This book explores how citizens often rely on “political stereotypes” to make inferences between political and apolitical elements that go beyond preferences for ideologies, parties, issues, or candidates. It presents a broad, cross-disciplinary overview, engaging research in cultural sociology, psychology, communication, and political science to clarify the origin, breadth, and consequences of these beliefs. Moving beyond the US, it focuses on Italy, a European multi-party system where deep-rooted ideological identities, a polarized media system, and individualization processes shape these stereotypes and, through innovative experimental approaches with attention to replicability, provides generalizable evidence and a framework for studies on comparable countries.

Gaetano Scaduto is an Assistant Professor at Tilburg University, The Netherlands. His research focuses on political psychology, political communication, and political behaviour.