Joshua Gubler

Associate Professor of Political Science

Brigham Young University

I am an Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, where I also work in the Middle Eastern Studies Program.

As a political psychologist, I conduct research exploring the the micromotives of interpersonal and intergroup aggression, with a focus on identifying tools for prejudice reduction. My recent focus is on the role of affect and emotion in motivating change.

Interests

Intergroup Cooperation and Conflict
Affect and Emotion
Prejudice Reduction
Persuasion and Motivation

Education

PhD in Political Science, 2011
University of Michigan--Ann Arbor
M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies–Political Science, 2005
University of Utah
Fellow at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA), 2003-2004
American University in Cairo, Egypt
B.A. in Near Eastern Studies–Arabic, 2002
Brigham Young University

Publications

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Framing and Blame Attribution in Populist Rhetoric

The rhetoric of populist politicians is an important part of their appeal; however, little is known about how that rhetoric operates. …

Ethan C. Busby, Joshua R. Gubler, Kirk A. Hawkins

Paper Replication Files

Toward conflict or compromise? How violent metaphors polarize partisan issue attitudes

We know much about how opinion leaders drive mass partisan polarization with position-taking cues but little on how different message …

Nathan P Kalmoe, Joshua R Gubler, David A Wood

Paper Replication Files

Violence, aggression, and ethics: The link between exposure to human violence and unethical behavior

Can exposure to media portrayals of human violence impact an individual’s ethical decision making at work? Ethical business failures …

Joshua R Gubler, Skye Herrick, Richard A Price, David A Wood

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Crosscutting cleavages and ethno-communal violence: Evidence from Indonesia in the post-Suharto era

Recent literature has shown that crosscutting social cleavages reduce the likelihood of civil war. This article argues that the same …

Joshua R Gubler, Joel S Selway, Ashutosh Varshney

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Considering the Political Consequences of Comparative Politics Experiments

In this chapter, we argue that regardless of one’s motivations, manipulations from political science experiments have political …

Joel S Selway, Joshua R Gubler

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Current Projects

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Mixed Affective States and the Fundamental Challenge of Persuasion

In this project, we highlight affect’s key role in motivation and develop a new theory of mixed affective states. We show its importance in understanding political outcomes…

Religion, Nationality, and Empathetic Responses to Refugees

Is empathetic media effective in shifting readers’ attitudes toward refugee policies? Do emotional responses differ between individuals who are exposed to accounts of refugees with different religions and national origins? To shed light on these questions, we present the results of two recent survey experiments conducted in the United Kingdom to explore these questions…

Changing Hearts and Minds? Why media messages designed to foster empathy often fail

Politicians and social activists frequently employ media designed to ``change hearts and minds” by humanizing outgroups. These messages, it is assumed, lead to empathy, which motivates individuals to reconsider punitive policy attitudes…

Motive Attribution and Counter-Terror Policy

This project investigates how reported perceptions about terrorists’ motives for violence influence citizens’ attitudes towards counter-terrorism…

Self-Image Maintenance Motivation (SIMM) and outgroup prejudice

This paper introduces a measure created in social psychology for other purposes that we suggest measures one of the key processes motivating outgroup discrimination, and as such should explain variation in individuals’ standing tendencies to oppose outgroups. The measure we propose is a measure of an individual’s Self-Image Maintenance Motivation (SIMM)….