Project List

Populism and political correctness have become more and more prevalent in Western societies and consequently in Portugal. We can see this phenomenon in the increase in support for the radical right-wing political force in the Portuguese 2019, 2022 and 2024 Portuguese elections. In this way, we set out on an exploratory study to find out how certain social and political factors and agreement with populist attitudes can influence disagreement with political correctness. We carried out an online survey of people of legal age living in the municipality of Lisbon and obtained 225 valid responses multiple linear regression to analyse the data. It was possible to observe that people who do not consider themselves feminists; who prefer to be represented by a citizen rather than a politician; who argue that politicians talk too much and do too little; that politicians in Parliament should be governed by the will of the people and who negatively perceive the effect of immigration on the social economy, are more likely to disagree with political correctness. These results may be due to the discourse topics of the populist radical right in Portugal, but future studies are needed to understand these results. Supervision: Guya Accornero

Explore the bidirectional link between aging and prosocial/environmental behavior, examine behavior determinants and how acting impacts individuals' life satisfaction, mental and physical well-being.

This study examines the sociopsychological aspects of aging and their role in cognitive preservation as routes to promote an active and healthy life and prevent dementia.

More people are living longer than ever before. Portugal is an outstanding example of this global trend, ranking as the fourth country in the world with the highest percentage of people aged 65 and older in its population. Ageism – how we think (stereotypes), feel (prejudice), and act (discrimination) towards others based on their age – is a significant barrier to healthier and longer lives and a growing concern in ageing societies. The first comprehensive international assessment of ageism – the Experiences and Expressions of Ageism module of the European Social Survey (2008-2009) – revealed that ageism was the most prevalent form of discrimination, experienced by more people than racism or sexism. Fifteen years later, the chAnGEISM project aims to reassess the current experiences and expressions of ageism in Portugal by replicating and extending the European Social Survey module.

This project is developed within a PhD scholarship with the funding reference 2024.01406.BD.   Well-established democracies still struggle with corruption, despite efforts to fight it. One reason may be that anti-corruption policies fail to address corruption as a self-reinforcing phenomenon, i.e., the more widespread it is perceived to be, the more willing people are to engage in corrupt behaviours. Understanding corruption through this lens is crucial to fighting it effectively. Therefore, this project aims to answer the research question: “How do individuals contribute to self-reinforcing corruption in democracies?”, through three different but interrelated mechanisms of social reactions and processes. Corruption may be self-reinforcing because society labels what is deviance or not. Therefore, this project will first examine how society defines corruption and how that can explain why some corrupt behaviours are bypassed, thus perpetuating corruption. Secondary data from two representative surveys conducted in Portugal (n=1020) and Spain (n=1506) will be analysed, as these countries have low levels of corruption experience and tolerance, yet high perceptions of widespread corruption. Five dimensions of  corruption will be analysed to understand how people define it. Additionally, regression analyses will be done to assess whether the definition of corruption represents differences in tolerance of specific corruptacts, and what other variables may influence this. Corruption may also be self-reinforcing because deviant behaviour is learned through social interactions and is motivated by intrinsic feelings of self-reward or self-censure, as well as extrinsic feelings of social validation or disapproval. Hence, this project will also investigate the psychological mechanisms driving people to engage in corruption, further sustaining it. This study will focus on Portuguese participants, given Portugal’s high level of perceived widespread corruption, and inconsiste...