Political Behavior

The Influence of Descriptive Representation on Support for Judicial Nominees and the US Supreme Court - Political Behavior We argue that characteristics of unelected officials directly influence individuals’ perceptions and evaluations of them. These evaluations then have indirect, downstream consequences on evaluations o...

New findings from Miles Armaly, Christopher Krewson & Elizabeth Lane shows that descriptive representation shapes not just views of judicial nominees, but trust in the Court itself. #SCOTUS #DescriptiveRepresentation #RaceandPolitics
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Effects of Voting by Mail on Correct Voting - Political Behavior The share of Americans voting by mail surged in 2020. For those casting a mail-in ballot, their voting experience was different from those who voted in-person. When voting by mail, people can make the...

Just out at @polbehavior.bsky.social w/Carey Stapleton:

Voting by mail has the upside of boosting correct voting.

When people vote by mail rather than in-person, they are more likely to choose the presidential candidate best aligned with their preferences.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Walls, Weed, and Coal: How Threats to Local Industry Shape Economic Voting - Political Behavior Do threats to local economic industry influence voting behavior? While research has shown that voters backlash against candidates whose policies negatively affect their socio-economic status, relative...

Collingwood, Morín & Tzelgov's recent paper shows voters often anticipate threats to local industries—and vote to protect them. From marijuana growers in CA to coal workers in WV, economic self-interest drives voting patterns. #EconVoting
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Narcissism and Affective Polarization - Political Behavior There are increasing concerns about affective polarization between political groups in the US and elsewhere. While most work explaining affective polarization focuses on a combination of social and id...

James Tilley & Sara Hobolt's newest publication finds that narcissistic personalities fuel affective polarization in the UK. Narcissism predicts both loyalty to in-groups and hostility to out-groups, deepening political divides.
#AffectivePolarization
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Electoral Role Models: Political Empowerment and Candidate Emergence - Political Behavior Does the election of politicians from historically underrepresented groups spur others to enter politics? Some political scientists and policymakers posit that the election of women and people of colo...

New research by Andrew Janusz, Patrick Silva and Andrea Junqueira finds that electing women or Afro-Brazilian mayors doesn’t boost similar candidacies for local office. Representation isn’t enough, systemic barriers still hold aspiring leaders back.
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Measuring Belief Certainty in Political Knowledge - Political Behavior Political knowledge measures what people know and how they reason about politics, but scholars still debate how to best measure the concept. A growing body of survey research has demonstrated the theo...

In Robert Vidigal's newest paper, he shows that how some people feel about their political knowledge matters just as much as what they know. A smarter way to measure what citizens understand, and why it matters for democracy. #PoliticalPsychology
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

A Waste of Time? Partisan Deliberative Bias as a Barrier to Political Crosstalk - Political Behavior Americans are increasingly unwilling to talk about politics with out-partisans. One potential barrier to such cross-cutting partisan conversations may be partisans’ tendency to stereotype out-partisan...

🎉🆕💥 New paper, with Bryan McLaughlin and @pedrohprocha.bsky.social now out in
@polbehavior.bsky.social! We explore the partisan deliberative bias - the sentiment expressed by both Democrats and Republicans that the political outgroup is less capable of constructively conversing than the ingroup.

My article with Claire Willeck about how colleges can help students turn out to vote just published in @polbehavior.bsky.social nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

New findings from Pavlos Vasilopoulos & Justin Robinson finds that authoritarianism in Britain is closely tied to anti-immigration views, but not to vote choice or economic attitudes after accounting for individual traits.
#BritishPolitics
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Framing Layoffs: Media Coverage, Blame Attribution, and Trade-Related Policy Responses - Political Behavior Who is blamed when factories close or when there are mass layoffs? Whether it be the closing of an auto plant or the threatened off-shoring of the Carrier furnace factory, media reports frequently inc...

New research by Ryan Brutger & Alex Guisinger reveals how media frames of factory layoffs shape who the public blames — government or corporations — and influence support for trade policies, cutting across ideological lines.
#MediaFraming
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

‚That’s Not Appropriate!‘ Examining Social Norms as Predictors of Negative Campaigning - Political Behavior The use of negative campaigning is often explained by rational considerations; the more perceived benefits exceed perceived costs, the more likely candidates are to attack their political opponents. H...

What makes candidates go negative on the campaign trail? New research by Oschatz, Maier, Dian & Geber finds that it's not just strategy—social norms within parties and among voters also play a key role. #NegativeCampaigning #CampaignStrategy
Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

CueAnon: What QAnon Signals About Congressional Candidates and What it Costs Them - Political Behavior Most research investigates why the public embraces conspiracy theories, but few studies empirically examine how Americans evaluate the politicians who do. We argued that politicians portrayed as suppo...

New study by Benjamin Noble & Taylor Carlson examines how voters evaluate candidates linked to QAnon. Despite increased media attention, QAnon support reduces candidate favorability—even among low-trust voters.
#VoterBehavior #PoliticalPsychology
Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Are Women Politicians Kind and Competent? Disentangling Stereotype Incongruity in Candidate Evaluations - Political Behavior Academia and political campaigners conventionally cast gender stereotypes as an electoral liability for women in politics. Incongruent stereotype expectations place women in a double-bind where they e...

New research by Tobias Rohrbach puts gender bias theories to the test! In “Are Women Politicians Kind and Competent?”, Rohrbach finds voters reward women for communal traits, contrary to long-held beliefs on bias.
#GenderandPolitics #WomeninPolitics
Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Cueing Without Parties: Experimental Evidence from Peru - Political Behavior Citizens infer policy information from partisan cues, yet their utility varies cross-nationally. In weakly institutionalized democracies with short-lived political parties and volatile party systems, ...

🚨 NEW RESEARCH ALERT 🚨

My latest article is now available at @polbehavior.bsky.social!

"Cueing Without Parties: Experimental Evidence from Peru" explores how citizens navigate politics in contexts without stable parties and deeply-rooted partisan predispositions.

📖 doi.org/10.1007/s111...

Perspective Getting and Cross-Party Support for Electoral Fairness - Political Behavior A worrisome characteristic of polarization in the United States is public ambivalence, or even opposition, to liberal democratic norms. This study explores the role perspective getting across party li...

Nothing better than seeing one of your former Ph.D. students publishing an article in a journal like @polbehavior.bsky.social! Read Ryan Strickler's new article, "Perspective Getting and Cross-Party Support for Electoral Fairness"
doi.org/10.1007/s111...

6/6 🧵In @polbehavior.bsky.social‬, @lukrudolph.bsky.social‬, ‪@phanxi.bsky.social‬ & Bernauer study effects on NIMBYism. Survey experiment in 🇨🇭. Results show NIMBY opposition occurs even when there are localized benefits & that it depends on ex ante perceptions of costs/benefits. doi.org/pvct

5/6 🧵 In @polbehavior.bsky.social‬, @jvanslageren.bsky.social Rosmalen & Mennes study inequality in internal & external political efficacy from 12 to 15 years old in a panel survey in 🇳🇱. Find inequalities by social status and gender, but the differences decrease with age https://doi.org/pvcs

Check out this recent article, “Elite Cues and Economic Policy Attitudes: The Mediating Role of Economic Hardship,” published in @polbehavior.bsky.social by Charlotte Cavaillé & Anja Neundorf 👇 link.springer.com/article/10.1... #polisky

An Ideology by Any Other Name - Political Behavior The terms ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ are prominent features of political discourse in the United States, and many citizens choose to identify with one of these ideological labels. Yet, many citizens...

In "An Ideology by Any Other Name," Andrew Trexler & Christopher Johnson find that many Americans identify with ideological labels beyond “liberal” or “conservative.” They show these alternative labels shape political attitudes and vote choice. Read more:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Who is Mobilized to Vote by Short Text Messages? Evidence from a Nationwide Field Experiment with Young Voters - Political Behavior Using a large randomized controlled trial and rich individual-level data on eligible voters and their household members, we evaluate how get-out-the-vote (GOTV) appeals affect inequalities in voting, ...

In "Who is Mobilized to Vote by Short Text Messages?," a nationwide RCT in Finland shows GOTV texts increased turnout among low-propensity voters. Read more from
Salomo Hirvonen, @maarit.bsky.social, Lauri Sääksvuori, &
@jannetukiainen.bsky.social:
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Visual Conjoint vs. Text Conjoint and the Differential Discriminatory Effect of (Visible) Social Categories - Political Behavior Does learning political candidates’ social categories through visual cues affect voter preferences? This paper explores this question by conducting a visual conjoint survey experiment with 2324 German...

In "Visual Conjoint vs. Text Conjoint and the Differential Discriminatory Effect of (Visible) Social Categories," Alberta Ortega & Marco Radojevic find that visual cues drive stronger discriminatory voter preferences than text labels alone. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Can Elite Allegations of Election Fraud Demobilize Supporters? - Political Behavior Can allegations of electoral fraud and misconduct undermine participation in democratic politics? If so, how large and long lasting are these turnout declines? We investigate these questions in the co...

In "Can Elite Allegations of Election Fraud Demobilize Supporters?," Bernard Fraga, Zachary Peskowitz, & James Szewczyk examine how unsubstantiated fraud claims following the 2020 election shaped turnout in Georgia. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Attending Church Encourages Acceptance of Atheists? Suppression Effects in Religion and Politics Research - Political Behavior A proliferation of religion variables presents opportunities for those studying religion and politics in the U.S. However, many studies in this growing subfield demonstrate the pitfalls of reporting t...

New study from @pauldjupe.bsky.social et al. out in @polbehavior.bsky.social. We've often found Christian nationalism & churchgoing are signed in opposite directions in regressions. Authors propose viewing such findings as suppression effects & explore implications.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Connecting Local Economic Decline to the Politics of Geographic Discontent: The Missing Link of Perceptions - Political Behavior Local economic decline has been presented as an explanation for populism, political alienation and geographic polarisation. This approach risks underestimating the complexity of observing local econom...

In Connecting Local Economic Decline to the Politics of Geographic Discontent, @willjennings.bsky.social, @lawrencemckay.bsky.social, & Gerry Stoker show perceptions of decline aren’t just about data—they’re shaped by partisanship & personal experience. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Challenging by Cueing? An Investigation of Party and Leader Cueing Effects Across Mainstream and Challenger Party Voters - Political Behavior The emergence of new challenger parties calls for a reassessment of the party-model of opinion formation by examining different sources of cues across types of voters and the conditions that make cuei...

Do party and leader cues matter if voters aren't loyal partisans? In “Challenging by Cueing?” Torcal, Martini, and Carter explore cueing effects across mainstream and challenger parties in Spain—and find that partisan ties might not be necessary for cues. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Personalization of Electoral Participation? The Relationship Between Trait Evaluations of Presidential Candidates and Turnout Decisions in American Presidential Elections 1980–2020 - Political Beh... The personalization thesis claims that leaders’ influence over voters has increased. While research consistently shows that candidates influence party choice, we know little about their effects on the...

From our March issue: "The Personalization of Electoral Participation? The Relationship Between Trait Evaluations of Presidential Candidates and Turnout Decisions in American Presidential Elections 1980–2020” by @segerberg.bsky.social. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Is downward class mobility linked to far-right party voting and how? @dafnoukos.bsky.social, @a-gugushvili.bsky.social‬ & Tim Vlandas argue it significantly affects far-right voting but only under specific conditions. Read OPEN ACCESS in @polbehavior.bsky.social‬: buff.ly/Cljvggt

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Getting Out the (Newly-Enfranchised) Vote: Encouraging Voter Registration After Rights Restoration - Political Behavior Academic research describes low rates of political participation among people with criminal convictions, but offers few ideas about how to reach these low-propensity voters. After New Jersey expanded ...

Super excited this is out in @polbehavior.bsky.social w/ @arielrwhite.bsky.social @melissamichelson.bsky.social #SamRoth & @dosocialjustice.bsky.social

"Getting out the (newly enfranchised) vote: Encouraging voter registration after rights restoration"

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

How Political Representation Empowers Women - Political Behavior Addressing the question of how to tackle gender inequalities, we test whether women who perceive women’s representation in politics as achievement are empowered. We embed an experiment in an online su...

How does descriptive representation in Congress matter for non-political outcomes? West and Duell answer that question in their article, “How Political Representation Empowers Women”. Read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Procedure Matters: The Distinct Attitudinal Feedback Effects of Immigration Policy - Political Behavior Natives who dislike immigrants prefer restrictive immigration policies, but do those policies deepen or alleviate anti-immigrant attitudes? Existing theories have offered mixed predictions. Restrictio...

Check out the open-access article, “Procedure Matters: The Distinct Attitudinal Feedback Effects of Immigration Policy”, by Siu-yau Lee.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...