PhD Candidate: Annamijn Beijeman

Within the PhD-project I examine how group-based appeals in the information environment relate to social sorting, that is, the alignment of social identities with political identities, and affective polarization among the public. My first sub-project examined how social sorting relates to affective polarization over political and politicized identities throughout a multi-party campaign context. In subsequent sub-projects, group-based appeals will be examined in relation to social sorting and affective polarization. More generally, throughout the project, I scrutinize the conceptualization of social sorting. My research primarily builds on the social identity perspective to politics, the cleavage tradition, and the group-based appeal literature.