On March 5 and 6, 2026, the CPC members Linda C. Bomm, Delaney Peterson, and Bert N. Bakker hosted a two-day workshop titled “Politics and Mental Health in Times of Societal Threat – Wicked or Not?” as part of Bert N. Bakker’s VIDI project Under Pressure: Studying the Causes and Consequences of Societal Threats at the Institute for Advanced Study in Amsterdam.

The workshop brought together nine fantastic international speakers – Claudi Bockting, Mark Brandt, Brett Ford, Noga Arikha, Manos Tsakiris, Mariana Von Mohr, Luca Bernardi, Olaf Borghi, and Beth Landi – and discussed research spanning political communication, political psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology, political science, social neuroscience, and philosophy.

Across presentations and discussions, participate explored urgent questions around politics and well-being: How do people experience and feel about socio-political developments?  How can citizens process and cope with these experiences? And how do we identify and leverage factors that help individuals and communities deal with socio-political stress and uncertainty more effectively?

It was great to bring together experts working on these questions and learn from each other’s perspectives.