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The

Body Politics Lab

Team

Amanda Friesen,
P.I.

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.com

PhD Students

Jamie Chow
Project Director

Jamie is interested in the role of cognition, personality traits, astrology, introspection, intrusive thoughts, and imaginary world-building in relationship to political attitudes and behaviours.

jchow244@uwo.ca

Jesse Mehravar
Lab Manager, Project Director

Jesse is interested in the political implications of emotions and national identity, particularly in linking affect towards national identities to political attitudes.

jmehrava@uwo.ca

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

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

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

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

BPL’s

Associated Scholars

Samantha Jones

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

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

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.com

Amanda Friesen, P.I.

PhD Students

Project Director

Jamie is interested in the role of cognition, personality traits, astrology, introspection, intrusive thoughts, and imaginary world-building in relationship to political attitudes and behaviours.

jchow244@uwo.ca

Jamie Chow

Lab Manager, Project Director

Jesse is interested in the political implications of emotions and national identity, particularly in linking affect towards national identities to political attitudes.

jmehravar@uwo.ca

Jesse Mehravar

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

Noah Vanderhoeven

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

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

Hugo Machado

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

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

Lachlan Fisher

Associated Scholars

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

Samantha Jones
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. Seyoung Jung

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

Dr. Jordan Mansell
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