Harvard historian and ‘New Yorker’ writer Jill Lepore tells the story of the Simulmatics Corporation. Founded in 1959, it used a so-called “people machine,” a computer program it claimed could predict the impact of political messages or advertising pitches. At the time, Simulmatics drew condemnation from scholars and political leaders […] Read more »
The partisan pandemic: Do we now live in alternative realities?
A protestor argues with a counter-protestor in Los Angeles on May 1, 2020. FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images Andrea Robbett, Middlebury and Peter Hans Matthews, Middlebury Politics can divide even friends and families. When this happens, we like to tell ourselves that the explanation lies in honest differences in […] Read more »
How Social Psychology Influences Political Behavior
Individual reactions to the coronavirus pandemic and the public health restrictions that have accompanied it have underscored how powerful negative partisanship can be in the formation of political opinions. In past crises, national shocks have urged partisans to put aside their personal grievances in pursuit of the greater good, but […] Read more »
The Urban-Rural Gulf in American Political Behavior
… Places commonly differ in terms of the composition of the people who reside there. No one is arguing about that fact. The question is whether composition is all there is, or whether place has an independent effect. Are two people, identical in their demographic profiles, likely to vary in […] Read more »
Global Behaviors and Perceptions at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic
We conducted a large-scale survey covering 58 countries and over 100,000 respondents between late March and early April 2020 to study beliefs and attitudes towards citizens’ and governments’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most respondents reacted strongly to the crisis: they report engaging in social distancing and hygiene behaviors, and […] Read more »
American Public Responses to COVID-19: Stopping the epidemic versus stopping the economic decline
Drawing on a scientific national survey (N = 3,933; including 3,188 registered voters), this report describes Americans’ coronavirus knowledge, attitudes, vulnerabilities, protective behaviors, and communication needs in an effort to inform the public health community, policymakers, and the public. … More than eight in ten Americans say stopping the spread […] Read more »