Michael F. Meffert is a lecturer in Political Psychology and Political Communication at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University. He holds a PhD and MA in Political Science from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook and a MA in Political Science and English Studies from the University of Mannheim, Germany. Prior to arriving at Leiden University, Dr. Meffert was an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park (1999-2004), and a Research Associate at the Collaborative Research Centre for Rationality, Decision Making, and Economic Modelling (SFB 504) at the University of Mannheim (2004-2008).

His dissertation examined the effects of political information from media sources and personal networks on candidate evaluations and vote intentions. His current research is focused on motivated information processing, in particular how voters select and are affected by (negative) political information, and strategic voting in multiparty systems with coalition governments. His research has appeared in the American Political Science Review (with Helmut Norpoth and Anirudh V.S. Ruhil), the Journal of Communication (with Sungeun Chung, Amber Joiner, Leah Waks, and Jennifer Garst), and various book chapters. Dr. Meffert is currently teaching the courses ‘Research Methods in Political Science’, ‘Theories and Methods’, and ‘Political Psychology’.

PhD supervision

Michael F. Meffert is available to supervise PhD students and invites PhD research proposals in the areas of:

• political communication (esp. selective exposure)
• political psychology (esp. motivated information processing)
• electoral behavior (esp. strategic coalition voting)

See for more information on PhD positions:

› Institute of Political Science: PhD

Publications