Alessandro Nai

Dr. Alessandro Nai is an Associate Professor of Political Communication and Journalism at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), University of Amsterdam. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Geneva (2010). His research focuses on dark politics, negative campaigning, political psychology, and electoral behavior, with emphasis on six core areas: negative campaigning, dark personality traits in leaders and voters, radical partisanship, populism, persuasion mechanisms, and direct democracy. Nai directs the NEGex project tracking negative campaigning globally, involving 2,200+ country experts across 190+ elections. He also studies meta-science, including peer review practices in social sciences.

Current roles include Editor of the European Journal of Political Research (2025) and past Associate Editorships at the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties and the Journal of Social and Political Psychology. He co-authored the award-winning book *Dark Politics* (2024), which investigates dark personality traits in politicians and their democratic consequences, and is co-editing the forthcoming *Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication*. Replication materials for his work are openly accessible via OSF.

Key projects include the ERC-funded DEMO-LIES study on political accusations and public trust, and a large-scale analysis of peer review biases. Nai has advised on mental health initiatives in academia and actively engages in policy dialogues on democratic integrity. His work bridges experimental methods, comparative data, and real-world policy implications, emphasizing empirical rigor and societal relevance.