Jakob Kasper, MSc Psychology

I am a third-year PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam (Amsterdam School of Communication Research) affiliated with the doctoral network Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Adolescence and Democracy, the Hot Politics Lab, and the Center for Politics and Communication.

My research focuses on affective polarization. I explore how it can be measured within multi-party systems by examining large and ideologically diverse political groups. I also aim to connect political science’s understanding of affective polarization with psychological theories of affect, refining both theoretical frameworks and measurement tools to more accurately capture its affective nature. Additionally, I investigate how affective polarization develops during adolescence, seeking to understand its origins and address concerns about the possibility of increasing polarization among younger generations.

Before my PhD, I received a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Heidelberg (Germany) and spent one year as a graduate exchange student at Cornell University (USA).

Selected Publications

• Kasper, J., Bakker, B. N., Lelkes, Y., & Schumacher, G. (under review). Beyond valence: Arousal as a core dimension of affective polarization. OSF Preprint. link

• Kasper, J., Schumacher, G., & Bakker, B. N. (2025). Establishing the construct and predictive validity of brief measures of affective polarization. European Journal of Political Research. link

• Kasper, J., & Gilovich, T. (2025). Do people prefer to share political information that boosts their ingroup or derogates the outgroup? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. link