Social Psychology Network

Maintained by Scott Plous, Wesleyan University

Christopher M. Federico

Christopher M. Federico

Professor Federico's primary interest is in political psychology. In particular, he is interested in how a number of factors — namely, people’s values and beliefs, the structural characteristics of their social environments, and their ability and willingness to use political information — interact to shape perceptions of the political world and attitudes toward objects in it. Currently, his research is centered on three specific topics: (1) racial attitudes, (2) attitude structure and belief systems, and (3) the nature of the interface between motivation and ideological affinity.

Professor Federico is also the current Director of the Center for the Study of Political Psychology at the University of Minnesota.

Primary Interests:

  • Attitudes and Beliefs
  • Ethics and Morality
  • Group Processes
  • Intergroup Relations
  • Political Psychology
  • Prejudice and Stereotyping
  • Research Methods, Assessment
  • Self and Identity
  • Social Cognition

Books:

Journal Articles:

  • Federico, C. M. (2007). Expertise, evaluative motivation, and the structure of citizens’ ideological commitments. Political Psychology, 28, 535-562.
  • Federico, C. M. (2006). Ideology and the affective structure of whites’ racial perceptions. Public Opinion Quarterly, 70, 327-353.
  • Federico, C. M. (2006). Race, education, and individualism revisited. Journal of Politics, 68, 600-610.
  • Federico, C. M. (2005). Racial perceptions and evaluative responses to welfare: Does education attenuate race-of-target effects? Political Psychology, 26, 683-698.
  • Federico, C. M. (2004). Predicting attitude extremity: The interactive effects of schema development and the need to evaluate – and their mediation by evaluative integration. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1281-1294.
  • Federico, C. M. (2004). When do welfare attitudes become racialized? The paradoxical effects of education. American Journal of Political Science, 48, 374-391.
  • Federico, C. M., Golec, A., & Dial, J. (2005). The relationship between need for closure and support for military action against Iraq: Moderating effects of national attachment. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 621-632.
  • Federico, C. M., & Holmes, J. W. (2005). Education and the interface between racial attitudes and criminal-justice attitudes. Political Psychology, 26, 47-76.
  • Federico, C. M., & Schneider, M. (2007). Political expertise and the use of ideology: Moderating effects of evaluative motivation. Public Opinion Quarterly, 71, 221-252.
  • Federico, C. M., & Sidanius, J. (2002). Racism, ideology, and affirmative action, revisited: The antecedents and consequences of ‘principled objections’ to affirmative action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 488-502.
  • Golec, A., & Federico, C. M. (2004). Understanding responses to political conflict: Interactive effects of the need for closure and salient conflict schemas. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 750-762.
  • Golec de Zavala, A., Federico, C. M., Cislak, A., & Sigger, J. (2008). Need for closure and conflict-strategy preferences: Experimental evidence for the moderating role of salient conflict schemas. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 84-105.

Other Publications:

  • Federico, C. M., & Goren, P. (2009). Motivated social cognition and ideology: Is attention to elite discourse a prerequisite for epistemically motivated political affinities? In J. T. Jost, A. C. Kay, and H. Thorisdottir (Eds.), Social and psychological bases of ideology and system justification. New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Jost, J. T., Federico, C. M., & Napier, J. L. (2009). Ideology: Its structure and functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 307-337.

Courses Taught:

  • Analysis of Psychological Data
  • Introduction to Psychology
  • Introduction to Social Psychology
  • Proseminar: Research in Social Psychology
  • Race and Politics
  • Social Psychology of Prejudice and Intergroup Relations

Christopher M. Federico
Department of Psychology
University of Minnesota
75 E. River Road
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
United States of America

  • Phone: (612) 626-0560
  • Fax: (612) 626-2079

Send a message to Christopher M. Federico

Note: You will be emailed a copy of your message.

Psychology Headlines

From Around the World

News Feed (35,797 subscribers)