Socially Motivated Reasoning in Social Policy Evaluation: Studying the Causal Effects of Social Policies on Citizens’ Political Attitudes and Behavior (B14*)

• Subject Area: Political Science ; Empirical Social Research
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 374666841

B14 aims to unpack when and how social policy fosters political integration and stabilizes democratic systems. We develop a framework that captures the mechanism linking social policy design to policy support and political integration. This framework is tested with different empirical approaches. A large-N cross-country analysis combines WeSIS data with public opinion surveys to identify broad patterns. Survey and behavioral experiments in Germany, Mexico, and South Africa explore how motivated reasoning and politicized identities shape the relationship between social policy and political integration.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1342: Global Dynamics of Social Policy
• Applicant Institution: Universität Bremen
• Project Heads: Dr. Sarah Berens; Professor Dr. Markus Tepe; Professorin Dr. Eva Wegner