Dissertation

My dissertation explores the interplay between suppressive political institutions, emotions, and political participation. I argue that people will experience institutional manipulation differently, depending on how the suppression affects groups to which a person belongs. If a suppressive institution advantages a group, members of that group will be unmoved when confronted with the effects of that institution. By contrast, if an institution disadvantages a group, members of that group will be motivated to engage in politics more fully, but only if encountering the effects of the institution generates an emotional response. I explore this model of political behavior in three papers drawing on experiments conducted in and observational data from the United States and Malaysia.

Dissertation Committee: Nicholas Valentino (Co-Chair), Allen Hicken (Co-Chair), Elisabeth Gerber, Noah Nathan and Justine Davis.