With more than a year and a half to go before the 2020 elections, Republicans can take comfort in a number of factors. The result of the Mueller investigation has set back Democratic hopes for an easy victory; the history of presidents running for a second term favors incumbents; and […] Read more »
Compassionate Democrats and Tough Republicans: How Ideology Shapes Partisan Stereotypes
As partisan polarization has increased over the past decades, so has affective polarization in the mass public. People increasingly dislike their partisan opponents and hold negative stereotypes about their character and motivations. According to prominent theories of partisan identity, these negative stereotypes are merely rationalizations that serve to justify partisan […] Read more »
Will the Mueller Report Change Anyone’s Mind?
The Department of Justice’s summary of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has a little something for both Democrats and Republicans, depending on how you look at it. … But to fully understand how Americans will absorb any further information revealed in the report, […] Read more »
How White Identity Shapes American Politics
President Donald Trump’s supporters tend to get angry when they’re accused of racism. To many liberals, their outrage is laughable: After all, they support a leader whose racist impulses are increasingly difficult to deny. In fact, though, there’s an excellent chance that many of those supporters aren’t technically racist, in […] Read more »
Is Betomania Real or Phony?
Within days of his announcement that he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, Beto O’Rourke shot up in the rankings in terms of money, media coverage and Google searches. Then the knives came out — progressives, women, African-Americans and party loyalists all took a stab at him. The response […] Read more »
Real Solutions for Fake News? Reducing Belief in False Stories on Social Media
Social media has increasingly enabled “fake news” to circulate widely, most notably during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Although it likely did not change the outcome of the election, false news threatens the democratic goal of a well-informed electorate. To combat the harmful effects of this misinformation, Facebook began adding […] Read more »