"Extreme Party Animals" - Josh Brown Talks Political Polarization

On this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were excited to talk to Josh Brown about social identity theory and political polarization. Josh is social psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Human Ecology. He is interested in understanding groups processes and intergroup relations in applied settings like politics. In particular, he studies what motivates people to identify with groups, self-uncertainty, and identification’s effects on behavior, cognition, performance, and health and politics. Josh is the co-author of a fascinating article, “Extreme party animals: Effects of political identification and ideological extremity.” We wanted to talk to Josh about the psychological mechanisms at play that might help us understand why our political environment has become so polarized - and we asked him if there are any remedies social psychology might offer us. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Josh, and learned so much. We hope you will too!