jamie is interested in the role of social cognition and stereotype content, particularly concerning warmth and competence, in explaining gender differences in political behaviour as it relates to the political mobilization of mothers.
jchow244@uwo.ca
Jesse Mehravar
Project Director
Jesse is interested in the political implications of emotions and national identity, particularly in linking affect towards national identities to political attitudes.
jesse.mehravar@rhul.ac.uk
Noah Vanderhoeven
Project Director
Noah is interested in political behaviour, more specifically social identities, and how people form attitudes and beliefs. Specifically, he is studying the intersection of sports fandom identities and broader social identities like sexuality and gender in political behaviour.
nvande43@uwo.ca
Cole Stevenson
Researcher
Cole is exploring his research interests within political psychology, with a particular curiosity about health, cognition, personality, socialization, and collective behaviour.
csteve59@uwo.ca
Samantha Jones
Researcher
Samantha is a PhD student in the Social, Personality and Developmental Psychology program at Western University. Her research focuses on how factors such as gender, emotion, and coping influence the connections formed and maintained in one’s social network both on and offline. She is particularly interested in how social networks grow and change during life transitions.
samantha.jones@uwo.ca
Undergraduate Students
Junsoo Pak
Junsoo is a psychology student who is interested in combining his passion for psychology with his interest in politics. He believes that politics can impact every aspect of human life, and understanding the psychology behind politics is crucial to understanding it in a meaningful way.
jpak29s@uwo.ca
Lachlan Fisher
Lachlan is interested in the intersection between biology, politics, and religion. He is assisting the lab with a study on sports and political participation.
lfishe33@uwo.ca
Associated Members
Hugo Machado
Hugo is drawn to research in political psychology and behaviour. His main topics of interest are morality politics, the psychology of repressive political attitudes, authoritarianism, health policies, and the politics of law and order.
hmachad2@uwo.ca
Axel Déry
Axel’s principal research interest lies in the use of randomized experiments to study the ways in which individuals reason about politics, as well as the study of political persuasion. On a more theoretical level, Axel is also interested in how people elaborate attitudes toward economic redistribution.
adery2@uwo.ca
Dr. Seyoung Jung
Dr. Seyoung Jung is a postdoctoral researcher at Consortium on Electoral Democracy (C-Dem). Her research agenda centers on individuals’ identity, participation, and intergroup relations that stem from citizenship. A series of her work highlights the context-sensitive nature of political tolerance and zoom into citizens’ decision-making processes. Another research agenda focuses on dual citizenship and how this status shapes the practices of citizenship.
jung.seyoung@courrier.uqam.ca
Dr. Jordan Mansell
Dr Jordan Mansell is a postdoctoral researcher in the Digital Society Lab at McMaster University. He received his doctorate in political science at the University of Oxford. He has previously held postdoctoral research positions in the Network for Economic and Social Trends at Western University and the Political Psychology of Social Solidarity Lab at Université du Québec à Montréal. His research interests focus on attitudes, emotions, and politics.
He is currently the principal investigator on the project Psychological Barriers to Human Flourishing: Applying Research on Emotions to Reduce Prejudice which is housed at Western University. This project investigates the maladaptive regulation of emotion as a contributor to prejudicial attitudes. His research is supported by grants from the John Templeton Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
mansellj@mcmaster.ca
The BPL Team
Lab Leader
Professor Friesen is interested in how social identities and individual dispositions interact with social and political contexts. Her methodological approaches draw from behaviour genetics, psychophysiology, personality psychology, experimental design, and other social and life science methods.
afries4@uwo.ca
Dr. Amanda Friesen, P.I.
Lab Members
Project Director
Jamie is interested in the role of social cognition and stereotype content, particularly concerning warmth and competence, in explaining gender differences in political behaviour as it relates to the political mobilization of mothers.
jchow244@uwo.ca
Jamie Chow
Project Director
Noah is interested in political behaviour, including social identities, marginalized identities and the cognitive processes that inform how people form attitudes and beliefs. One specific area he studies is the intersection of sports and politics and how sports attachment represents an understudied lifestyle aspect that affects public opinion and policy attitudes. Finally, he is also interested in how Canadians think about legalized sports gambling and how financial pressures affect voting decisions.
nvande43@uwo.ca
Noah Vanderhoeven
Project Director
Cole is exploring his research interests within political psychology, with a particular curiosity about health, cognition, personality, socialization, and collective behaviour.
csteve59@uwo.ca
Cole Stevenson
Researcher
Samantha is a fourth year PhD candidate in the Social, Personality and Developmental Psychology program at Western University. With a focus on mixed-methods research design, her work examines how users interact with algorithms on social media to shape their digital experiences.
samantha.jones@uwo.ca
Samantha Jones
Undergraduate Students
Junsoo is a psychology student who is interested in combining his passion for psychology with his interest in politics. He believes that politics can impact every aspect of human life, and understanding the psychology behind politics is crucial to understanding it in a meaningful way.
jpak29@uwo.ca
Junsoo Pak
Alumni
Jesse is a postdoctoral research fellow for the Centre for the Politics of Feelings, Royal Holloway at the School of Advanced Study, University of London (Senate House).
He received his PhD in Political Science in 2025 from the University of Western Ontario.
jesse.mehravar@rhul.ac.uk
Jesse Mehravar
Lachlan works with the BPL team on sports and politics; he is now a law student at University of Western Ontario.
lfishe33@uwo.ca
Lachlan Fisher
Affiliates
Hugo is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Western University. His research uses surveys and experiments to investigate how political beliefs are structured, formed, and changed, with particular attention to lifestyle cues and the influence of media environments.
hmachad2@uwo.ca
Hugo Machado
Axel’s principal research interest lies in the use of randomized experiments to study the ways in which individuals reason about politics, as well as the study of political persuasion. On a more theoretical level, Axel is also interested in how people elaborate attitudes toward economic redistribution.
adery2@uwo.ca
Axel Déry
Dr Mansell received his doctorate in political science at the University of Oxford. He has previously held research and teaching positions in the McMaster Digital Society Lab, in the Network for Economic, and Social Trends at Western University and the Political Psychology of Social Solidarity Lab at Université du Québec à Montréal. His research interests focus on attitudes, emotions, health, and politics.
He is currently the principal investigator on the project Psychological Barriers to Human Flourishing: Applying Research on Emotions to Reduce Prejudice which is housed at Western University. This project investigates the maladaptive regulation of emotion as a contributor to prejudicial attitudes. His research is supported by grants from the John Templeton Foundation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
jmansel3@gmail.com
