We investigate causal processes linking environmental conditions, attitudes, and policies in the American states: Is public opinion about ecology shaped by environmental conditions? Are state policymakers responsive to environmental opinions? Does public opinion respond to policy adoption?...

The framers of the U.S. Constitution explicitly designed federalism to enhance representation. Because powers are divided among multiple governments, citizens are able to exert pressure on the elected officials of various governments in an effort to achieve desired outcomes. If one government is...

In addition to mobilizing supporters to vote, partisan campaigns use get-out-the-vote tactics as a means to boost support for their candidate. Although observational studies have attempted to estimate the effects of grassroots campaigning on political attitudes, they are unable to establish...

In recent years, social scientists have increasingly turned to matching as a method for drawing causal inferences from observational data. Matching compares those who receive a treatment to those with similar background attributes who do not receive a treatment. Researchers who use matching...

In recent years, social scientists have increasingly turned to matching as a method for drawing causal inferences from observational data. Matching compares those who receive a treatment to those with similar background attributes who do not receive a treatment. Researchers who use matching...

Does the effectiveness of a Get Out The Vote (GOTV) contact depend upon the method by which a voter casts a ballot? This study investigates whether those who must vote by mail are more or less responsive to a face-to-face mobilization message than voters who live in traditional precincts with...

Experimental political communication research focuses on understanding media effects given reception. Theoretically, persuasion is a function of the probability an individual receives a given communication and their probability of yielding to what is received. We investigate the implications of...

Under what conditions are individuals persuaded by political arguments encountered in the news? In this project, we integrate recent political science research on the effects of fear on persuasion with dual process models of persuasion from cognitive psychology and the Extended Parallel...

Political observers are concerned that the fragmentation of contemporary news media and the proliferation of ideological cable news options fuels opinion polarization. The potential implications are problematic: Ideological camps on the left and right of the political spectrum, with different...