This paper reviews key issues of public understanding of science (PUS) research over the
last quarter of a century. We show how the discussion has moved in relation to large-scale …

This is a highly selective review of the huge literature bearing on the capacity of mass
electorates for issue voting, in view of the great (mal) distribution of political information …

• I wrote about nineteen invited op-eds and magazine articles pointing out the flaws in
democracy. There wasn't the same kind of interest in 2014 or 2012 when I was writing about …

Americans today are affectively polarized: they dislike and distrust those from the opposing
political party more than they did in the past, with damaging consequences for their …

Democracy has many attractive features. Among them is its tendency to track the truth, at
least under certain idealized assumptions. That basic result has been known since 1785 …

Hacking the Electorate is the most comprehensive study to date about the consequences of
campaigns using microtargeting databases to mobilize voters in elections. Eitan Hersh …

An extensive literature addresses citizen ignorance, but very little research focuses on
misperceptions. Can these false or unsubstantiated beliefs about politics be corrected …

“A short review cannot convey the rich variety of arguments and data Bartels deploys in
making his case…. Bartels shows that social issues do not create as strong a headwind …

The greatest obstacle to sound economic policy is not entrenched special interests or
rampant lobbying, but the popular misconceptions, irrational beliefs, and personal biases …

This article challenges the often untested assumption that cognitive" heuristics" improve the
decision-making abilities of everyday voters. The potential benefits and costs of five common …