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14 - Postscript: Thinking with Imposters – What Were They Thinking?
- Edited by Steve Woolgar, Linköpings universitet, Sweden, Else Vogel, Linköpings universitet, Sweden, David Moats, Linköpings universitet, Sweden, Claes-Fredrik Helgesson
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- Book:
- The Imposter as Social Theory
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 22 December 2021
- Print publication:
- 26 May 2021, pp 317-328
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Summary
So, that's it.
Yes, all done.
Great book!
Yes, absolutely.
Full of wonderful, rich examples.
Yes. Which were your favourites?
I loved learning from fakes, and the Ku Klux Klan guy, and epistemic murk …
… the welfare cheats, the good enough Instagram followers, and the conjuring …
Wasn't that cool, how the magician …
… the conjuror …
Ah yes, sorry, the conjuror. How the conjuror drew parallels between the art of conjuring and the craft of academic writing.
Yes. A great demonstration of the effective use of dialogue to bring complex arguments to life.
Clever!
I especially like that the editors commissioned expert imposters to write the Postscript, rather than the usual choice of a prestigious academic.
Yes, nice touch.
A welcome alternative to inviting a Big Name who then largely ignores the preceding chapters and proposes some grand theory based on personal anecdote.
Good to avoid that.
Mind you, I do think the collection seems hardly to scratch the surface of the whole imposter phenomenon. I mean, there are no focused case studies of undercover policing, the imposter syndrome …
It's interesting though isn't it, that as soon as one person mentions the term imposter, someone else feels obliged to provide yet more examples of the category. It's as if the very term ‘imposter’ has some kind of intrinsic capacity to generate more examples of itself.
… professional actors, trompe l’oeil illusions, fake composers …
Fake composers?
‘Albinoni’s’ Adagio in G minor, for example?
Oh, OK.
… the Australian lyrebird, spies …
Have you already forgotten that the whole volume began with the Russian spies?
With possible Russian spies.
OK, yes, possible spies. Or tourists.
And what about all those related figures and perspectives, didn't one of the reviewers of the original book proposal mention some of them: the anansi spider (Hylland Eriksen, 2013), the coyote trickster (Haraway, 1991), agnotology (Proctor and Schjebinger, 2008) …?
Yes, and I noticed that despite its catchy subtitle, the book says little specifically about gatecrashers and charlatans.
But they couldn't include every imaginable empirical example of imposters, could they? The book would have been massive! And that's the point isn't it. Imposters are everywhere. The examples in the book are just a taster of an apparently limitless phenomenon. Without wishing to sound like its own back cover endorsement, this book now opens up a whole new field of imposter studies.
13 - Social psychology and the study of politics
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- By Martin Rosema, University of Twente, Department of Political Science and Research Methods, John T. Jost, New York University, Department of Psychology, Diederik A. Stapel, Tilburg University, Tilburg Institute for Behavioural Economics Research
- Edited by Linda Steg, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands, Abraham P. Buunk, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands, Talib Rothengatter, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, The Netherlands
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- Book:
- Applied Social Psychology
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 11 September 2008, pp 291-315
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Summary
Introduction
The application of social psychology to the study of politics is at the heart of the discipline called political psychology. Political psychology has been defined as the ‘application of what is known about human psychology to the study of politics’ (Sears, Huddy & Jervis, 2003, p. 3). Social psychology has been a more influential source of inspiration for the study of politics than any other subfield of psychology. Insights from social psychology have been of paramount importance in the study of both political elites and mass political behaviour. The many topics that have thus been studied include political socialization, public opinion, voting behaviour, collective political action, ideology, prejudice, political campaigns, presidential performance, policy making, conflict resolution, terrorism and genocide (see Jost & Sidanius, 2004). By providing insights about the psychological processes involved, social psychology has contributed to our understanding of all these aspects of politics. Several of those insights have been used in attempts to change political attitudes and political behaviour that are considered undesirable, such as racial prejudice, low voter turnout and political violence.
In this chapter we focus on three topics that have been central to political psychology: political leadership, voting behaviour and ideology. We discuss how different types of psychological studies have contributed to understanding these crucial aspects of politics. The field of political psychology comprises at least four different types of studies. First, some psychological studies are not directly about politics but contribute significantly to our understanding of political processes.