The Rabbit Hole – An Introduction

Welcome to The Rabbit Hole, a blog that analyzes politics in the United States from an interdisciplinary perspective.  Before delving into the abyss that a regular analysis of U.S. politics entails, I figured it would be best to start with a basic introductory post.  I am a graduate student at Rutgers University pursuing a doctoral degree in social psychology who is currently in the process of conducting studies for my dissertation.

My research focuses on how social attitudes and beliefs are assessed, how the psychological and societal foundations of morality relate to (and possibly somewhat determine) an individual’s political ideology, and how an individual’s political ideology influences their information-processing and decision making.  I intend to apply research from the fields of social psychology, cognitive psychology, political psychology, and political science to an analysis of U.S. Politics.  I hope that this analysis will go beyond the often, in my opinion, simplistic analysis offered by our political punditry.  Debates over political matters are complex.

Too often these debates are simplified into dichotomous options.  The liberal-conservative divide is just one of these many dichotomies.  Debates over political matters deserve a deeper and more critical analysis than what is currently offered by the majority in the media.

It is time we embrace the complexity!  That is the goal of this blog, to delve deeper, to not settle for the simple conclusion, to bring a bit of the scientific method into this discussion.  In other words, let’s see how deep the rabbit hole goes…