Complementing IQ with EQ: Connecting EU law to social psychology

Abstract

How to increase the EQ of the EU? This contribution discusses how we can connect empirical insights from social psychology to EU law. Within the extensive field of social psychology, we focus on how people perceive the legitimacy of the EU and its legal norms. The methods and theories we discuss, however, provide inspiration more generally for EU lawyers wanting to connect social psychology and EU law. The contribution first introduces the field of social psychology and several core theories and methods of particular interest to EU law. It then discusses how social psychology is used in national legal research, and why such national research cannot be directly translated to the EU. We subsequently zoom in on moral foundations theory and social identity theory, which may be of particular interest to EU lawyers, and provide examples of how one may usefully translate psychological findings into the realm of EU law.