Researcher Profile

  • Professor of Psychology

  • Extremism, political violence, social identity, social identity formation, collective action, social movements, norms, online interaction

  • Extremism, political violence, social identity, social identity formation, collective action, social movements, norms, online interaction

  • Thomas, E.F., Leggett, N., Kernot, D., Mitchell, L., Magsarjav, S., & Weber, N. (in press). Reclaim the Beach: How offline events shape online interactions and networks amongst those who support and oppose right-wing protest. Studies in Conflict and Terrorism.

    Smith, L.G.E., Blackwood, L. & Thomas, E.F. (2020). The need to re-focus on the group as the site of radicalization. Perspectives on Psychological Science. doi.org/10.1177/1745691619885870.

    Louis, W. R., Lizzio-Wilson, M., Cibich, M., McGarty, C.E., Thomas, E.F., Amiot, C.E., Weber, N., Rhee, J. J., Davies, G., Rach, T., Goh, S., McMaster, Z., Muldoon, O. T., Howe, N. M., & Moghaddam, F. (in press). Failure leads protest movements to support more radical tactics. Social Psychology and Personality Science. doi.org/10.1177/19485506211037296.

    Lizzio-Wilson, M., Thomas, E.F, Louis, W., Amiot, C., Moghaddam, F. & McGarty, C. (2021). How collective action failure shapes group heterogeneity and engagement in conventional and radical action over time. Psychological Science, 32, 519-535. DOI:10.1177/0956797620970562

    Thomas, E.F., McGarty, C. & Louis, W.R. (2014). Social interaction and psychological pathways to political engagement and extremism. European Journal of Social Psychology,44, 15-22

    Thomas, E.F. & Louis, W.R. (2014). When will collective action be effective? Violent and non-violent protests differentially influence perceptions of legitimacy and efficacy amongst supporters. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 263-276.DOI: 10.1177/0146167213510525

    Thomas, E.F., Smith, L.G.E., McGarty, C. & Postmes, T. (2010) Nice and nasty: The formation of pro-social and hostile social movements. International Review of Social Psychology, 23, 17-55.

    Thomas, E.F., Bury, S.M., Louis, W.R., Amiot, C.E., Molenberghs, P., Crane, M.F. & Decety, J. (2019). Vegetarian, vegan, activist, radical: Using latent profile analysis to examine different forms of support for animal welfare. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 22, 836-857. doi.org/10.1177/1368430218824407

  • Social Influence – Micro, Meso And Macro Levels; Disinformation And Social Cohesion; Radicalisation And Extremism


  • Twitter Handle
    Email Address emma.thomas@flinders.edu.au

 

Emma Thomas

Overview

Emma Thomas is Professor of Psychology at Flinders University. Her work sits at the nexus of social and political psychology and focusses on understanding when, why and how people commit to engaging in (violent and non-violent) actions to bring about a desired social change. Her work (n > 55 papers) uses experimental, longitudinal and natural language processing methods to address the role of social identities, norms and social interaction in promoting political engagement and extremism. She has been funded via multiple grants from the Australian Research Council (including an ARC DECRA award) and Defence Science & Technology. She was a 2018 South Australian Tall Poppy Awardee.