Why are people so worried about polarization?

What drives people toward voting for populist radical right parties?

What do people mean when they say that ‘this country is ours’, and what are the consequences of that belief?

How do people combine their different ethnic identities (such as Dutch and Turkish)? And are these identities recognized by others?

Such questions are central to the research of Tom Nijs, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Governance and Pluralism team (EICS) at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences. To answer such questions, he draws on theories and methods from sociology, social and political psychology, and political science. His research interests include polarization, interethnic attitudes, ethnic identification, intergroup contact, ownership beliefs, and radical right-wing voting.

Tom defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘This place is ours: Collective psychological ownership and its social consequences’ in April 2022 at Utrecht University.