Lala Muradova

I’m Associate Professor in Political Psychology and Democracy at the Department of Politics and International Relations of the University of Southampton, UK.

I’m also a member of the steering committee of the Centre for Democratic Futures and Centre for Behavioural Experimental Action and Research (C-BEAR). I serve at the governing council of the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Democratic Innovations Group (since 2024), and at the Diversity Committee of the European Political Science Society (EPSS) (since 2024).

Before joining the University of Southampton, I was British Academy Visiting Scholar at the Centre for the Politics of Feelings (School of Advanced Studies, University of London), where I carried out a multi-disciplinary research on political emotions and climate change misperceptions (2023).

My Cambridge Element book in Political Psychology “Empathy and Political Reasoning. How Empathy Promotes Reflection and Strengthens Democracy” (CUP, 2025) investigates the potential of empathy to motivate democratically better political reasoning in citizens.

I hold a PhD from the Centre for Political Science Research, KU Leuven (University of Leuven) (Belgium) (2021). My PhD thesis, awarded with the Best Political Science PhD in 2021 by Belgian and Dutch Political Science Associations, and the honorary mention of the Best Political Communication Dissertation Award of the APSA & ICA Political Communication Divisions 2021, combined survey and lab experiments with observational and qualitative data to gain insight into the processes underlying individuals’ political opinion formation.

My core research interests lie at the intersection of political psychology (emotions and political opinion formation), political communication (interpersonal political talk), and democratic innovations (citizens-centred political institutions, such as citizens’ assemblies, referendums). Methodologically, I use primarily quantitative methods, including surveys and different types of experiments. In the past, I used qualitative research methods (e.g., interviews, and QCA) as a part of a mixed-method research design. 

I’m currently working on another book project (w/ Alberto Lopez) for Cambridge Elements in Gender and Politics. The Element investigates the role of politics in modern dating and romantic relationships.

Previously, I was a Tenure-track Assistant Professor in Comparative Politics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona (2022-2023, on leave). I have held visiting positions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford (2018), University of Temple, (2020), University of Canberra (2020), University of Barcelona (2021) and ESADE Business School (2021).

As a social scientist, I’m committed to interdisciplinary research and open science practices.

I’m also on BlueSky, Linkedin and Google Scholar.