MSc Political Psychology

Politics is about psychology.

Everything – tweeters sharing fake news, protestors chaining themselves to railings, delegates refusing to budge on climate targets, leaders invading their neighbours – boils down to the opinions, decisions and behaviour of individuals, and understanding those is the territory of psychology.

The MSc in Political Psychology at Essex is two things. First, it is a thorough introduction to that growing and thriving subfield of politics, covering topics such as emotions, identities, polarisation, authoritarianism, radicalisation, and even neuropolitics. Second, the MSc provides you with state-of-the-art training in quantitative research methods in political science, allowing you to develop skills which are highly valued by future employers and which also can serve as basis for continuing study at the PhD level.

If you want to be at the cutting edge of political science, investigating how the personal becomes societal and the inner-most thoughts of an individual shape national and global politics, welcome home.