INDEPENDENT, SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
ON POLITICS AND SOCIETY
Get to know CPS
From the CPS Blog
Could Balanced Coverage Improve Public Trust in Fact-Checking Sites?
A major challenge confronting our society is the intensity of partisan disagreements, even about what constitutes fact. To address this challenge, fact-checking was initiated by organizations such as FactCheck.org and PolitiFact in the 2000s to assess the accuracy of political claims. For fact-checking journalism to be helpful, there should be widespread public trust in such websites. Yet about half of Americans believe fact-checkers are biased. Two decades after its emergence, why has fact-checking failed to get traction among the public? What changes can help fact-checking sites earn greater trust? Read more on the CPS Blog.
Events
The 2022 Election Roundtable: What Happened?
Mara Ostfeld, Jowei Chen, and Nicholas A. Valentino (Insights Series)
Thursday, Nov. 17, 2023 | 12:00 PM Eastern
ISR-Thompson, Room 1430
The 2023 Miller-Converse Lecture
Stanley Feldman, Stony Brook University
Thursday, March 23, 2023 | 4:00-5:30 PM Eastern
ISR-Thompson, Room 1430
Meet our faculty and staff
Featured Project
World Values Survey
The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. The project’s goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies.
Featured Publication
Seeing Us in Them: Social Divisions and the Politics of Group Empathy
What causes some people to stand in solidarity with those from other races, religions, or nationalities, even when that solidarity does not seem to benefit the individual or their group? Seeing Us in Them examines outgroup empathy as a powerful predisposition in politics that pushes individuals to see past social divisions and work together in complex, multicultural societies. It also reveals racial/ethnic intergroup differences in this predisposition, rooted in early patterns of socialization and collective memory.
Celebrating 50 years of the Center for Political Studies
The Center for Political Studies marked its 50th anniversary with a celebration featuring a keynote address by Arthur Lupia. Many alumni and faculty also shared their reflections on what the center has meant to them. Click here to view a recording of the event and statements about CPS.
CPS News
Learning Science in a Hurry: Jon Miller Investigates how Americans Learned about COVID-19 to Make Personal Health Decisions and Public Policy Judgments
Posted Nov. 7 2022. An international team led by CPS’s Jon Miller found that people who earned a college degree and took the required college science courses gained a general level of biological literacy that enabled them to make more informed policy judgments about the effectiveness of the Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the last week prior to the 2022 midterm elections, these results are important in understanding how citizens make sense of scientific or technical issues such as viral mutation and transmission and the efficacy of vaccines—and how their government worked to protect them against a deadly virus. Read more
Mark Tessler's New Open Access Book to Kindle Social Science Research in the Arab World
Posted Oct. 10, 2022. A new book by CPS’s Mark Tessler on the design and conduct of social science research in the Arab world has the potential to expand the reach and impact of social science research that contributes to informed social advancement. Social Science Research in the Arab World and Beyond: A Guide for Students, Instructors, and Researchers has been released by Springer Publishers in its Sociology series; Qatar University Press has translated the book and is publishing the Arabic edition. Read more and get the open access book
Arthur Lupia to Lead Bold Challenges Initiative as Executive Director
Posted July 27, 2022. Arthur Lupia will serve the Bold Challenges initiative as Executive Director, leading U-M collaborative research efforts addressing social changes intersecting with equity, health, infrastructure, and sustainability. His two-year term begins in September. “I am committed to doing all that I can to help the University of Michigan act with urgency and integrity to serve today’s, and tomorrow’s, generations with maximum impact and unrelenting humanity,” said Lupia.
Read more in the University Record
ISR, CPS Remember Rosemary Sarri, Trailblazing Social Scientist and Researcher
Posted July 25, 2022. Rosemary A. Sarri, a long-time University of Michigan researcher and professor, passed away on Monday, July 25. She was 95. A leading expert in child and family welfare policy and the criminal justice system, Sarri worked to improve social welfare programs throughout the world. She collaborated with universities in Australia and Korea and worked to strengthen and develop educational standards and curriculum guidelines in social work education programs in Russia. You can read more about Sarri’s life and impact here.
Nicholas Valentino Receives APSA Best Book Award
Posted June 22, 2022. Seeing Us in Them: Social Divisions and the Politics of Group Empathy by Cigdem V. Sirin, Nicholas A. Valentino, and José D. Villalobos will receive the American Political Science Association (APSA) best book award at the 2022 APSA meetings. This award is given annually for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs.
Read more about this book.
Ted Brader Receives Philip E. Converse Book Award
Posted June 22, 2022. Ted Brader’s book, Campaigning for Hearts and Minds: How Emotional Appeals in Political Ads Work, will receive the Philip E. Converse Book Award for his book at the 2022 American Political Science Association (APSA) meetings. The Converse Award recognizes the author(s) of an outstanding book published at least five years ago. Congratulations, Ted!
Vincent Hutchings Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Posted May 4, 2022. Vincent Hutchings is among the most recent inductees into the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest distinctions for a scientist or engineer in the United States. Congratulations, Vincent!
Read more in the University Record