Alessandro Nai is Assistant Professor of Political Communication (with tenure) at the Department of Communication Science, University of Amsterdam. Prior to this he was Senior Research Associate at the Electoral Integrity Project (University of Sydney) and Assistant Professor / Lecturer at the University of Geneva, where he obtained his PhD in political science. His research focuses on the drivers and consequences of election campaigning, political communication, and the psychology of voting behavior.
His recent work deals more specifically with the dark sides of politics, the use of negativity and incivility in election campaigns in a comparative perspective, and the (dark) personality traits of political figures. He is currently directing a research project that maps the use of negative campaigning in elections across the world. His recent work has been published in journals such as Political Psychology, European Journal of Political Research, West European Politics, International Journal of Press/Politics, American Politics Research, Journal of Media Politics, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, European Journal of Communication, Government & Opposition, Personality and Individual Differences, Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties, Political Studies, European Political Science, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Electoral Studies, Journal of Political Marketing, and Journal of Marketing Communications. He recently co-edited the volumes New Perspectives on Negative Campaigning: Why Attack Politics Matters (ECPR Press, 2015, with Annemarie S. Walter) and Election Watchdogs (Oxford University Press, 2017, with Pippa Norris). He is currently Associate Editor of the Journal of Social and Political Psychology.