HOME / CALENDAR /

Past Events

  • 2017 Feb 10

    Marc Meredith, University of Pennsylvania

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    CGIS S050

    Title: "The Civic Counterculture? Understanding Attitudes Toward Democracy" (joint work with Guy Grossman, Dorothy Kronick, and Matthew Levendusky)

    Abstract: This is a work-in-progress pre-analysis plan for a survey experiment that we are constructing to shed light on Americans views towards democratic norms. This experiment is motivated by a number examples following the 2016 elections in which elected officials took actions that appeared inconsistent with voters' choices. We attempt to address three questions in this experiment. First, how does the public view efforts to weaken...

    Read more about Marc Meredith, University of Pennsylvania
  • 2017 Jan 27

    Keith Maddox, Tufts University

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    CGIS S050

    We Really Need to Talk – Encouraging and Empowering Interracial Dialogue


    Events over the past several years have revived public debate surrounding the continuing problem of racial bias in the United States.  However, with a particular focus on Black and White Americans, growing awareness is accompanied by a growing divide between Black and Whites concerning the nature of the problem and potential solutions.   Interracial contact and dialogue is generally accepted as a necessary method to combat racial bias, in part through the exchange of ideas and perspectives that...

    Read more about Keith Maddox, Tufts University
  • 2016 Dec 02

    Eric Dickson, NYU

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    CGIS S050

    Profiling in the Lab: How Group Targeting by Law Enforcement Affects Legitimacy and Compliance
    (with Sandy Gordon and Greg Huber)

    One of the most contentious issues in criminal justice is the disproportionate targeting of minorities for stops and searches. Defenders of the practice argue that “profiling” may be efficient, whereas critics maintain that it undermines the legitimacy of the enforcement enterprise by violating fairness norms and imposing a disproportionate burden on innocent surveillance targets. We examine these issues in the context of two incentivized laboratory...

    Read more about Eric Dickson, NYU
  • 2016 Oct 28

    Graduate Student Session

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    CGIS K401

    Four presentations:

    1. Naima Green

    Activating Intolerance: How Rising Levels of Authoritarianism and the Threat of War Affect Foreign Policy Attitudes in China

    Despite growing attention to authoritarianism as a psychological predisposition affecting political preferences in the West, little research has been done to determine the effects of this trait in Eastern societies. This paper applies the authoritarian dynamic theory (Stenner, 2005) to Chinese perceptions of international organizations. The paper shows that authoritarianism, a trait more likely to be...

    Read more about Graduate Student Session
  • 2016 Oct 14

    Stanley Feldman, Stony Brook

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    CGIS S050

    Compassionate Policy Support: The Interplay of Empathy and Values

    Empathy and compassion are basic human responses that undergird altruistic behavior. Do they also motivate a desire to assist the needy and to support social welfare programs? We examine the role of empathic ability in shaping compassion and support for social welfare policies, and examine instances in which empathy and political values reinforce each other and when they conflict. We find that empathic ability substantially increases support for a specific welfare recipient and social welfare policies among people who...

    Read more about Stanley Feldman, Stony Brook
  • 2016 Sep 30

    Felicia Pratto, University of Connecticut

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    CGIS S050

    Power, Status, Inequality, and Justice: Experiments in Power Dynamics

    Substantial social inequality not only means greater deprivation for the least powerful, but also poorer health for entire societies, and often, mistrust. To address social inequality we must be concerned with what conditions enable those with more to get more, and which facilitate those with little getting more. These are questions of power dynamics. I introduce Power Basis Theory, which promotes an ecological understanding of power as empowerment, to consider how contexts can afford need-fulfillment or curtail...

    Read more about Felicia Pratto, University of Connecticut
  • 2016 Sep 16

    Alexandra Scacco, NYU

    12:00pm to 1:30pm

    Location: 

    CGIS S050

    Youth Vocational Training and Conflict Mitigation: An Experimental Test of Social Contact Theory in Nigeria

    Can grassroots-level interventions that increase contact between members of groups in conflict improve intergroup relations? We conducted a computer-education-based, randomized field experiment (the Urban Youth Vocational Training program, or UYVT) to test whether sustained social contact between members of groups in conflict can reduce prejudice and discrimination, increase cooperation, and alter individual attitudes about past violent events. We implemented the...

    Read more about Alexandra Scacco, NYU

Pages