Public Opinion
Social media exposes us to an incredible amount of information — from news stories to political messaging to pop culture. CSMaP studies how this information shapes public opinion and affects people’s political attitudes and beliefs.
Academic Research
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Working Paper
Survey Professionalism: New Evidence from Web Browsing Data
Working Paper, August 2024
Online panels have become an important resource for research in political science, but the financial compensation involved incentivizes respondents to become “survey professionals”, which raises concerns about data quality. We provide evidence on survey professionalism using behavioral web browsing data from three U.S. samples, recruited via Lucid, YouGov, and Facebook (total n = 3,886). Survey professionalism is common but varies across samples: By our most conservative measure, we identify 1.7% of respondents on Facebook, 7.9% of respondents on YouGov, and 34.3% of respondents on Lucid as survey professionals. However, evidence that professionals lower data quality is limited: they do not systematically differ demographically or politically from non-professionals and do not respond more randomly—although they are somewhat more likely to speed, to straightline, and to take questionnaires repeatedly. While concerns are warranted, we conclude that survey professionals do not, by and large, distort inferences of research based on online panels.
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Working Paper
Reports & Analysis
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Analysis
How Americans’ Confidence in Technology Firms has Dropped
Results from the American Institutional Confidence poll's second wave show that the public's confidence in technology, and tech companies, has markedly decreased over the past five years.
June 14, 2023
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Analysis
Which Republicans Are Most Likely to Think the Election Was Stolen?
Those who dislike Democrats and don’t mind white nationalists. That includes plenty of Republicans with college educations.
January 19, 2021
News & Commentary
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News
Where Do Nextdoor Communities Exist — And What Do These Communities Talk About?
Study provides new data about Nextdoor, America’s most popular hyperlocal platform
May 29, 2024
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News
Jennifer Allen and Christopher Barrie to Join CSMaP and NYU Faculty
At CSMaP, Allen and Barrie will serve as core faculty members leading research projects on urgent topics related to digital media and democracy.
May 1, 2024