Alexander Coppock - Persuasion in Parallel

Date
-
Event Sponsor
THE MUNRO LECTURESHIP FUND
Location
Encina Hall West, Room 400 (GSL)
Speaker

Alexander Coppock, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University

 

Abstract

Upon encountering persuasive information, people update their policy preferences and political attitudes in the direction of the information. Despite large differences in baseline preferences and attitudes for subsets of the population (e.g., partisan groups), changes in response to information have the same sign and are about the same magnitude. The main evidence for the persuasion in parallel thesis comes from dozens of randomized survey experiments conducted variously on large probability and convenience samples. Opinion polls conducted on repeated cross-sections of Americans also exhibit clear evidence of parallel trends in opinion change. In this document, I give a short overview of the Persuasion in Parallel project and append two related papers: "Does Counter-Attitudinal Information Cause Backlash? Results from Three Large Survey Experiments" with Andrew Guess and “The Long-lasting Effects of Newspaper Op-Eds on Public Opinion” with Emily Ekins and David Kirby.

 

Biography

Alexander Coppock is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Yale University and a resident fellow of the Institution for Social Policy Studies and Center for the Study of American Politics. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University (2016). His principal research interest lies in political persuasion and its implications for the malleability of public opinion in the context of elections. His interests extend beyond persuasion to the design and analysis of randomized experiments.