Journal of Undergraduate Research

Kevin Zalewski, William Eggington Introduction In recent years, America has become extremely politically divided. As political polarization has increased, so has distrust of the media, especially during President Trump’s current term of office. The Media Insights Project reports that “just 17 percent of Americans give the news media high marks for being ‘very accurate.’” In […]

Aubriana Wolferts, Darren Hawkins, Political Science Social proof treatments—informing people about the behavior of their peers—have generally been shown effective in influencing subjects to engage in behavior due to a psychological desire to conform.1 Social proofs are more effective when they describe what peers typically do rather than what peers generally approve of, and when the […]

Elizabeth Whatcott and Dr. Joel Selway, Political Science Within the United Kingdom, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have all gained regional assemblies which manage local affairs including health care, economic growth, education, and other services. However, the Parliament in Westminster has devolved few responsibilities to local authorities in England. Under the Blair premiership, the government […]

Katy Smith and Joshua Gubler, Political Science Introduction On the heels of the Brexit vote and growing anxiety accompanied with leaving the European Union, immigration in the United Kingdom persists as a breaking point between native Britons, immigrants, and recent asylum seekers. To dispel the fervent animosity between these groups, humanization needs to occur in […]

Eliza Riley and Celeste Beesley, Political Science The transition from authoritarian, planned economies to democratic market economies is one of the most ambitious and momentous political-economic endeavors of the last century. As such, it is hardly surprising that the transition has been carried out with varying levels of success. Previous literature has examined features of […]

Haley Petersen and Chris Karpowitz, Political Science Conflict resolution is a popular topic among political scientists, as seen in the study of controlled communication, concession-making, self-perceived victimhood, and threat perception. Previous work has shown that humanization between in-conflict groups is primarily successful when the expression of empathy is unrelated to the conflict itself and catalyzes […]

Nick Moffit and Darren Hawkins, Political Science Introduction Many academics and government officials promote the use of scientifically rigorous policy evaluations, yet studies show that most practitioners seldom employ such evaluations, despite a growing body of policy-relevant academic literature. This represents a fundamental flaw of delegation, as citizens prefer the most efficient provision of public […]

Miranda Hatch, Connor Kreutz, Jessica Preece, Political Science Introduction Across the world, and especially in the United States of America, women are severely underrepresented in government. Although most Americans claim to see men and women as equals, covert and unintentional sexism still permeates the political decisions they make1.One consequence of this inadvertent sexism is the common perception […]

Preston Hughes, Chris Karpowitz, Political Science The research I conducted with Haley Peterson in London during the Winter 2018 semester under the direction of Professors Chris Karpowitz and Joshua Gubler was one case in a multi-case study focusing on the effects of humanization on conflict resolution in conjunction with the psychological effects empathy and dissonance. Conflict […]

James Hodgson and Daniel Nielson, Political Science Important policy decisions, that affect lives all around the world, are often made without consulting the best available evidence. Many governments have called for an increase in evidence-based policy making in an effort to make policies more effective and based on research. From the baseline survey we collected […]