Assistant professor Roderik Rekker will receive Vidi funding for his research on Factual Belief Polarization and its Attitudinal Consequences. It is one of 13 projects affiliated with Radboud University and Radboudumc whose proposal has been honoured.
Political opponents often differ not only in their opinions, but also in their perception of reality. Left and right-wing voters, for example, have a different perception of the causes of climate change, the extent of income inequality and the amount of immigrants in the Netherlands. At the moment, however, it is not yet clear how this factual polarisation' affects public opinion and whether it is, for example, a driver of polarisation more broadly. Using interviews, questionnaires and experiments, this project investigates exactly which facts people disagree about and how this affects their political views.
Vidi is aimed at experienced researchers who have already conducted successful research for several years after obtaining their PhD. Together with the Veni and Vici grants, Vidi is part of the NWO Talent Programme. A total of 829 researchers submitted a research project proposal for funding in this Vidi round. The full article with all funding awarded can be found here.