This talk discusses two key threats to democracy: polarization and censorship. Project 1 uses smartphone-based methods to examine lifestyle polarization on a college campus and the consequences of such polarization for wellbeing. Project 2 uses an experimental paradigm to examine antecedents and consequences of self-censorship in online forums. These studies show that political identity leaves traces in digital environments and that digital environments leave traces in political identity
This talk presents evidence of 1) lifestyle polarization on a college campus using smartphone-based methods, and 2) the antecedents and consequences of self-censorship using an experimental paradigm.
Sanaz Talaifar is an Assistant Professor in Organisational Behaviour in the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship at Imperial College London. Prior to joining Imperial, she was a Postdoctoral Scholar in Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She received her PhD in Social and Personality Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Sanaz's research interests lie at the intersection of self and identity, digital media and technology, and political psychology.