Carlos Rivera

Dr Rivera's work lies in the intersection of experimental social psychology of politics, political psychology, and political behaviour. He is particularly interested in understanding the psychological processes by which people develop and adjust their political loyalties and how personality traits and cognitive styles influence political behaviour.

Dr Rivera's research employs personality inventories such as Need for Closure (i.e. the desire to reach cognitive closure and maintain it permanently), the Big Five personality traits, and other emotions inventories to look at how civic engagement, adherences to political parties, and electoral behaviours are developed.