"In Conversation" Series
Lecturer:
Prof. Eran Halperin (Hebrew University)
Title:
When Your Country Changes Face: Disidentification Amidst National Ideological Shifts and Political Polarization
Abstract:
Recent years have witnessed increasing ideological polarization and socio-political shifts that dramatically reshaped national identities, leading some individuals to feel they no longer belong to groups they once considered their own. This phenomenon of national disidentification is characterized by three key indicators: detachment perceived dissimilarity (viewing oneself as fundamentally different from other group members), and dissatisfaction with the group. While previous research has examined disidentification mostly among marginalized groups, less attention has been given to understanding this process among individuals that used to see themselves as part of mainstream groups, and now perceive their national group as having changed so fundamentally that they question their mere belonging to the group. The proposed research aims to identify the psychological turning points that lead individuals to disidentify from their national group, focusing on how perceptions of dramatic changes in national values, ideology, and norms trigger this process among mainstream group members. We introduce a novel theoretical framework, suggesting that perceived significant changes in the national group's values, ideology and norms would stimulate disidentification processes through a combination of three key psychological mechanisms: group malleability beliefs (perceptions of whether groups can change), essentialism (beliefs about groups' inherent characteristics), and entitativity (perceptions of group cohesiveness). Accordingly, people would disidentify from their national group only if they see the occurring changes as representing a new nature of the group, a one that is fixed, unchangeable and represent a new cohesive essence of the group—one that is both immutable and uniformly shared among group members.
Short bio:
Professor Eran Halperin is a former Dean of the School of Psychology at IDC–Herzliya and now the Head of the Psychology Department at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. An award-winning researcher of emotional processes and field experimentalist, Prof. Halperin’s research uses psychological and political theories to investigate causal factors driving intergroup conflicts. More specifically, his work develops new approaches for modifying the psychological roots of intolerance, exclusion, and intergroup violence. The unique case of Israeli society in general, and that of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular, motivates much of his work, and most of his studies are conducted in that "natural laboratory." Halperin has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers in journals that include Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and Psychological Science. He has received competitive research awards totaling more than $6M in the last five years, including two ERC grants. He earned his Ph.D. from Haifa University (summa cum laude) and was a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University on a Fulbright scholarship. In 2013 he received the Erik Erikson Early Career Award from the International Society of Political Psychology, and in 2023 was awarded the Bruno award of the IIAS.
Location:
Eilan Hall, Feldman Building, Second Floor, Edmond Safra Campus.