Vladimir Bojarskich, M.Sc.

• Online hatred & toxic communication
• Political ideology
• Social influence & group processes
• Moralization
• Climate change

I am generally interested in understanding the social, moral, and ideological motives and processes (e.g., moralization) that drive intergroup conflict (e.g., hate speech) and people’s (dis)engagment with contemporary political issues (e.g., climate change).

Currently, as part of my dissertation project, I investigate the link between people’s political ideology and their evaluation and perpetuation of online hate speech. Hate speech frequently targets politically salient and/or marginalized groups, rises in response to sociopolitical events, and is more prevalent in political compared to nonpolitical online discussions. Relatedly, political ideology serves to make sense of politically relevant events and influences how people think of social groups and their status. As such, understanding the association between people’s political ideology and their evaluation and perpetuation of online hate speech seems integral to understanding its causes and remedies.

Furthermore, I have a keen interest in phenomena typically studied by moral and environmental psychologists such as understanding why people moralize certain issues and how people think, feel, and act about climate change. 

Research activities

• Since 03/2021:
  Ph.D. candidate in Communication and Media Psychology, Institute for Communication Science, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany
  & Marie Sklodowska-Curie Early Stage Researcher at NETHATE funded by the European Union (Grant No. 861047)
• 09/2019 – 08/2020:
  Statistics assistant, Methodology shop, University of Groningen, NL
• 11/2017 – 07/2018:
  Research assistant, Environmental Psychology, University of Groningen, NL
• 09/2015 – 06/2017:
  Research assistant, Department of Social Psychology, University of Groningen, NL

Research visits

• 02/2023 – 03/2023:
  Research visit, Department of Communication Studies, University of Antwerp, Belgium
• 10/2018 – 01/2019:
  Research traineeship, School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia

Education

• 09/2017 – 02/2021:
  Research Master in Behavioural and Social Sciences – Social and Organizational Psychology, University of Groningen, NL
• 04/2015 – 08/2017:
  Bachelor’s Honours College Programme, University of Groningen, NL
• 09/2014 – 08/2017:
  B.Sc. Psychology, University of Groningen, NL

Teaching activities

• 03/2020 – 07/2020:
  Student mentor and instructor, Research Practicum, University of Groningen, NL
• 09/2016 – 06/2018:
  Student mentor and instructor, Introduction to Research Methods and Academic Skills, University of Groningen, NL

Peer-reviewed journals:

Johnson Zawadzki, S., Bouman, T., Steg, L., Bojarskich, V., & Druen, P. (2020). Translating climate beliefs into action in a changing political landscape. Climatic Change, 161, 21–42.

Book chapters:

Rothmund, T., & Bojarskich, V. (2023). Verschwörungsglauben im politischen Denken und Handeln. In R. Imhoff (Ed.), Die Psychologie der Verschwörungstheorien (pp. 67–82). Hogrefe.

Conference contributions:

Bojarskich, V., Yucel, M., Hahn, L., & Rothmund, T. (2024, February 8-10). Ideological (A-) Symmetries in Moral Judgements of Toxic Online Speech [Poster presentation]. The Annual Convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, USA. 

Bojarskich, V., Yucel, M., Hahn, L., & Rothmund, T. (2023, July 23-26). Ideological Symmetries and Asymmetries in Moral Judgements of Toxic Online Comments [Paper presentation]. The 19th biennial meeting of the International Society for Justice Research, Munich, Germany. 

Bojarskich, V., & Rothmund, T. (2023, July 9-11). A Scoping Review on the Study of Ideological Symmetries and Asymmetries in Online Toxic Communication [Poster presentation]. The 2023 Annual Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Montréal, Canada. 

Fischer, H., Bojarskich, V., Ziemer, C.-T., Louis, W., & Rothmund, T. (2023, June 30- July 4). To confuse rather than convince: A metacognitive perspective on the zone-flooding strategy of disinformation. In T. Rothmund, & C.-T. Ziemer (Chairs), Fake or Fact? Novel Measures of Disinformation Discernment [Symposium]. The 19^th General Meeting of the European Association of Social Psychology, Kraków, Poland.

Bojarskich, V., Grosche, C., Ziemer, C.-T., & Rothmund, T. (2023, March 9-10). Solidarity with Ukraine: How Psychological Factors Influence the Tug of War in the General Public in Germany [Paper presentation]. The 4th Scientific Meeting of German Political Psychology Network, Bielefeld, Germany. 

Bojarskich, V., & Rothmund, T. (2022, November 10-12). A Scoping Review on the Relationship between Political Ideology and Online Hatred [Paper presentation]. The 26th Workshop on Aggression, Jena, Germany. 

Bojarskich, V., & Rothmund, T. (2022, September 10-15). A Systematic Review on the Ideological Symmetries and Asymmetries in Online Hate Speech. In V. Bojarskich, L. Dellagiacoma, U. Schmid, & I. Weber (Chairs), Multi-Level Perspectives on Online Hate Speech: Digital, Ideological, and Perceptual Underpinnings of Toxic Online Communication [Symposium]. 52nd Congress of the German Psychological Society, Hildesheim, Germany.

Bojarskich, V., & Rothmund, T. (2022, June 9-10). A Systematic Review on the Ideological Symmetries and Asymmetries in Online Hatred [Paper presentation]. The Aarhus '22 Conference on Online Hostility and Bystanders, Aarhus, Denmark.

Bojarskich, V. (2019). Morality in Climate Change [Workshop]. The 53. biannual congress of the Initiative Psychologie zum Umweltschutz, Rieneck, Germany.

Johnson Zawadzki, S., Bouman, T., Steg, L., Bojarskich, V., & Druen, P. (2018). Translating climate beliefs into action in a changing political landscape [Paper presentation]. International Congress of Applied Psychology, Montréal, Canada.