Belief Systems and the Perception of Reality

This book focuses on the social psychology of belief systems and how they influence perceptions of reality. These belief systems, from politics to religion to science, not only shape one’s thoughts and views but also can be the cause of conflict and disagreement over values, particularly when they are enacted in political policies.

In Belief Systems and the Perceptions of Reality, editors Bastiaan T. Rutjens and Mark J. Brandt examine the social psychological effects at the heart of the conflict by bringing together contributions under five themes: motivated reasoning, inequality, threat, scientists interpreting science, and people interpreting science. This book aims to create a more integrated understanding of reality perception and its connection with belief systems, viewed through the lens of social psychology.

The synthesis of expert contributors as well as the literature around social psychology and belief systems makes this a unique resource for students, researchers and academics in behavioural and social sciences as well as activists and journalists working in this political field.

Bastiaan T. Rutjens is an Assistant Professor in the Social Psychology Program of the Psychology Department at the University of Amsterdam. His research interests are in social and cultural psychology, with a particular focus on the psychological functionings of religious and secular belief systems and worldviews.

Mark J. Brandt is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Psychology at Tilburg University. He aims to understand ideological and moral beliefs – such as political ideology, religious fundamentalism, and moral conviction – and how they structure attitudes and behaviors, how they provide people with meaning, and why people adopt them in the first place.