The Perception and Communication of Threat

Bernd Schlipphak

Some years ago, a seminal political science article asked whether and when politicians can “scare citizens into supporting bad policies”. This question has become even more relevant over the years as populist and extremist parties have gained and continue to gain more and more public support. It can be divided into two sub-questions: First, can politicians actually scare people – that is, convincingly communicate threats in a way that results in citizens’ perceiving threat? And second, do threat perceptions lead citizens to attitudes and behavior that can be considered bad for a democratic society? Bernd Schlipphak will argue in his talk that answering these questions is methodologically challenging. He will first present research designs and findings of previous attempts to empirically analyze them. Second, he will discuss how the combination of a) using more recent developments in data collection and analyses and b) working together in interdisciplinary teams may provide more valid findings.