research topics in political communication

Political Communication Research Paper Topics

• Agenda Building
• Bandwagon Effect
• Candidate Image
• Deliberative Polls
• Deliberativeness in Political Communication
• E-Democracy
• Election Campaign Communication
• Election Polls and Forecasts
• Fragmentation of Public Sphere
• Horse Race Coverage
• Issue Management in Politics
• Issue Voting
• Media as Political Actors
• Media Democracy
• Media Diplomacy
• Media Events and Pseudo-Events
• Media Logic
• Mediated Populism
• Mediated Terrorism
• Mediatization of Politics
• Negative Campaigning
• News as Discourse
• Party Political Communication
• Party–Press Parallelism
• Personalization of Campaigning
• Politainment
• Political Advertising
• Political Cognitions
• Political Communication Culture
• Political Communication Systems
• Political Consultant
• Political Cynicism
• Political Discourse
• Political Efficacy
• Political Knowledge
• Political Language
• Political Marketing
• Political Media Use
• Political News
• Political Personality in Media Democracy
• Political Persuasion
• Political Socialization through the Media
• Political Symbols
• Polls and the Media
• Populism and Responsiveness
• Public Interest
• Public Opinion
• Public Sphere
• Quality Criteria in Political Media Content
• Spin Doctor
• Symbolic Politics
• Televised Debates
• Underdog Effect

The Communication of Politics

In spite of impressive modernization trends, including, for example, the growing importance of visual communication, most of the discourse among political actors is still language based. Political elites use language for strategic purposes such as building a positive image, winning public support, or establishing specific perspectives for evaluation. On the other hand, language serves citizens to make sense of politics, form opinions, and take political decisions.

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The mass media play a pivotal role in making the political discourse open to the public. Mass media select, process, and transmit political news and current affairs content. For ordinary citizens and even for political decision-makers, media coverage of politics is the most relevant and quite often the only source of information about current events.

By providing a platform for the public debate of political issues, the media construct a public sphere, that is, an open realm for the exchange of information and opinions among diverse political actors. However, according to Habermas (2006), the dynamics of public communication may be impaired by dominating powerful actors of the political center and by deficiencies of the media system, namely commercialization tendencies and connections with special interest groups.

Rather than confining their role to functioning as intermediaries, i.e., serving the information and publication needs of all groups in society, the media themselves have become powerful political actors, sometimes referred to as the fourth estate. Media organizations pursue policy objectives, for example, by expressing specific partisan opinions, by endorsing the interests of certain societal groups, or by legitimizing the views of those in power. This may have consequences for the balance of power among the classical political estates – legislative, executive, and judiciary – and thus raises questions concerning the definition of media freedom and mechanisms of media control.

Political Media Use and Effects

The evolution of mass media has brought about contradictory results as to citizens’ exposure to political information. On the one hand, due to a number of 24-hour news networks on radio and television and, in addition, a plethora of Internet news pages, the sheer volume of available political information has proliferated immensely. On the other hand, many mainstream broadcasters and newspapers have reduced their hard news coverage, especially foreign affairs reporting, and have instead extended the supply of entertaining content, soft news, and infotainment formats. This goes along with shrinking audiences for serious newspapers and public affairs programs in many countries. While politically attentive citizens benefit enormously from the enriched political media menu, particularly of the Internet, the majority audience seems to be content with being informed just about the most salient issues.

Television is still the main source of information about politics for the average citizen, though digital media are continuously gaining ground, particularly among the younger generation. A high correlation of political media use with certain demographic factors is responsible for large differences in the reach of political news and in citizens’ acquisition of political information. In all countries those who have a higher income, who are better educated, and who are more strongly interested in politics are the most attentive to political information. However, due to blurring lines between hard news, soft news, and light entertainment in some mass media, there is also a chance that politically inattentive citizens are unwittingly exposed to mediated politics.

As the study of mass communication is generally based on the premise of media effects, it is also a central presumption of political communication research that the media have a significant impact on politics (Graber 2005). A broad field of communication research is devoted to examining the influence of news and information on cognitions and attitudes. Another strand of research looks at influence processes in campaign contexts, for example in health campaigns, in political information campaigns, in social marketing campaigns, and most often in election campaigns.

As distinct from such rather pragmatic approaches to media effectiveness, there is a broad field of political communication research with a critical or pessimistic orientation that starts from the more or less explicit assumption that mass communication may have negative implications for democratic citizenship and for the political system as a whole. Among the harmful media effects that have been hypothesized are eroding trust in political institutions and political cynicisms.

Political Communication and Research in Flux

The advent of the Internet and other new media has removed some of the constraints that traditional media have imposed on communication processes. Because of the enormous increase in content diversity, citizens can choose according to their individual political preferences among an excessive variety of channels and media products. Bennett and Iyengar (2008) envisage a “new era of minimal effects” resulting from eroding media influences as audiences dissolve into increasingly self-selected segments. On the other hand, while audience members can select more freely, the traditional mass media are losing some of their gatekeeping and filtering functions. Thanks to the new communication technologies, citizens can easily bypass the mass media and disseminate messages via weblogs or Internet platforms such as YouTube, or in direct person-to-person networking. The new media enhance both mediated expressions of political opinion and personal political interaction.

Considerable political communication research attention is directed toward civic engagement. The label refers to research that tests the presumed (mal)functioning of mass media for political participation. Research on civic engagement includes studies with an explicit orientation to normative criteria, especially to standards derived from theories of democracy. A continuing theme in this field of research is the relationship between entertainment media and political engagement (see, e.g., Delli Carpini 2012).

References:

• Bennett, W. L. & Iyengar, S. (2008). A new era of minimal effects? The changing foundations of political communication. Journal of Communication, 58, 707–731.
• Delli Carpini, M. X. (2012). Entertainment media and the political engagement of citizens. In H. A. Semetko & M. Scammell (eds.), The Sage handbook of political communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 9–21.
• Gerstlé, J. (2008). La communication politique, 2nd edn. Paris: Armand Colin.
• Graber, D. A. (2004). Mediated politics and citizenship in the twenty-first century. Annual Review of Psychology, 55, 545–571.
• Graber, D. A. (2005). Political communication faces the 21st century. Journal of Communication, 55, 479–507.
• Habermas, J. (2006). Political communication in media society: Does democracy still enjoy an epistemic dimension? The impact of normative theory on empirical research. Communication Theory, 16, 411–426.
• Kaid, L. L., & Holtz-Bacha, C. (eds.) (2008). Encyclopedia of political communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Mazzoleni, G. (2004). La comunicazione politica. Bologna: Il Mulino.
• Mazzoleni, G. & Schulz, W. (1999). “Mediatization” of politics: A challenge for democracy? Political Communication, 16, 247–261.

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Research in Political Communication

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The Communication Department is home to the world’s leading scholars studying political communication. The area focuses on how communication and media affect political attitudes and behaviors, as well as what communication reveals about the workings of political institutions and political systems. The area is also known for its innovation in research methods and focus on scientific inference.

James Fishkin  directs the  Center for Deliberative Democracy , devoted to research and applications of Deliberative Polling, a method of public consultation for engaging representative and informed opinion on policy issues. The center has collaborated on projects in more than 24 countries.

James Hamilton  directs the  Journalism Program . His research focuses on the economics of news, including the effects of market failures on reporting, the relationship between income and information, and computational journalism.

Shanto Iyengar  directs the  Political Communication Laboratory , which focuses on the role of mass media in democratic societies. Much of his work uses experimental methods to measure the causal effects of news media and mass communication on political opinion and behavior.

Jon Krosnick  directs the  Political Psychology Research Group , which focuses on (1) the effects of political communication on attitude formation, change, and impact, and (2) optimizing methods of survey research in order to study political cognition and action.

Jennifer Pan’s  research focuses on revealing the political choices and outcomes of non-democratic societies through their patterns of communication and information control using computational and experimental methods.

Faculty — Political Communication

Postdoctoral Scholars — Political Communication

Doctoral Students — Political Communication

Selected Graduates

• Yingdan Lu, Ph.D. 2023. Assistant Professor, School of Communication, Northwestern University
• Adina Abeles,  Ph.D. 2020. Quantitative Social Scientist, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
• Kaiping Chen , Ph.D. 2019. Assistant Professor, Communication Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Kaiping Zhang , Ph.D. 2017. Assistant Professor, Tsinghua University, Beijing
• Sean Westwood , Ph.D. 2014, Assistant Professor of Government, Dartmouth College
• Nuri Kim , Ph.D. 2013. Associate Professor, School of Communication, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• Yphtach Lelkes , Ph.D. 2012, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania
• Michael Weiksner , Ph.D. 2010, General Partner, Rostrum Capital
• Alice Siu , Ph.D. 2009, Associate Director, Stanford Center for Deliberative Democracy
• Philip Garland , Ph.D. 2008. Vice President, Data Science, Snap! Raise
• Daniel Schneider , Ph.D. 2008. Freelance Consultant, Berlin, Germany
• Brett Bannon , Ph.D. 2008, Founder, LearnRig
• Kyu Hahn , Ph.D. 2006, Associate Professor of Communication, Seoul National University
• Markus Prior , Ph.D. 2003, Associate Professor of Politics and Public Affairs, Princeton University
• Hye-Ryeon Lee , Ph.D. 2000, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Humanities, University of Hawaii
• Michael McDevitt , Ph.D. 1998, Professor, University of Colorado at Boulder
• Diana Mutz , Ph.D. 1988, Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication, University of Pennsylvania
• Vincent Price  , Ph.D. 1987, President, Duke University, where he is also Walter Hines Page Professor of Public Policy and Political Science in the Sanford School of Public Policy and Trinity College of Arts and Sciences

• Research Areas

Political Communication

Politics depends heavily on communication among and between political elites, the media, and citizens. Scholars at Annenberg examine the role of interpersonal and mass-mediated communication on the attitudes, opinions, information-processing, and behavior of citizens, political elites, political institutions, and political systems.

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Dolores Albarracín, Ph.D.

Murali Balaji, Ph.D.

Eran Ben-Porath, Ph.D.

Dwayne Booth

Riana M. Brown, Ph.D.

Xanni Brown, Ph.D.

Michael X. Delli Carpini, Ph.D.

Stephanie L. DeMora, Ph.D.

David Eisenhower, J.D.

Emily Falk, Ph.D.

Bita Fayaz-Farkhad, Ph.D.

Deen Freelon, Ph.D.

Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Ph.D.

Sandra González-Bailón, Ph.D.

Daniel J. Hopkins, Ph.D.

Albert R. Hunt

Sarah J. Jackson, Ph.D.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Ph.D.

Benjamin Todd Jealous

Malav Kanuga, Ph.D.

Alon P. Kraitzman, Ph.D.

Yphtach Lelkes, Ph.D.

Matthew Levendusky, Ph.D.

Yue Li, Ph.D.

Marjorie Margolies

Carolyn Marvin, Ph.D.

Danaë Metaxa, Ph.D.

Diana C. Mutz, Ph.D.

Wazhmah Osman, Ph.D.

Gavin Ploger, Ph.D.

Vincent Price, Ph.D.

Scott Reich, J.D.

Yoel Roth, Ph.D.

Craig Snyder

Philip Tetlock, Ph.D.

Ken Winneg, Ph.D.

Guobin Yang, Ph.D.

Tukufu Zuberi, Ph.D.

Graduate students.

Chloe (Jae-Kyung) Ahn

Kinjal Dave

Nicholas Dias

Timothy Dennys Steven Dorr

Tom W. Etienne

Vishwanath E.V.S.

Neil Fasching

Emilie Grybos

Helene Langlamet, Ph.D.

Tyler Leigh

Kirsten O. Lydic

Lizzie Martin

Adetobi Moses

Devo Probol

Yingchuan Qu

Farrah Rahaman

Shane Sheehy

Alex Tolkin

Natasha Williams

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The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication

Kate Kenski (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Arizona where she teaches political communication, public opinion, and research methods. Her book The Obama Victory: How Media, Money, and Message Shaped the 2008 Election (co-authored with Bruce W. Hardy and Kathleen Hall Jamieson; 2010, Oxford University Press) has won several awards including the 2011 ICA Outstanding Book Award and the 2012 NCA Diamond Anniversary Book Award. Her current research focuses on incivility in online forums and multimedia teaching strategies to mitigate cognitive biases.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, the Walter and Leonore Director of the university’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, and the program director of the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands. She is the author or coauthor of fifteen books, five of which have received a total of eight political science or communication book awards.

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An incisive, broad-based overview of political communication, the Oxford Handbook for Political Communication assembles the leading scholars in the field of political communication to answer the question: What do we know and need to know about the process by which humans claim, lose, or share power through symbolic exchanges? Its sixty-three essays address the following five themes: contexts for viewing the field of political communication, political discourse, media and political communication, interpersonal and small group political communication, and the altered political communication landscape. This comprehensive review of the political communication literature is designed to become the first reference for scholars and students interested in the study of how, why, when, and with what effect humans make sense of symbolic exchanges about sharing and shared power.

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Introductory Guide to Research in Political Communication

Writing in defense of American political communication at the turn of the 21st Century, Parry-Giles and Parry-Giles (2001) lamented that “intellectual leaders repeatedly tell Americans that political communication is baseless, is in crisis, and is lacking in substance.” Indeed, almost twenty years later, the same metaphors used to describe American political communication persist. Political communication is “diseased, dirty, infected, flawed, poisoned, and/ or hopelessly polluted by money and special interests” (Parry-Giles & Parry-Giles, 2001).

With the recent resurgence of white supremacy rhetoric in mainstream political discourse and the unprecedented amount of corporate money infused into our political process, American political communication has certainly suffered a setback. While American political discourse can be described with the aforementioned metaphors, the academic study of political communication deserves a more thorough elucidation.

This guide to research in political communication is American in focus, but many of the theories and concepts discussed below have been and continue to be applied to the political and communicative contexts of other nations. Like with the study of other facets of Communication, political communication phenomena rarely happen in isolation, and there is a certain degree of universality in these concepts.

Defining Political Communication

To begin that elucidation, it is important to first define political communication. Like many other fields and topics in Communication Studies, scholars do not always agree upon a universal definition. The lack of scholarly agreement regarding a widely accepted definition can be attributed to the nature of political communication – it is incredibly interdisciplinary, with scholars approaching the concept from backgrounds ranging from political science to communication, from psychology to rhetoric, and even from sociology to history (Kaid, 2004).

In its most basic form, political communication can be defined as “the role of communication in the political process” (Kaid, 2004). Other researchers further emphasized the role of communication in political dynamics in local, state, national, and international spheres, saying that the process is “an ongoing conversation” among actors in the political realm. This conversation typically occurs via mediated forms of communication, positioning communication scholars in an advantageous starting point to study the messages, the modes, and the effects of communication in the political sphere (McKinney, Kaid, Bystrom, & Carlin, 2005).

However, when placed upon a timeline of development, the nuance embedded within the study of political communication becomes clearer. In their editor’s introduction to The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication entitled “Political Communication: Then, Now, and Beyond,” Kenski and Jamieson (2017) began defining political communication through examining its history. They considered definitions from early work in political communication, the various definitions employed by political communication divisions within academic associations like the National Communication Association (NCA) and the International Communication Association (ICA), and definitions utilized by contributors to their handbook to bring this nuance to the fore. Ultimately, these sets of definitions help us trace how the discipline came to be and further our understanding of political communication.

Political Communication: The Past to Present

The study of political communication came to be through the influential work of Harold Lasswell, a researcher who is studied by both political science and communication scholars. Early political communication utilized his combination of the classic definition of politics and the traditional model of communication to produce a definition of political communication that typically resembled “the study of who gets what, when, (and) how by saying what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect” (Kenski & Jamieson, 2017).

The steady institutionalization and simultaneous legitimization of Communication Studies as an academic field across the United States and around the world helped create standing political communication divisions within the NCA and ICA. The political communication division in both the NCA and ICA, as well as their counterparts in political science associations, employ different definitions of political communication while sharing significant overlap.

For example, the NCA Political Communication Division defines political communication as: “the communicative activity of citizens, individual political figures, public and governmental institutions, the media, political campaigns, advocacy groups and social movements,” while ICA’s Political Communication Division refers to the “interplay of communication and politics” among the aforementioned actors in the realm of politics (Kenski & Jamieson, 2017).

Given our current socio-political climate, political communication researchers are again reconsidering their definition of the term. Concerns surrounding “power” and the “exercise of power” through symbolic means prompted contributors to Kenski and Jamieson’s (2017) The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication to define political communication as “making sense of symbolic exchanges about the shared exercise of power” and “the presentation and interpretation of information, messages or signals with potential consequences for the exercise of shared power.”

Researching Political Communication: Central Theories and Concepts in Political Communication

The broad scope of political communication offers scholars a multitude of areas to study, including, but certainly not limited to, political messages, public opinion, political news coverage, and the burgeoning use of social media in communicating politics. But how does one actually research political communication? This question is particularly poignant considering the multidisciplinary composition of political communication – and, to truly begin to answer this question, one must first consider their approach to research and what they hope to achieve with their approach. In other words, does one approach research from a quantitative, social scientific perspective? Or, is one guided by a more humanistic, qualitative perspective?

To help students gain a better understanding of the field, and perhaps find interest in a specialized area of political communication, it is helpful to categorize realms of political communication research into distinct themes, each of which has its own theories and methods. As a field, political communication can be broken down (but is certainly not limited to) to studying media, messages, and actors or institutions.

Political Communication and the Media

Amongst the nuance and varying foci of political communication research and definitions, several core tenets and concepts emerged and are still widely used in research today. In the realm of the media, scholars continue to probe its political functions primarily through the concepts of agenda-setting, framing, and priming. Ultimately, these concepts offer scholars explanatory power in describing the influence of media in political communication.

Agenda-Setting : Chief among these concepts is agenda setting. Broadly speaking, agenda-setting refers to the “media agenda,” or the issues, policies, and people deemed important by the media (Scheufele, 2000). In other words, “in choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position” (McCombs & Shaw, 1972).

Framing : Since McCombs and Shaw (1972) first proposed agenda-setting, communication-based research has consistently relied upon notions of framing and priming as explanatory functions for agenda-setting. As such, agenda-setting, framing, and priming tend to be lumped together, sometimes making it difficult to parse.

Framing can be considered an “extension of agenda-setting” as framing relies upon thematic elements of agenda-setting. Framing and agenda-setting are used by scholars to explain “how issues or other objects (people, groups, organizations, countries, etc.) are depicted in the media than with which issues or objects are more or less prominently reported” and “both are concerned with ways of thinking rather than objects of thinking” (Weaver, 2007).

Priming : In the political communicative context, priming refers to the “impact that agenda-setting can have on the way individuals evaluate public officials by influencing the thematic areas or issues that individuals use to form these evaluations” (Scheufele, 2000). Priming is primarily a cognitive process, producing attitudes and beliefs, but sometimes extends into the behavioral realm as well. In the political sphere, issues that are more “salient or accessible in a person’s memory will most strongly influence perceptions of political actors and figures” (Scheufele, 2000).

By and large, the “theory of priming in political communication has been relegated to the study of news” with the American presidency driving the majority of research as the “American public is bombarded with coverage of the daily activities of the U.S. president” (Holbert et al., 2003). Holbert et al. (2003) extended the theory of priming to the critically acclaimed and almost universally praised television show The West Wing , ultimately arguing that the intimate, behind-the-scenes portrayal of the American president primed viewers to have a more favorable and generally positive view of the presidency.

Political Messaging and Communication Methods

Perhaps the majority of the negative connotations associated with political communication stem from the realm of political messaging. While political messaging certainly occurs in other settings, the most prominent instance of the phenomenon appears during election cycles. Many Americans reported suffering from “election fatigue,” or feeling overwhelmed and annoyed at the sheer volume and even the quality of election related political messaging. Historically, political communication scholars studied television advertisements and campaign debates as a form of political messaging. Recently, with the rise of social media, scholars started to examine the proliferation of political messaging across various platforms and sites.

Advertising : The vast majority of scholarly work done on political advertising primarily focuses upon television advertisements. As such, research regarding political television ads tends to exemplify the interdisciplinary nature of political communication, utilizing historical, sociological, and communicative perspectives. However, political advertising is not limited to modern America and the television screen. Political advertisements date back to the early Republic and have changed throughout American history. Scholars have studied political posters, pamphlets, magazine advertisements, and radio commercials through a communicative lens, probing the embedded message, dissecting its argumentative strategy and effectiveness, and discussing audience and reach.

Campaign Debates : For much of American history, political debates served as a primary means for American citizens to hear political messaging. When much of the country still resided in more rural areas, political debates were oftentimes a highly anticipated town event and many flocked from the countryside to hear candidates for office debate and discuss the issues of the day. Political communication scholars studying these pre-electronic debates rely upon sometimes wildly inaccurate or biased transcripts of the debate or equally partisan newspaper coverage of the event and try to accurately portray a candidate’s message or argument.

Since the first televised presidential debate between Senator Kennedy and Vice-President Nixon in 1960, scholars have examined a mixture of style, delivery, appearance, and messaging. As political debates progressively grew to rely more upon a “sound bite” model, scholars of political communication have focused on those messaging strategies and polling data regarding who “won” the debate. Recently, presidential primary debates have boasted upwards of 15 candidates on stage, so the political messaging frame shifted once more and scholars continue to adopt a more media-focused lens in studying campaign debates.

Social Media : Well before Donald Trump harnessed the power of Twitter to promote his birther conspiracy and launch a presidential campaign, social media increasingly played a more vital role in political communication. Many scholars point to the success of Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign as the true inception of political communication via social media, as his election proved the inherent power of social media as a communicative vehicle.

When Russian interference in the 2016 American presidential election came to light as largely a disinformation campaign via social media, political communication scholars studying social media again shifted their focus, now probing ways social media is used to further divide Americans along ideological and demographic lines. Outside the sphere of organized campaign communication, political communication scholars studying social media are increasingly studying the rise of hate groups and their proliferation on social networking sites.

Political Communication in American Government

As a result of the dominance of media and political messaging in studying political communication, many may not consider the communicative work done by governmental institutions and actors as an example of political communication. Indeed, the line is often blurred in both presidential and congressional communication as it can be hard to determine when the actors involved are communicating as a government official, or as a political operative. Another sometimes overlooked facet of political communication in the American system of government is communication initiated by citizens attempting to influence their elected officials through various means. Social movements, petitions, and protests are certainly forms of political communication, and draw the attention of political communication scholars.

Presidential Communication : Scholars of presidential communication bring to the fore the ways in which presidents utilize communication to influence a myriad of actors in the political system. Whether it is delivering the State of the Union Address to Congress or sending a tweet about a policy issue, American presidents are always engaged in some form of communicative action aimed at certain actors within our political system. While the State of the Union Address is a Constitutional requirement, the address is televised to the American public, so the speech morphed into an attempt to simultaneously influence Congress and rally public support.

Those studying the presidency and communication examine these instances of communication, employing a wide array of methodological lenses. Presidential rhetoric scholars are concerned with what Campbell and Jamieson (2008) refer to as “deeds done in words,” or the inherent symbolic power of a president’s language choices. Social scientific presidential communication scholars have several research goals, often ranging from communicative effects to analyzing data regarding presidential credibility and likeability.

Congressional Communication : Like presidential communication scholars, scholars of congressional communication bring to the fore the ways in which Members of Congress utilize communication to influence (usually) the same myriad of actors in our political system that presidents attempt to influence. There is some overlap in how Members of Congress and the president communicate. Both may speak at a press conference, address an audience at a campaign rally, or sit for an interview on television.

Given the deliberative nature of the legislative body, however, the communicative context is inherently different. Members of Congress give speeches on the floor of their respective chambers, conduct hearings on policy and oversight, and can filibuster legislation. Like their presidential communication counterparts, congressional communication scholars employ an array of methodological lenses in examining how Members of Congress communicate.

Citizen Communication/Social Movement Communication : American history can be viewed as a march towards progress. That march often takes the form of disenfranchised and oppressed citizens speaking out, organizing, protesting, and resisting. These forms of civil disobedience are, without question, symbolic and communicative acts. Scholars of what can be called citizen communication or social movement communication examine social movements and protests, tracing their various communication strategies through time and in a given historical, social, and political context.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Political Communication

Parry-Giles and Parry-Giles (2001) concluded their assessment of political communication with a call for commentators and scholars to “not automatically assume an elitist fatalism toward political communication practices,” especially in the wake of the controversial 2000 presidential election cycle (when George W. Bush defeated Al Gore). In our post-2016 context, this “fatalism” regarding the state of political communication in the United States has not been singularly reserved for the media and political elite, but rather for a great many Americans bemoaning the current state of our politics. Given the bleak contemporary context, checking our automatic assumptions and inclinations to fatalism has proven to be difficult indeed.

Instead, Parry-Giles and Parry-Giles (2001) offered a “more hopeful” and “critical” approach for future political communication research that is perhaps more relevant today than it was in 2001. This approach, they insist, ought to interrogate “why political communication in America continues to be dominated by masculine themes and rhetorics of power,” and further probe the “power of money on the political process” and inquire as to “why the far left is generally absent from public discussion while the far right is legitimated.” Good political communication research, Parry-Giles and Parry-Giles (2001) concluded, should “not blithely accept political discourse or praise its quality,” but rather, it should critically bring to the fore the communicative processes through which politics is conducted.

Sources and Additional Resources

To learn more about political communication, including research in political communication and the media, political messaging and how that messaging is delivered, and the role of government bodies and politicians in the political communication process, check out the following resources:

• Holbert, R. L., Pillion, O., Tschida, D. A., Armfield, G. G., Kinder, K., Cherry, K. L., & Daulton, A. R. (2003). The West Wing as Endorsement of the U.S. Presidency: Expanding the Bounds of Priming in Political Communication. Journal of Communication, 53(3), 427–443. https://academic.oup.com/joc/article-abstract/53/3/427/4102893
• Kaid, L. L. (2004). Handbook of Political Communication Research. Routledge.
• Kenski, K., & Jamieson, K. H. (2017). The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication. Oxford University Press.
• McCombs, M. E., & Shaw, D. L. (1972). THE AGENDA-SETTING FUNCTION OF MASS MEDIA. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36(2), 176–187. https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-abstract/36/2/176/1853310
• McKinney, M. S., Kaid, L. L., Bystrom, D. G., & Carlin, D. B. (2005). Communicating Politics: Engaging the Public in Democratic Life. Peter Lang.
• Parry-Giles, T., & Parry-Giles, S. J. (2001). Reassessing the State of Political Communication in the United States. Argumentation and Advocacy, 37(3), 158–170. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00028533.2001.11951667
• Scheufele, D. A. (2000). Agenda-Setting, Priming, and Framing Revisited: Another Look at Cognitive Effects of Political Communication. Mass Communication and Society, 3(2–3), 297–316. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327825MCS0323_07
• Weaver, D. H. (2007). Thoughts on Agenda Setting, Framing, and Priming. Journal of Communication, 57(1), 142–147. https://academic.oup.com/joc/article-abstract/57/1/142/4102651

Topics in Political Communication

Presidential Communication Research

This article delves into the history of presidential communication, the impact that this form of political discourse continues to have on society, and current scholarship in the field.

Social Movement Communication Research

This guide explains the history and significance of Social Movement Communication, providing useful examples of the ways in which communication has been instrumental in movements that have led to political and social progress.

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Social media and political communication: a social media analytics framework

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• Published: 25 August 2012
• Volume 3 , pages 1277–1291, ( 2013 )

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In recent years, social media are said to have an impact on the public discourse and communication in the society. In particular, social media are increasingly used in political context. More recently, microblogging services (e.g., Twitter) and social network sites (e.g., Facebook) are believed to have the potential for increasing political participation. While Twitter is an ideal platform for users to spread not only information in general but also political opinions publicly through their networks, political institutions (e.g., politicians, political parties, political foundations, etc.) have also begun to use Facebook pages or groups for the purpose of entering into direct dialogs with citizens and encouraging more political discussions. Previous studies have shown that from the perspective of political institutions, there is an emerging need to continuously collect, monitor, analyze, summarize, and visualize politically relevant information from social media. These activities, which are subsumed under “social media analytics,” are considered difficult tasks due to a large numbers of different social media platforms as well as the large amount and complexity of information and data. Systematic tracking and analysis approaches along with appropriate scientific methods and techniques in political domain are still lacking. In this paper, we propose a methodological framework for social media analytics in political context. More specifically, our framework summarizes most important politically relevant issues from the perspective of political institutions and corresponding methodologies from different scientific disciplines.

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Stieglitz, S., Dang-Xuan, L. Social media and political communication: a social media analytics framework. Soc. Netw. Anal. Min. 3 , 1277–1291 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13278-012-0079-3

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Research Topics & Ideas: Politics

100+ Politics-Related Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation or thesis. If you’ve landed on this post, chances are you’re looking for a politics-related research topic , but aren’t sure where to start. Here, we’ll explore a variety of politically-related research ideas across a range of disciplines, including political theory and philosophy, comparative politics, international relations, public administration and policy.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas. This is the starting point, but to develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. Also, be sure to sign up for our free webinar that explores how to find a high-quality research topic from scratch.

Overview: Politics-Related Topics

• Political theory and philosophy
• Comparative politics
• International relations
• Public administration
• Public policy
• Examples of politics-related dissertations

Topics & Ideas: Political Theory

• An analysis of the impact of feminism on political theory and the concept of citizenship in Saudi Arabia in the context of Vision 2030
• A comparative study of the political philosophies of Marxism and liberalism and their influence on modern politics
• An examination of how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the relationship between individual freedom and collective responsibility in political philosophy
• A study of the impact of race and ethnicity on French political philosophy and the concept of justice
• An exploration of the role of religion in political theory and its impact on secular democracy in the Middle East
• A Review of Social contract theory, comparative analysis of the political philosophies of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau
• A study of the concept of the common good in political philosophy and its relevance to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe
• An examination of the relationship between political power and the rule of law in developing African countries
• A study of the impact of postmodernism on political theory and the concept of truth, a case study of the US
• An exploration of the role of virtue in political philosophy and its impact on the assessment of moral character in political leaders

Topics & Ideas: Comparative Politics

• A comparative study of different models of federalism and their impact on democratic governance: A case Study of South American federalist states
• The impact of ethnic and religious diversity on political stability and democracy in developing countries, a review of literature from Africa
• An analysis of the role of civil society in promoting democratic change in autocratic regimes: A case study in Sweden
• A comparative examination of the impact of globalization on political institutions and processes in South America and Africa.
• A study of the factors that contribute to successful democratization in authoritarian regimes, a review of the role of Elite-driven democratization
• A comparison of the political and economic systems of China and India and their impact on social development
• The impact of corruption on political institutions and democracy in South East Asia, a critical review
• A comparative examination of the impact of majoritarian representation (winner-take-all) vs proportional representation on political representation and governance
• An exploration of Multi-party systems in democratic countries and their impact on minority representation and policy-making.
• A study of the factors that contribute to successful decentralization and regional autonomy, a case study of Spain

Topics & Ideas: International Relations

• A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of diplomacy and military force in resolving international conflicts in Central Africa.
• The impact of globalization on the sovereignty of nation-states and the changing nature of international politics, a review of the role of Multinational Corporations
• An examination of the role of international aid organizations in promoting peace, security, and development in the Middle East.
• A study of the impact of economic interdependence on the likelihood of conflict in international relations: A critical review of weaponized interdependence
• A comparative analysis of the foreign policies of the EU and the US and their impact on international stability in Africa
• An exploration of the relationship between international human rights and national sovereignty during the Covid 19 pandemic
• A study of the role of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)s in international politics and their impact on state behaviour
• A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of international regimes in addressing global challenges such as climate change, arms control, and terrorism in Brazil
• An examination of the impact of the rise of BRICS on the international system and global governance
• A study of the role of ideology in shaping the foreign policies of states and the dynamics of international relations in the US

Tops & Ideas: Public Administration

• An analysis of the impact of digital technology on public administration and the delivery of public services in Estonia
• A review of models of public-private partnerships and their impact on the delivery of public services in Ghana
• An examination of the role of civil society organizations in monitoring and accountability of public administration in Papua New Guinea
• A study of the impact of environmentalism as a political ideology on public administration and policy implementation in Germany
• An exploration of the relationship between public administration and citizen engagement in the policy-making process, an exploration of gender identity concerns in schools
• A comparative analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration, decentralisation and pay and employment reform in developing countries
• A study of the role of collaborative leadership in public administration and its impact on organizational performance
• A systematic review of the challenges and opportunities related to diversity and inclusion in police services
• A study of the impact of corrupt public administration on economic development and regional growth in Eastern Europe
• An exploration of the relationship between public administration and civil rights and liberties, including issues related to privacy and surveillance, a case study in South Korea

Topics & Ideas: Public Policy

• An analysis of the impacts of public policy on income inequality and poverty reduction in South Sudan
• A comparative study of the effectiveness of legal and regulatory, economic and financial, and social and cultural instruments for addressing climate change in South Korea
• An examination of the role of interest groups in shaping public policy and the policy-making process regarding land-use claims
• A study of the impact of globalization on the development of public policies and programs for mitigating climate change in Singapore
• An exploration of the relationship between public policy and social justice in tertiary education in the UAE
• A comparative analysis of the impact of health policies for the management of diabetes on access to healthcare and health outcomes in developing countries
• Exploring the role of evidence-based policymaking in the design and implementation of public policies for the management of invasive invertebrates in Australia
• An examination of the challenges and opportunities of implementing educational dietary public policies in developing multicultural countries
• A study of the impact of public policies on urbanization and urban development in rural Indonesia
• An exploration of the role of media and public opinion in shaping public policy and the policy-making process in the transport industry of Malaysia

Examples: Politics Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a politics-related research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various politics-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• We, the Righteous Few: Immoral Actions of Fellow Partisans are Judged as Less Possible (Varnam, 2020)
• Civilizing the State: Civil Society and the Politics of Primary Public Health Care Provision in Urban Brazil (Gibson, 2012)
• Political regimes and minority language policies: evidence from Taiwan and southeast Asia (Wu, 2021)
• The Feminist Third Wave: Social Reproduction, Feminism as Class Struggle, and Contemporary Women’s Movements (Angulo, 2019)
• The Politics of Immigration under Authoritarianism (Joo, 2019)
• The politics of digital platforms: Sour Dictionary, activist subjectivities, and contemporary cultures of resistance (Okten, 2019)
• Vote choice and support for diverse candidates on the Boston City Council At-Large (Dolcimascolo, 2022)
• The city agenda: local governance and national influence in the policy agenda, 1900-2020 (Shannon, 2022)
• Turf wars: who supported measures to criminalize homelessness in Austin, Texas? (Bompiedi, 2021)
• Do BITs Cause Opposition Between Investor Rights and Environmental Protection? (Xiong, 2022)
• Revealed corruption and electoral accountability in Brazil: How politicians anticipate voting behavior (Diaz, 2021)
• Intersectional Solidarity: The Political Consequences of a Consciousness of Race, Gender and Sexuality (Crowder, 2020)
• The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Coalitional Representation of Latinxs in the U.S. House of Representatives (Munoz, 2019)

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. In other words, to create a top-notch research topic, you must be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

Get 1:1 Help

If you’re still feeling a bit unsure about how to find a research topic for your dissertation or research project, check out our Topic Kickstarter service below.

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Interpersonal Discussion and Political Knowledge: Unpacking the Black Box via a Combined Experimental and Content-Analytic Approach

Over 130 studies have examined the relationship between interpersonal political discussion and political knowledge, generally finding that discussion can increase people’s level of political knowledge (Amsalem & Nir, 2019). However, two important questions remain unanswered: (a) Do some types of political discussions facilitate greater levels of political knowledge than others? (b) Do people retain knowledge gained from political discussions? In this study (N = 96), we addressed these questions using a novel methodological approach that combines a lab experiment, in which we manipulated the occurrence of political discussion, with a systematic content analysis of participants’ discussions (N = 1,080 distinct instances of discussions). We found that discussions involving confirmatory feedback and cueing were associated with greater levels of political knowledge than other types of discussions. Furthermore, knowledge gains from discussion were not retained after a short delay. Our study lays the theoretical and methodological groundwork for future investigations into the “black box” of political discussion.

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Social identification and interpersonal communication in computer-mediated communication: what you do versus who you are in virtual groups, optimistic biases among facebook users: self-other discrepant perceptions toward potential risks and benefits of facebook use, putting your best face forward: the accuracy of online dating photographs.

Facebook went away. Political divides didn't budge.

In the weeks before and after the 2020 presidential election, researchers at Stanford and elsewhere ran a number of tests to try to understand how much Facebook and its corporate cousin, Instagram, may be contributing to the nation's political divide.

One of those experiments — led by Matthew Gentzkow and Hunt Allcott , senior fellows at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) — centered on more than 35,000 Facebook and Instagram users who were paid to stay off the platforms in the run-up to Election Day. There’s a lot that researchers could glean from the social media hiatus, including whether people’s political attitudes shifted and in what ways. If views changed dramatically, that would support the argument that Facebook and Instagram, and social media generally, are helping to drive Americans apart.

The results of that deactivation exercise — the largest ever involving social media users and the first to include Instagram — are in: Staying off Facebook and Instagram in the final stretch of the November vote had little or no effect on people’s political views, their negative opinions of opposing parties, or beliefs around claims of election fraud.

But when it comes to Facebook’s impact on what people believed about current events, the researchers reached two conclusions. Those who were off Facebook were worse at answering news quiz questions, but they were also less likely to fall for widely circulated misinformation, suggesting that the platform can be an important conduit for both real and false news.

These findings, newly published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are in line with the main takeaways of the other experiments into Facebook and Instagram’s potential influence around the 2020 election, in which changing news feeds and limiting re-sharing of posts didn’t reduce polarization or change beliefs about whether the voting process was tainted. Those tests were detailed in four papers published in July 2023 in Science and Nature .

Taken together, the papers suggest that, when it comes to U.S. politics, Facebook and Instagram may not have as much ability to shape political attitudes during an election season as the popular narrative suggests.

And like the previous studies, the Gentzkow and Allcott-led study doesn’t absolve Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram, from the messy state of U.S. politics. For one thing, the results support the view that Facebook may create harm by distributing misinformation. Gentzkow says it’s also possible that the platforms contributed to polarization in the past, even if people’s use of them in the run-up to the election had limited impact.

“We are not ruling out the possibility that Facebook and Instagram contribute to polarization in other ways over time,” says Gentzkow, who is the Landau Professor of Technology and the Economy in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences.

He also notes another finding suggesting that using Facebook in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election may have made people somewhat more likely to vote for Donald Trump and somewhat less likely to vote for Joe Biden. This could suggest that, for Facebook users who still were on the site, Trump’s campaign was savvier at building support than Biden’s team was.

“This effect was not quite statistically significant, so we need to take it with a grain of salt,” Gentzkow says. “But if it’s real, it’s big enough that it could impact the outcome of a close election.”

Meta opens up a trove of data

The study led by Gentzkow and Allcott — and the four that preceded it — are part of a massive research project that has been billed as the most comprehensive, evidence-based investigation yet into the role of social media in American democracy.

The project came together following critiques of Meta’s role in the spread of fake news, Russian influence, and the Cambridge Analytica data breach. The collaboration between academics and Meta researchers involved a series of steps to protect the integrity of the research , which builds on work by Stanford Law School Professor Nathaniel Persily on how to structure partnerships between academia and social media companies. Meta, for example, agreed not to prohibit any findings from being published.

In all, nearly 20 independent social scientists — including Gentzkow; Allcott, a professor at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability; Neil Malhotra, a political economist at the Stanford Graduate School of Business; and, Shanto Iyengar and Jennifer Pan, both political scientists in the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences — are part of the project.

“Access to Meta’s proprietary data has allowed us to jump over big barriers to research on extremely important issues involving social media and politics,” Gentzkow says.

Gentzkow and Allcott’s study — whose 31 co-authors include five current and former SIEPR predocs and one former SIEPR undergraduate research fellow — involved roughly 19,900 Facebook users and 15,600 Instagram users who agreed to stop using the platforms ahead of the 2020 election. About a quarter of them agreed to deactivate their accounts for six weeks before the November vote. The rest comprised a control group that logged off for just one week.

The study’s analysis relies on a number of measures, among them participant surveys, state voting records, campaign donations, and Meta platform data. Some participants also allowed the researchers to track how they used other news and social media services when they were off Facebook or Instagram.

On top of the findings on polarization, knowledge, and Republican support, the authors conclude that Facebook and Instagram help people engage in the political process — mostly through posting about politics and signing petitions online (voter turnout didn’t change).

Takeaways for 2024 and beyond

Gentzkow says that the study’s finding that Facebook and Instagram didn’t change people’s political attitudes or beliefs in claims of electoral fraud in 2020 is especially interesting in light of his previous research with Allcott. In an earlier smaller-scale study of Facebook users who stayed off the platform for a month ahead of the 2018 midterms, the authors did find evidence that it contributes to polarization.

The distinction, Gentzkow says, could be that people are aware enough of political issues during a presidential election, so Facebook and Instagram have little or no effect on their beliefs or attitudes. But during other elections, when information about candidates or issues are not so front and center, social media may have more influence over what people think.

“Even though Facebook and Instagram did not contribute to polarization in the runup to the 2020 election, it’s possible that they are helping to widen political divides in other contexts where people’s views are less entrenched,” Gentzkow says.

And though the study was limited to the six weeks leading up to the presidential vote, it’s still a critical time in U.S. politics — hence the phenomenon known as the “ October surprise .”

“Things happen in the home stretch of a presidential election that can change poll numbers,” he says. “We’ve learned from this study that altering how much time people spend on Facebook and Instagram during that period isn’t likely to make a huge difference.”

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Psychological research offers strategies for healthy political discussions among people with opposing views

by American Psychological Association

Civilized political debates may seem increasingly out of reach as democracies across the world face rising polarization, but people still want to discuss issues with people they disagree with—especially those who present themselves as balanced and willing to seek solutions that work for everyone or open to learning new information, according to two studies published by the American Psychological Association.

One study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , examines how U.S. politicians and ordinary Americans with opposing political beliefs could share their ideas on divisive issues in a way that improved respect regardless of political party.

While reviewing a video series featuring real-world politicians solving political dilemmas designed to help voters evaluate the thoughtfulness of political candidates, researchers realized that the videos made viewers from the opposing party more open to learning about the politicians' platform. They found this was because the videos made the politicians look balanced and pragmatic, two key characteristics of wise decision-makers.

"It's easy for us to think about members of both parties as being completely biased in favor of their side. But what happens so much of the time is that people talk past each other or show more interest in pointing out the ridiculous things the other side is doing rather than actually finding solutions," said co-author Curtis Puryear, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

"Our findings suggest that if you show you care about understanding the other side's concerns, it goes a long way towards fostering respect."

Puryear and co-author Kurt Gray, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, conducted eight experiments with more than 3,500 participants to test the effectiveness of political messages that relied on balanced pragmatism, an approach to conflict that focuses on showing concern for both sides' interests while prioritizing practical solutions.

In one experiment, 505 Americans from different political parties evaluated a series of posts on the social media platform X by members of the U.S. House of Representatives. From a sample of more than 50,000 posts made by the representatives' official accounts, the researchers selected 120 posts that discussed political issues without criticizing the opposing party and varied in how balanced and pragmatic each post was.

Each participant evaluated 30 posts, rating them based on how balanced and pragmatic each post seemed, the post's overall tone, how divisive the post seemed, how much they respected the politician and how interested they would be in hearing more about the politician's point of view.

The researchers found that posts that combined balance with pragmatism were the most likely to increase participants' respect for a politician and their willingness to engage with them. Posts in which a politician mainly expressed a desire to find effective solutions improved participants' respect regardless of party, but this was not as effective at garnering respect compared with politicians who also presented a balanced view of an issue.

The benefits of balanced pragmatism for fostering respect were even more pronounced for posts discussing highly divisive issues, like immigration and abortion.

"Logical analyses and strong arguments can make us see someone as competent, which is a trait we value in leaders and friends," said Puryear. "But people also want leaders who understand their constituents, who care about their concerns, and have the practical knowledge to find solutions. These are the qualities of balanced and pragmatic leaders."

In another experiment, researchers focused on whether ordinary Americans could also use balanced pragmatism to improve their political conversations. They recruited 211 Democrats in favor of decreasing deportations of undocumented immigrants and 85 Republicans in favor of increasing deportations. The participants were shown four comments written by participants in a previous experiment who argued their position on deportation using either balanced pragmatism or logical reasoning.

Overall, people were just as likely to say they wanted to have a conversation with someone who disagreed with their views on immigration when that person appeared balanced and pragmatic as they were to say they wanted to talk with someone from their own political party.

While it can be difficult for people to present their views on a divisive issue in a way that respects an opposing viewpoint and looks for a common solution, it could help solve the rising political animosity that we are facing, Puryear said.

"Being balanced and pragmatic takes effort," he said. "But it is like building any other habit: Changing how we approach politics takes commitment and practice. We can each take it upon ourselves to do that."

Another study, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , found that people could be willing to discuss controversial topics, such as gender-neutral language, with people who had opposing views when both express intellectual humility.

Intellectual humility is the recognition that your knowledge has limits and your beliefs could be wrong. It does not mean that someone who is intellectually humble is insecure or that they don't have informed opinions, only that they are willing to acknowledge that they do not know everything.

"Intellectual humility could be an important aspect when trying to understand how to help people engage in these discussions on divisive issues," said the study's lead author, Larissa Knöchelmann, MSc, a research fellow and advanced Ph.D. student at Philipps-Universität Marburg. "Political discussions are important for a democratic society. When people have conversations, they can learn about new perspectives, reduce misunderstandings and work together."

The researchers conducted four experiments with more than 1,600 participants. In one experiment, they asked 451 Germans about their beliefs regarding the COVID-19 vaccine and whether it should be mandatory, a highly polarized debate in Germany when the experiment was conducted.

They were then asked to imagine an online meeting with a new neighbor whose views on vaccination were either the same as or contrary to theirs. They also saw a statement from their neighbor that indicated whether controversial discussions were "boring" because the neighbor felt they knew enough about the topic already or "exciting" because it was an opportunity to learn more.

The researchers found that intellectually humble participants had warmer feelings and more positive evaluations toward groups of people with different political opinions.

Additionally, intellectual humility shaped whether participants were willing to interact with others or not. While non-humble participants would rather talk with someone who shared their opinion, intellectually humble participants did not discriminate between those having the same or a contrary opinion.

Overall, intellectually humble conversation partners were approached more and avoided less because participants perceived them as more likable and the respective conversation as more calm, comfortable and open.

"Many German citizens have the impression that open political debates and an exchange of opinions are not possible anymore. This is especially the case when it comes to emotionally charged political topics," said Knöchelmann. "Our research now shows that intellectual humility can help to make people more willing to engage with others."

Curtis Puryear et al, Using "Balanced Pragmatism" in Political Discussions Increases Cross-Partisan Respect, PsyArXiv (2021). DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/yhpdt

Journal information: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

Provided by American Psychological Association

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Broad Public Support for Legal Abortion Persists 2 Years After Dobbs

By more than 2 to 1, americans say medication abortion should be legal, table of contents.

• Other abortion attitudes
• Overall attitudes about abortion
• Americans’ views on medication abortion in their states
• How statements about abortion resonate with Americans
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Pew Research Center conducted this study to understand Americans’ views on the legality of abortion, as well as their perceptions of abortion access. For this analysis, we surveyed 8,709 adults from April 8 to 14, 2024. Everyone who took part in this survey is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used for the report and its methodology .

Nearly two years after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a national right to abortion, a majority of Americans continue to express support for abortion access.

About six-in-ten (63%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. This share has grown 4 percentage points since 2021 – the year prior to the 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe.

The new Pew Research Center survey, conducted April 8-14, 2024, among 8,709 adults, surfaces ongoing – and often partisan – divides over abortion attitudes:

• Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (85%) overwhelmingly say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with near unanimous support among liberal Democrats.
• By comparison, Republicans and Republican leaners (41%) are far less likely to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. However, two-thirds of moderate and liberal Republicans still say it should be.

Since before Roe was overturned, both parties have seen a modest uptick in the share who say abortion should be legal.

As in the past, relatively few Americans (25%) say abortion should be legal in all cases, while even fewer (8%) say it should be illegal in all cases. About two-thirds of Americans do not take an absolutist view: 38% say it should be legal in most cases, and 28% say it should be illegal in most cases.

Related: Americans overwhelmingly say access to IVF is a good thing

Women’s abortion decisions

A narrow majority of Americans (54%) say the statement “the decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman” describes their views extremely or very well. Another 19% say it describes their views somewhat well, and 26% say it does not describe their views well.

Views on an embryo’s rights

About a third of Americans (35%) say the statement “human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well, while 45% say it does not describe their views well.

But many Americans are cross-pressured in their views: 32% of Americans say both statements about women’s decisions and embryos’ rights describe their views at least somewhat well.

Abortion access

About six-in-ten Americans in both parties say getting an abortion in the area where they live would be at least somewhat easy, compared with four-in-ten or fewer who say it would be difficult.

However, U.S. adults are divided over whether getting an abortion should be easier or harder:

• 31% say it should be easier for someone to get an abortion in their area, while 25% say it should be harder. Four-in-ten say the ease of access should be about what it is now.
• 48% of Democrats say that obtaining an abortion should be easier than it is now, while just 15% of Republicans say this. Instead, 40% of Republicans say it should be harder (just 11% of Democrats say this).

As was the case last year, views about abortion access vary widely between those who live in states where abortion is legal and those who live in states where it is not allowed.

For instance, 20% of adults in states where abortion is legal say it would be difficult to get an abortion where they live, but this share rises to 71% among adults in states where abortion is prohibited.

Medication abortion

Americans say medication abortion should be legal rather than illegal by a margin of more than two-to-one (54% vs. 20%). A quarter say they are not sure.

Like opinions on the legality of abortion overall, partisans differ greatly in their views of medication abortion:

• Republicans are closely split but are slightly more likely to say it should be legal (37%) than illegal (32%). Another 30% aren’t sure.
• Democrats (73%) overwhelmingly say medication abortion should be legal. Just 8% say it should be illegal, while 19% are not sure.

Across most other demographic groups, Americans are generally more supportive than not of medication abortion.

Across demographic groups, support for abortion access has changed little since this time last year.

Today, roughly six-in-ten (63%) say abortion should be legal in all (25%) or most (38%) cases. And 36% say it should be illegal in all (8%) or most (28%) cases.

While differences are only modest by gender, other groups vary more widely in their views.

Race and ethnicity

Support for legal abortion is higher among Black (73%) and Asian (76%) adults compared with White (60%) and Hispanic (59%) adults.

Compared with older Americans, adults under 30 are particularly likely to say abortion should be legal: 76% say this, versus about six-in-ten among other age groups.

Those with higher levels of formal education express greater support for legal abortion than those with lower levels of educational attainment.

About two-thirds of Americans with a bachelor’s degree or more education (68%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, compared with six-in-ten among those without a degree.

White evangelical Protestants are about three times as likely to say abortion should be illegal (73%) as they are to say it should be legal (25%).

By contrast, majorities of White nonevangelical Protestants (64%), Black Protestants (71%) and Catholics (59%) say abortion should be legal. And religiously unaffiliated Americans are especially likely to say abortion should be legal (86% say this).

Partisanship and ideology

Democrats (85%) are about twice as likely as Republicans (41%) to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

But while more conservative Republicans say abortion should be illegal (76%) than legal (27%), the reverse is true for moderate and liberal Republicans (67% say legal, 31% say illegal).

By comparison, a clear majority of conservative and moderate Democrats (76%) say abortion should be legal, with liberal Democrats (96%) overwhelmingly saying this.

Views of abortion access by state

About six-in-ten Americans (58%) say it would be easy for someone to get an abortion in the area where they live, while 39% say it would be difficult.

This marks a slight shift since last year, when 54% said obtaining an abortion would be easy. But Americans are still less likely than before the Dobbs decision to say obtaining an abortion would be easy.

Still, Americans’ views vary widely depending on whether they live in a state that has banned or restricted abortion.

In states that prohibit abortion, Americans are about three times as likely to say it would be difficult to obtain an abortion where they live as they are to say it would be easy (71% vs. 25%). The share saying it would be difficult has risen 19 points since 2019.

In states where abortion is restricted or subject to legal challenges, 51% say it would be difficult to get an abortion where they live. This is similar to the share who said so last year (55%), but higher than the share who said this before the Dobbs decision (38%).

By comparison, just 20% of adults in states where abortion is legal say it would be difficult to get one. This is little changed over the past five years.

Americans’ attitudes about whether it should be easier or harder to get an abortion in the area where they live also varies by geography.

Overall, a decreasing share of Americans say it should be harder to obtain an abortion: 33% said this in 2019, compared with 25% today.

This is particularly true of those in states where abortion is now prohibited or restricted.

In both types of states, the shares of Americans saying it should be easier to obtain an abortion have risen 12 points since before Roe was overturned, as the shares saying it should be harder have gradually declined.

By comparison, changes in views among those living in states where abortion is legal have been more modest.

While Americans overall are more supportive than not of medication abortion (54% say it should be legal, 20% say illegal), there are modest differences in support across groups:

• Younger Americans are somewhat more likely to say medication abortion should be legal than older Americans. While 59% of adults ages 18 to 49 say it should be legal, 48% of those 50 and older say the same.
• Asian adults (66%) are particularly likely to say medication abortion should be legal compared with White (55%), Black (51%) and Hispanic (47%) adults.
• White evangelical Protestants oppose medication abortion by about two-to-one (45% vs. 23%), with White nonevangelicals, Black Protestants, Catholics and religiously unaffiliated adults all being more likely than not to say medication abortion should be legal.
• Republicans are closely divided over medication abortion: 37% say it should be legal while 32% say it should be illegal. But similar to views on abortion access overall, conservative Republicans are more opposed (43% illegal, 27% legal), while moderate and liberals are more supportive (55% legal, 14% illegal).

Just over half of Americans (54%) say “the decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman” describes their views extremely or very well, compared with 19% who say somewhat well and 26% who say not too or not at all well.

Democrats (76%) overwhelmingly say this statement describes their views extremely or very well, with just 8% saying it does not describe their views well.

Republicans are more divided: 44% say it does not describe their views well while 33% say it describes them extremely or very well. Another 22% say it describes them somewhat well.

Fewer Americans (35%) say the statement “human life begins at conception, so an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well. Another 19% say it describes their views somewhat well while 45% say it describes them not too or not at all well.

(The survey asks separately whether “a fetus is a person with rights.” The results are roughly similar: 37% say that statement describes their views extremely or very well.)

Republicans are about three times as likely as Democrats to say “an embryo is a person with rights” describes their views extremely or very well (53% vs. 18%). In turn, Democrats (66%) are far more likely than Republicans (25%) to say it describes their views not too or not at all well.

Some Americans are cross-pressured about abortion

When results on the two statements are combined, 41% of Americans say the statement about a pregnant woman’s right to choose describes their views at least somewhat well , but not the statement about an embryo being a person with rights. About two-in-ten (21%) say the reverse.

But for nearly a third of U.S. adults (32%), both statements describe their views at least somewhat well.

Just 4% of Americans say neither statement describes their views well.

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