Belief Change and Politics

The section's focus is on dynamic aspects of thought and the connection of opinion with political behavior. The participants are asked to report on advances in cognitive sciences and decision theory, provide and assess applications in political science, spell out research programmes, and plan collaboration. The section comprises six panels. The panels 18-1 and 18-2 deal with models of belief revision and practical reasoning. The aim is to acquaint political scientists with the strands of interests and results developed in formal philosophy, decision theory, and computer science. The panel 18-3 treats of psychological aspects of belief structure and change. It should help us understand how lower-level dimensions of beliefs affect their susceptibility or resistance to change, and how belief change relates to higher-level individual variables. Panels 18-4 and 18-5 are devoted to the cognitive approach to international politics. The purpose is to elaborate on foreign policy makers' ways of processing information, and their reactions to more or less dramatic changes in international affairs. Panel 18-6 bears on empirical evidence of belief change in public opinion research. It should focus on the individual-level and contextual antecedents of public opinion change.