Bernhard Leidner

After pursuing my Ph.D. in Social Psychology at The New School for Social Research and doing a brief postdoc at the University of California, Davis, I joined the Psychology of Peace and Violence Program at UMass in summer 2011.

I consider myself a social and political psychologist, for my scholarly interest is in processes of social identification and intergroup relations, primarily in the context of large social categories such as nations and ethnic groups. Specifically, my research is at the cross-road of the social psychological areas of norms and morality (e.g., moral disengagement in response to ingroup wrongdoings) and justice (e.g., reparations after ingroup wrongdoings; conflict resolution). I am currently interested in the psychological underpinnings of international justice (e.g. criminal tribunals, truth commissions) as well as the biopsychological consequences of ingroup-committed violence (stress, health).