Research

My Interests

Beliefs, Belief Systems, Attitudes, Persuasion, Ideology, Computational Social Science

Research papers

† denotes mentored undergraduate student

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Triki, A.†, Cassario, A. L., & Brandt, M. J. (in press). American liberals and conservatives have different cognitive styles, but (mostly) respond the same to party cues. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Paper

Thompson, J. L., Cassario, A. L., Rice, S., Gnall, S. A., Carrillo, A., Solanki, P., Vallabha, S., Brandt, M. J., & Wetherell, G. (2025). Registered report: Stress testing predictive models of ideological prejudice. Plos One, 20(10), e0334152.

Cassario, A. L., Vallabha, S., Thompson, J. L., Carrillo, A., Solanki, P., Gnall, S. A., Rice, S., Wetherell, G., & Brandt, M. J. (2025). Registered report: Cognitive ability, but not cognitive reflection, predicts expressing greater political animosity and favouritism. British Journal of Social Psychology, 64(2), e12814. Paper Supplemental Materials

Cassario, A. L., & Brandt, M. J. (2025). Testing theories of threat, individual difference, and ideology: Little evidence of personality-based individual differences in ideological responses to threat. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 16(6), 657-668.* Paper Supplemental Materials

• Recipient of the 2025 SPSP Student Publication Award

Wetherell, G., Thompson, J. L., Cassario, A. L., Brandt, M. J., Gnall, S., Rice, S., Solanki, P., Vallabha, S., & Carrillo, A. (2025). Do mismatches between individual and target group personality predict prejudice? Collabra: Psychology. 11, 136887 Paper

Cassario, A. L. (2023). Perceived vulnerability to infectious disease and perceived harmfulness are as predictive of citizen response to COVID-19 as partisanship. Politics and the Life Sciences, 42 (2), 277–290. Paper Supplemental Materials

Cox, K. S., Hanek, K. J., & Cassario, A. L. (2019). Redemption in a single low point story longitudinally predicts well-being: The incremental validity of life story elements. Journal of Personality, 87(5), 1009–1024.

Editor-Reviewed Publications

Brandt, M. J., & Cassario, A. L. (2023). Distinguishing between worldview conflict and shared alliances: Commentary on Pinsof, Sears, and Haselton. Psychological Inquiry, 34(3), 168–174. Paper

Book Chapters

Brandt, M. J., Vallabha, S., & Cassario, A. L. (2024). Is political identification a key for political animosity? In J. P. Forgas (Ed.), The Tribal Mind and the Psychology of Collectivism. Routledge.

Under Revision

Cassario, A. L., Vallabha, S., & Brandt, M. J. (Invited resubmission: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology). Central attitudes are more resistant to change, but are not necessarily less responsive to persuasive interventions.

Cameron, C. D., Cassario, A. L., Eadeh, F., Floman, J., Kubin, E., Laurent, S., Pasek, M. H., Phillips, J., & Schumann, K. (Revise and resubmit: Political Psychology). Political divisions and the security of empathy.

Selected Current Projects

Cassario, A. L., & Brandt, M. J. (Manuscript in preparation). Conviction cascades: Moral conviction transmits through belief system ties.

Cassario, A. L., Triki, A.†, & Brandt, M. J. (Manuscript in preparation). Does threat exposure increase conservatism? Evidence for terrorism-specific but not general causal effects.

Brandt, M. J., & Cassario, A. L. (Manuscript in preparation). Side effects of depolarization interventions.

Brandt, M. J. & Cassario, A. L. (Manuscript in preparation). Within-person fluctuations in daily stress do not predict political prejudice or engagement, but higher between-person stress does: Evidence from an EMA study.

Cassario, A. L. (2026). Falling short? Testing the causal effect of downward mobility on populist support. Doctoral dissertation, Michigan State University.

Grants & Awards

2026 — Institute for Humane Studies Residency Grant ($4,600)

2026 — Michigan State University Dissertation Completion Fellowship ($7,500)

2025 — SPSP Student Publication Award for Best Graduate Student Publication in an SPSP Journal

2025 — Institute for Humane Studies Grant, Co-Investigator with Mark Brandt ($5,000)

2025 — Michigan State University Research Enhancement Award ($1,000)

2025 — PolNet–PaCSS Graduate Student Fellowship ($200)