Department of Psychology
Michigan State University

We are located in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. Our goal is to understand the causes and consequences of political, religious, and moral beliefs that can ultimately be leveraged to reduce conflict and promote a more fair, just, and free society. We study ideological and moral beliefs — such as political ideology, racism, religious fundamentalism, and moral conviction — and how they structure attitudes and behaviors, how they become moralized, and why people adopt them in the first place.

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Projects

Selected Publications

A few recent papers. Check out all of our publications!

• Brandt, M. J., Vallabha, S., & Turner-Zwinkels, F. (2025). The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic made people feel threatened, but had a limited impact on political attitudes in the United States. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 51, 284-300. doi | pdf | code
• Brandt, M. J. (2022). Measuring the belief system of a person. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123, 830-853. doi | pdf | code | data
• Brandt, M. J. & Morgan, G. S. (2022). Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 123, 621-635.  doi | pdf | code | data
• Turner-Zwinkels, F. M. & Brandt, M. J. (2022). Belief system networks can be used to predict where to expect dynamic constraint. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 100, 104279. doi | pdf
• Brandt, M. J., & Sleegers, W. W. A. (2021). Evaluating belief system networks as a theory of political belief system dynamics. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 25, 159-185. doi | pdf | code
• Brandt, M. J. & Crawford, J. T. (2020). Worldview conflict and prejudice. In B. Gawronski (Ed.) Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 61, 1-66. doi | pdf