Mapping and understanding the causes for ingroup-directed violence in protracted conflicts

Welcome to My Research

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About me

I am Tal Shaanan, a Ph.D. Candidate in political science from the University of Haifa. My research centers around the interplay between conflict dynamics, affective polarization and their behavioral implications, particularly in terms of violent attitudes and intentions towards politicians and public officials

Exploring the threat from within - ingroup directed violence during conflicts

While the more common angle when looking at potential eruptions of political violence during conflicts refers to intergroup dynamics, much less scholar attention is devoted to understand how, and why, violent attitudes and behaviors can also be transformed to target politicians, public servants and even opposing partisans. At times of an unprecedented increase in the justification of such type of violence, taking place in parallel to other macro processes of affective polarization and democratic backsliding, understanding the specific characteristics of this type of violence becomes evermore imperative

Our Research

As a part of the Political Psychology Lab in the University of Haifa, and under the supervision of Prof. Daphna Canetti and Prof. Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler, I intend to uncover hidden patterns underlying the psychological mechanisms of ingroup-directed violence. Our research focuses on utilizing cutting-edge research methods, as well as adopting a neurological angle to measure political behavior, in order to overcome biases and assure maximum validity and reliability for our findings.

Identity in the Spotlight: Assessing the Impact of Ongoing Exposure to Terrorism on Violence Against Public Officials Thesis and article (currently under review)
In this piece, we observed the potential behavioral outcomes in terms of violence against politicians and public officials among Israeli citizens, before and after the October 7th Terrorist Attacks

From Democratic Backsliding to Political Violence - Evidence from IsraelJournal article (under review)
In this article, currently under review in Democratization (Taylor & Francis), we attempted to measure the specific ways democratic backsliding - the constant erosion of democratic institutions - affects violent attitudes towards politicians.

Are Violent Attacks Against Politicians Becoming More Common?Op-ed
Read our analysis about the main possible reasons for the rise in attempted violence against politicians, as it was published in the EUROPP blog of the London School of Economics (LSE)

recent publications

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