Analysis on public sentiment, regulatory trends, persuasion, and campaigns.
A poll comes back showing your candidate with a narrow 52% to 48% lead. The press is calling, your team is energized, and it feels like victory is within reach. But is that lead real, or is it just statistical noise? How you answer that question can change the entire...
Ever scroll through social media and come across a post that sounds incredibly profound, only to read it again and realize it makes absolutely no sense? You're not alone. These are examples of what researchers call "pseudo-profound bullshit." (like a quote over a...
I am told that the best political discussions come while sharing a beer. Let’s test that theory. I was having a beer with a political science student, and the topic was how difficult it is to change minds in the hyper-partisan atmosphere. We went through the...
Deepfakes are more than Donald Trump's foot fetish for Elon or Joe Biden playing video games with a hall of Presidents; they are way more than just some Internet novelty act. These AI-generated videos (the subject of this week’s study, mimic people, making them...
A recent discussion about AI and virtual agents led to an intriguing question: Could they be trained to predict public opinion? There are companies attempting to train agents by census data, voter files, and other assorted data then spinning them up and polling the...
Introduction Generative AI (GenAI) tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot are transforming how we work, how we study, how we prepare for meetings, but what does this mean for our critical thinking skills? This study explores how generative AI tools influence...
Ever shared a post only to realize later it was fake news? You’re not alone, and psychology explains why. The “sleeper effect,” a phenomenon where a message’s influence grows over time as its source fades from memory, has gained new relevance in the age of social...
When I was a young, student leader at the University of Florida, I had an eye-opening experience during a meeting with a Congressperson in D.C. I had meticulously prepared my case for a legislative change affecting students and felt confident as the discussion...
The new edition of the American Political Science Review (Feb 2024) published a study that I was extremely excited to read. It explores political ads and persuasion—those annoying little things on which millions of dollars are spent, and for the most part, are written...
