Research
Research
Yes to Koch, No to Woke: Public Opinion, Free Markets, and Business Involvement in Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly (2025).
(with Spencer Goidel, Craig Freeman, and Kirby Goidel)
Abstract: In this paper, we use data from the 2022 Cooperative Election Study to explore the relationship between partisanship, attitudes toward free markets, and corporate social responsibility. We find that while Republicans continue to express abstract support for free markets and business involvement in politics, they respond negatively to more specific descriptions of CEO activism, particularly when that activism is directed toward environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Overall, individual support for business involvement in politics depends on the noneconomic impact of corporate behavior. In this respect, our findings echo the literature on political tolerance: abstract support for free markets slips when applied to specific environmental, social, and governance contexts. Within this context, “business involvement in politics,” which Republicans support, translates into “corporate political activity,” which Republicans oppose.
Longing for the “Good Old Days” or longing for a racist and sexist past? Research & Politics (2024)
(with Spencer Goidel and Kirby Goidel)
Abstract: Nostalgia plays an increasingly central and polarizing role in American politics, as the Republican Party has become the primary proprietor of nostalgic rhetoric. This paper explores how feelings of collective nostalgia in a country with an unjust past are inextricably tied to racism and hostile sexism. We expect that nostalgia is strongly related to racist and sexist attitudes. We test these expectations using data from the 2022 Cooperative Election Study. Our findings reveal a standard deviation increase in nostalgia is associated with a 7–13 percentage point increase in the probability of expressing racist attitudes, and a 6–9 percentage point increase in the probability of expressing sexist attitudes, even after controlling for partisan affiliation and ideology. These results suggest that nostalgic sentiments can exacerbate prejudice and discrimination by perpetuating the belief that things were better when America was more unjust.
BLM movement Frames among the muted voices: Actor-generated infographics on Instagram during #BlackoutTuesday, International Journal of Communication (2022)
(with Kirsten Weber, Holly Smith, Tisha Dejmanee, and Zulfia Zaher)
Abstract: Within the context of social movements, movement frames define social or political problems and guide movement participants to address those issues. As a decentralized movement, #BlackLivesMatter (#BLM) invited audiences to appropriate the hashtag and use it to illuminate numerous issues that affect Black Americans. This article focuses on the infographics that were generated and circulated in association with #BlackoutTuesday on Instagram to understand user-generated movement frames for the #BLM movement. Our theme analysis yielded four themes representative of user-generated movement frames, including (a) sharing antiracist information (e.g., information about police brutality, statistics illustrating racial disparities, portrayals of systemic racism, refutations of oppositional arguments, and defining and clarifying antiracist vocabulary), (b) amplifying Black voices, (c) tips for performing allyship, and (d) calls to action. We discuss how user-generated themes on Instagram work within the BLM movement and how visual texts support movements on social media more generally.
A tale of two parties: Comparing the intensity of face threats in the Democratic and Republican Primary debates of 2012 and 2016, Argumentation and Advocacy (2018)
(with Shelly Hinck, Edward Hinck, William Dailey, and Elizabeth Hansen)
Abstract: Using Politeness Theory as the theoretical lens, we explore how Hillary Rodham Clinton overcame a tough primary race against Bernie Sanders while Donald J. Trump emerged unexpectedly from a large field of experienced and highly qualified candidates to win the Republican nomination for president. We examine the degree of aggression and support of candidates’ image in the messages exchanged in the primary debates along the lines of disagreement over character, policy, use of data, and campaign tactics. The results suggest that Republican candidates in their primary debates relied more on aggressive discourse strategies to appeal to partisan voters than Democrats; Democratic candidates were more supportive of one another while debating their differences than Republicans in the primary debates. The trend across two presidential election cycles suggests that primary debates are featuring more aggression, at least for Republicans, and it also appears that voters may be responding favorably to the strategy, at least in the most recent presidential campaign.
Revisiting the Electoral Connection: Explaining Policy Responsiveness in the U.S. House of Representatives
Abstract: As argued throughout the American politics literature, elections are a primary mechanism by which representatives are induced to respond to the policy demands of their constituency. However, classic frameworks of this mechanism fail to explain the within-party variation in policy responsiveness, and additionally have not been sufficiently tested. I argue that the interplay of primary and general election threat has been crucially omitted - that a representative's responsiveness to her district's median voter is a function of wherein the electoral threat lies. In assessing district preferences, DW-NOMINATE scores, and pre-session primary and general election returns for four recent congresses, I find that increases in general election threat further constrains both Democratic and Republican representatives to the preferences of their districts' median voters. With regards to primaries, I found that increases in primary electoral threat is associated with a decrease in responsiveness to the district median only among Democratic incumbents. These findings shed further light on the strategic positioning considerations of members of the U.S. House.
Has the Watchdog Gone Missing? Local News Richness and Legislative Responsiveness
Abstract: Concerns about the decline of local news coverage relate to theories of democratic accountability; when no one is watching, legislators are free to deviate from constituent preferences. However, most studies have stopped short of directly linking declines in local news to failures of representative responsiveness. This study offers a comprehensive theory of news coverage and legislator accountability. Second, it empirically tests this theory through analyzing declining local news via an often cited but rarely empirically explored phenomenon: the acquisition of television stations by large media conglomerates. Using data from the FCC, the American Ideology Project, and the roll-call votes of the 117th U.S. Congress, we find some evidence that the degree of broadcast station consolidation within a congressional district is significantly associated with the degree of incongruence between a representative’s roll-call vote and her constituents’ preferences.
C-Suite and ESG: How Diversity in Leadership Impacts Corporate Political Activity
(with Duncan Christensen)
Abstract: Though American corporations have recently been targeted by members of the Republican party for their involvement in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) activities, extant research in political science has neglected to examine what explains the extent to which corporations engage in said activities. Going beyond the conventional explanations of risk management posed in the finance literature, we propose that increasing proportions of non-white and of women executive leaders in a company engender an increase in that company's ESG activity. Using data from Yahoo Finance, LinkedIn, corporate websites, and Bloomberg, we find that the demographic composition of executive leadership affects ESG activity, but that race and gender have differential effects on each constituent activity. These findings shed light on the nature of corporate political activity, and potentially explain the admonishment witnessed within the American political right.
Measuring the Public’s Endorsement of Conspiracy Theories
(with Scott Clifford)
How Anger Affects Political Participation: The Moderating Role of Trait Aggression
(with Scott Clifford)