WORKING PROJECTS

(Newer) Projects in Progress

“How Social Media Creators Influence the Politics of the Young Generation'' (with John Marshall and Kirill Chmel) Pre-registered report Under Review

“America Above Fahrenheit 451: Political Geography of Banned Books'' (with Jane Esberg)

  • extensive data collection efforts to better understand the logic of book censorship in America

“Food for Thought: When Cultural Agents Turn to Politics During Wartime (with Erin York)

  • quantifying the consequences of non-political actors becoming political after the Gaza attack

Working Papers

“Before the Effect: Assessing Exposure to Partisan Media” (Under Review) with Taylor Carlson

Partisan media exerts a powerful influence on American politics. But experimental evidence often focuses on the counterfactuals, leading to a paradox: while we know much about potential media effects under forced exposure, the actual extent and nature of real-world exposure remain largely unknown. We focus on the most popular partisan news source, Fox News, and ambitiously assemble all available data on direct exposure (TV, web traffic, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube) over one month. We find that American exposure to Fox News is more limited than widely believed. Most online content from Fox News content online generates minimal engagement. But among a small subset of avid news consumers, multi-mode exposure is the norm. These findings underscore the limitations in single-mode media studies and the challenges of assessing indirect exposure. They also highlight the vital necessity of grounding scientific inquiries in a more realistic understanding of news media consumption.

”Copaganda: The Reinforcing Spiral of Policing Attitudes in America” with Tyler Reny and Esteban Fernandez

Despite widespread evidence of police misconduct, many Americans continue to hold very favorable views toward law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Why? One potential explanation is the mass consumption of police procedural television programs that tend to feature one dominant narrative: police officers are heroic figures who single-mindedly pursue justice, quell violent crime, and root out corruption in their own ranks. Using a variety of national surveys, we first establish a robust correlation between exposure to these shows and pro-police attitudes. Next, using a large-N national survey and a field experiment in retirement houses, we show that entertainment media cultivates pro-policing attitudes and policies regardless of varied lived experiences. Finally, using a preference-incorporating experiment, we show that these entertainment media effects are more pronounced among those likely to consume these shows in the real world. Our findings underscore the powerful influence of entertainment media in reinforcing distorted perceptions of law enforcement, serving as a reminder of the imperative for the study of public opinion to attune to the seemingly apolitical realities of everyday media diets. .

“Broken Beacon? How Political Turmoil in the U.S Undermines Public Perception of Democracy in China” wiith Hanying Wei and Junyan Jiang

As one of the world's oldest and largest democracies, the United States has long been considered a global beacon of democratic governance. This article studies how political turmoil in America can undermine public perception of democracy beyond its borders. We compiled a list of a decade's worth of major political events in the U.S from the New York Times and matched their timing with extensive text data from social media discussions of democracy in China. Though China’s educated class has long revered America’s democratic principles, we demonstrate that major U.S. domestic turmoils---ranging from the Capitol attack to the murder of George Floyd---have significantly worsened the Chinese perception of democracy as an institutional ideal. We show that this is not a result of mediated exposure to American politics through Chinese news media but rather a direct and critical reflection of the scenes of democratic unrest. Our findings highlight that in a media environment without national boundaries, political turbulence in the West can have wide-ranging repercussions on international faith in democracy's promises.