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Michael Bang Petersen

Michael Bang Petersen

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Political Science
Denmark
2026
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Law and Political Science
Denmark
2023

D-Index & Metrics

Political Science

D-Index
54
Citations
10626
World Ranking
177
National Ranking
3

Psychology

D-Index
53
Citations
10271
World Ranking
4829
National Ranking
15

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Political Science in Denmark Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Political Science in Denmark Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Law and Political Science in Denmark Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Law and Political Science in Denmark Leader Award

Overview

Michael Bang Petersen is affiliated with Aarhus University in Denmark and works primarily within the Social Sciences. Their research spans multiple subfields, notably Sociology and Political Science, Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology, Communication, and Clinical Psychology.

The main topics addressed in their work include the Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment, Misinformation and Its Impacts, Social and Intergroup Psychology, Social Media and Politics, Vaccine Coverage and Hesitancy, Cultural Differences and Values, and COVID-19 and Mental Health.

Michael Bang Petersen's recent scholarly output includes several publications with notable impact. These papers are:

  • The Emotional Path to Action: Empathy Promotes Physical Distancing and Wearing of Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic (2020), Psychological Science
  • Partisan Polarization Is the Primary Psychological Motivation behind Political Fake News Sharing on Twitter (2021), American Political Science Review
  • Public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines: cross-national evidence on levels and individual-level predictors using observational data (2021), BMJ Open
  • National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic (2022), Nature Communications
  • Compliance without fear: Individual-level protective behaviour during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (2021), British Journal of Health Psychology

Their frequent coauthors include Lene Aarøe, Alexander Bor, Kevin Arceneaux, Frederik Juhl Jørgensen, and Troels Bøggild.

Publication venues where Michael Bang Petersen's research often appears include Harvard Dataverse, PLoS ONE, American Political Science Review, Politica, and Psychological Science.

Best Publications

  • The Emotional Path to Action: Empathy Promotes Physical Distancing and Wearing of Face Masks During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

    Stefan Pfattheicher;Laila Nockur;Robert Böhm;Claudia Sassenrath

  • Social Welfare as Small‐Scale Help: Evolutionary Psychology and the Deservingness Heuristic

    Michael Bang Petersen

  • Deservingness versus values in public opinion on welfare: The automaticity of the deservingness heuristic

    Michael Bang Petersen;Rune Slothuus;Rune Stubager;Lise Togeby

  • Who Deserves Help? Evolutionary Psychology, Social Emotions, and Public Opinion about Welfare

    Michael Bang Petersen;Daniel Sznycer;Leda Cosmides;John Tooby

  • Partisan Polarization Is the Primary Psychological Motivation behind Political Fake News Sharing on Twitter

    Mathias Osmundsen;Alexander Bor;Peter Bjerregaard Vahlstrup;Anja Bechmann

  • National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

    Unknown

  • Parasite stress and pathogen avoidance relate to distinct dimensions of political ideology across 30 nations

    Joshua M. Tybur;Yoel Inbar;Lene Aarøe;Pat Barclay

  • The Behavioral Immune System Shapes Political Intuitions: Why and How Individual Differences in Disgust Sensitivity Underlie Opposition to Immigration

    Lene Aarøe;Michael Bang Petersen;Kevin Arceneaux

  • Motivated Reasoning and Political Parties: Evidence for Increased Processing in the Face of Party Cues

    Michael Bang Petersen;Martin Skov;Martin Skov;Søren Serritzlew;Thomas Ramsøy;Thomas Ramsøy

  • The Ancestral Logic of Politics Upper-Body Strength Regulates Men’s Assertion of Self-Interest Over Economic Redistribution

    Michael Bang Petersen;Daniel Sznycer;Aaron Nathaniel Sell;Aaron Nathaniel Sell;Leda Cosmides

  • The Deservingness Heuristic and the Politics of Health Care

    Carsten Jensen;Michael Bang Petersen

  • Crowding Out Culture: Scandinavians and Americans Agree on Social Welfare in the Face of Deservingness Cues

    Lene Aarøe;Michael Bang Petersen

  • Public acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines: cross-national evidence on levels and individual-level predictors using observational data.

    Marie Fly Lindholt;Frederik Juhl Jørgensen;Alexander Bor;Michael Bang Petersen

  • The naturalness of (many) social institutions: evolved cognition as their foundation

    Pascal Boyer;Michael Bang Petersen

  • Will the COVID-19 pandemic worsen the obesity epidemic?

    Christoffer Clemmensen;Michael Bang Petersen;Thorkild I A Sørensen

  • Detecting affiliation in colaughter across 24 societies

    Gregory A. Bryant;Daniel M. T. Fessler;Riccardo Fusaroli;Edward Clint

  • Perceived Conflict and Leader Dominance: Individual and Contextual Factors Behind Preferences for Dominant Leaders

    Lasse Laustsen;Michael Bang Petersen

  • Distinct Emotions, Distinct Domains: Anger, Anxiety and Perceptions of Intentionality

    Michael Bang Petersen

  • Evolutionary Political Psychology: On the Origin and Structure of Heuristics and Biases in Politics

    Michael Bang Petersen

  • Compliance without fear: Individual-level protective behaviour during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Frederik Jørgensen;Alexander Bor;Michael Bang Petersen

  • Constituents of political cognition: Race, party politics, and the alliance detection system

    David Pietraszewski;Oliver Scott Curry;Michael Bang Petersen;Leda Cosmides

  • Transparent communication about negative features of COVID-19 vaccines decreases acceptance but increases trust.

    Michael Bang Petersen;Alexander Bor;Frederik Juhl Jørgensen;Marie Fly Lindholt

  • Hunger Games: Fluctuations in Blood Glucose Levels Influence Social Welfare Support

    Lene Aarøe;Michael Bang Petersen

Frequent Co-Authors

Paul M. Sniderman
Paul M. Sniderman Stanford University
John Tooby
John Tooby University of California, Santa Barbara
Leda Cosmides
Leda Cosmides University of California, Santa Barbara
Kevin Arceneaux
Kevin Arceneaux Sciences Po
Stefan Stieger
Stefan Stieger Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences
Pascal Boyer
Pascal Boyer Washington University in St. Louis
Norman P. Li
Norman P. Li Singapore Management University
Coren L. Apicella
Coren L. Apicella University of Pennsylvania
Tatsuya Kameda
Tatsuya Kameda Meiji Gakuin University
Wesley K. Thompson
Wesley K. Thompson University of California, San Diego

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