Alexander Wuttke

What I Study

I investigate political phenomena by using the toolbox of research psychologists. Using a wide array of observational and field-, survey- and quasi-experimental methods, I study political engagement in liberal democracies and current challenges to liberal democracy through the eyes of ordinary citizens.

To understand political engagement in liberal democracies I examine individuals' perceptions and evaluations of the political environment in which they are embedded and how these orientations shape political motivation. In my dissertation, I synthesize psychological theories from motivation studies to investigate why some people want to engage with politics and others do not.

To understand current challenges to liberal democracy, I investigate the conditions under which citizens cease to support the principle and practice of self-governance and become susceptible to non-democratic forms of governing. 

How I study it

I put emphasis on conceptual clarity and theorizing of individual-level processes. I am am a catalyst of the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Science, one of the co-organizers of the MZES Open Social Science Conference 2019: Practicing New Standards in Transparency and Reproducibility, and one of the co-founders of the Mannheim Open Science Meetup (see Syntaxes and Data).

What I Do

I work for MZES (Mannheim Centre for European Social Research) at the University of Mannheim. I am associated with the Chair for Political Psychology (Harald Schoen) and with the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) where I am involved with GLES online panel surveys. 

Curriculum Vitae