Elizabeth C Connors
Biographic Data
| ID | 1074383 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Elizabeth C Connors |
| GIVEN NAMES | Elizabeth C |
| FAMILY NAME | Connors |
| SIGNATURE | CONNORS E C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of South Carolina |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5442-1420 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 83 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 11 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Un-Priming Politics
Survey researchers frequently employ measures of political engagement, yet social desirability pressures can lead to overreporting. Building upon existing literature, we adopt an iterative approach to determine how such overreporting can be reduced. Four preregistered survey experiments were conducted (total N=7,122). We first confirm that social desirability considerations can underlie some types of self-reported political engagement. Second, ha…
You’re Making Us Look Bad
Partisan elites and members of the public often have attitudes or engage in behavior that could embarrass copartisans. We examine this occurrence—what we call partisan embarrassment—by investigating how much partisans report feeling this embarrassment, what types of scenarios embarrass partisans, what types of partisans feel this embarrassment, and what the political ramifications of partisan embarrassment could be. We expect that when a copartis…
Indirect restrictions demobilize supporters of abortion rights
State governments have created a multitude of indirect restrictions on abortion in the decades since Roe v. Wade . Here we test whether indirect restrictions demobilize abortion supporters relative to direct restrictions. We draw on research from moral psychology showing that people judge indirect offenses as less morally wrong than direct offenses, holding constant the consequences of the offenses. In two experiments, pro‐choice participants ans…
"Selecting Out of "Politics
In recent decades, the term "politics" has become almost synonymous with conflict. Results from eight studies show that individuals averse to conflict tend to select out of surveys and discussions explicitly labeled as "political." This suggests that the inferences researchers draw from "political" surveys, as well as the impressions average Americans draw from explicitly "political" discussions, will be systematically biased toward conflict. We …
Party Foul
Social Desirability and Affective Polarization
Media coverage of affective polarization—partisans disliking and distrusting out-partisans while liking and trusting in-partisans—is abundant, both creating and reflecting a belief among the public that partisans are more affectively polarized than they are. These trends suggest that affective polarization among partisans could be viewed as socially desirable, which may then shape partisans’ expressed attitudes and behavior. To examine this, I ru…
The Social Consequences of Political Anger
A functioning democracy relies on social interactions between people who disagree—including listening to others' viewpoints, having political discussions, and finding political compromise. Yet social life in the contemporary United States is characterized by a relative lack of interaction between Democrats and Republicans (or, social polarization). We argue that political anger contributes to social polarization by causing Americans to cut off ti…
The Effects of Source Cues and Issue Frames During Covid-19
The health and economic outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic will in part be determined by how effectively experts can communicate information to the public and the degree to which people follow expert recommendation. Using a survey experiment conducted in May 2020 with almost 5,000 respondents, this paper examines the effect of source cues and message frames on perceptions of information credibility in the context of COVID-19. Each health recommend…
The Social Dimension of Political Values
How Transparency Affects Survey Responses
Following a shift toward greater transparency, many academic journals across a variety of disciplines now require authors to post their data. At the same time, many university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) have followed recent US federal guidelines and now require researchers to be more transparent with survey participants regarding what will happen to the collected data. In this paper, we take the first steps toward considering the interact…
How gender affects the efficacy of discussion as an information shortcut
There are a number of observed gender differences in the frequency of political discussion, perceived levels of expertise, and importantly, openness to persuasion. This article explores the consequences of these differences for political choices. Given the difficulty in separating influence from homophily with observational data, this paper relies on a group-based experiment. Results suggest that when selecting between candidates, women are more …
The Social Dimension of Political Values
The Social Consequences of Political Anger
A functioning democracy relies on social interactions between people who disagree—including listening to others' viewpoints, having political discussions, and finding political compromise. Yet social life in the contemporary United States is characterized by a relative lack of interaction between Democrats and Republicans (or, social polarization). We argue that political anger contributes to social polarization by causing Americans to cut off ti…
"Selecting Out of "Politics
In recent decades, the term "politics" has become almost synonymous with conflict. Results from eight studies show that individuals averse to conflict tend to select out of surveys and discussions explicitly labeled as "political." This suggests that the inferences researchers draw from "political" surveys, as well as the impressions average Americans draw from explicitly "political" discussions, will be systematically biased toward conflict. We …
Social Desirability and Affective Polarization
Media coverage of affective polarization—partisans disliking and distrusting out-partisans while liking and trusting in-partisans—is abundant, both creating and reflecting a belief among the public that partisans are more affectively polarized than they are. These trends suggest that affective polarization among partisans could be viewed as socially desirable, which may then shape partisans’ expressed attitudes and behavior. To examine this, I ru…
The Effects of Source Cues and Issue Frames During Covid-19
The health and economic outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic will in part be determined by how effectively experts can communicate information to the public and the degree to which people follow expert recommendation. Using a survey experiment conducted in May 2020 with almost 5,000 respondents, this paper examines the effect of source cues and message frames on perceptions of information credibility in the context of COVID-19. Each health recommend…
How Transparency Affects Survey Responses
Following a shift toward greater transparency, many academic journals across a variety of disciplines now require authors to post their data. At the same time, many university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) have followed recent US federal guidelines and now require researchers to be more transparent with survey participants regarding what will happen to the collected data. In this paper, we take the first steps toward considering the interact…
Party Foul
How gender affects the efficacy of discussion as an information shortcut
There are a number of observed gender differences in the frequency of political discussion, perceived levels of expertise, and importantly, openness to persuasion. This article explores the consequences of these differences for political choices. Given the difficulty in separating influence from homophily with observational data, this paper relies on a group-based experiment. Results suggest that when selecting between candidates, women are more …
How Transparency Affects Survey Responses
Following a shift toward greater transparency, many academic journals across a variety of disciplines now require authors to post their data. At the same time, many university Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) have followed recent US federal guidelines and now require researchers to be more transparent with survey participants regarding what will happen to the collected data. In this paper, we take the first steps toward considering the interact…
How gender affects the efficacy of discussion as an information shortcut
There are a number of observed gender differences in the frequency of political discussion, perceived levels of expertise, and importantly, openness to persuasion. This article explores the consequences of these differences for political choices. Given the difficulty in separating influence from homophily with observational data, this paper relies on a group-based experiment. Results suggest that when selecting between candidates, women are more …
The Social Dimension of Political Values
The Effects of Source Cues and Issue Frames During Covid-19
The health and economic outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic will in part be determined by how effectively experts can communicate information to the public and the degree to which people follow expert recommendation. Using a survey experiment conducted in May 2020 with almost 5,000 respondents, this paper examines the effect of source cues and message frames on perceptions of information credibility in the context of COVID-19. Each health recommend…
The Social Consequences of Political Anger
A functioning democracy relies on social interactions between people who disagree—including listening to others' viewpoints, having political discussions, and finding political compromise. Yet social life in the contemporary United States is characterized by a relative lack of interaction between Democrats and Republicans (or, social polarization). We argue that political anger contributes to social polarization by causing Americans to cut off ti…
Social Desirability and Affective Polarization
Media coverage of affective polarization—partisans disliking and distrusting out-partisans while liking and trusting in-partisans—is abundant, both creating and reflecting a belief among the public that partisans are more affectively polarized than they are. These trends suggest that affective polarization among partisans could be viewed as socially desirable, which may then shape partisans’ expressed attitudes and behavior. To examine this, I ru…
Party Foul
Indirect restrictions demobilize supporters of abortion rights
State governments have created a multitude of indirect restrictions on abortion in the decades since Roe v. Wade . Here we test whether indirect restrictions demobilize abortion supporters relative to direct restrictions. We draw on research from moral psychology showing that people judge indirect offenses as less morally wrong than direct offenses, holding constant the consequences of the offenses. In two experiments, pro‐choice participants ans…
"Selecting Out of "Politics
In recent decades, the term "politics" has become almost synonymous with conflict. Results from eight studies show that individuals averse to conflict tend to select out of surveys and discussions explicitly labeled as "political." This suggests that the inferences researchers draw from "political" surveys, as well as the impressions average Americans draw from explicitly "political" discussions, will be systematically biased toward conflict. We …
Un-Priming Politics
Survey researchers frequently employ measures of political engagement, yet social desirability pressures can lead to overreporting. Building upon existing literature, we adopt an iterative approach to determine how such overreporting can be reduced. Four preregistered survey experiments were conducted (total N=7,122). We first confirm that social desirability considerations can underlie some types of self-reported political engagement. Second, ha…
You’re Making Us Look Bad
Partisan elites and members of the public often have attitudes or engage in behavior that could embarrass copartisans. We examine this occurrence—what we call partisan embarrassment—by investigating how much partisans report feeling this embarrassment, what types of scenarios embarrass partisans, what types of partisans feel this embarrassment, and what the political ramifications of partisan embarrassment could be. We expect that when a copartis…
Political science (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Social and Intergroup Psychology (4 works)