Stone Inequality & Social Policy Seminar

​The Stone Program in Wealth Distribution, Inequality, and Social Policy welcomes Professor Nicholas Valentino to speak in the Stone Inequality & Social Policy Seminar Series.

Nicholas A. Valentino is a Professor of Political Science and Research Professor in the Center
for Political Studies at the University of Michigan. He currently serves
as a PI of the American National Election Studies (ANES). He was
President of the International Society for Political Psychology from
2019-2020 and has served on the American National Election Studies Board
since 2010, becoming Associate PI in 2018. Valentino specializes in
political psychological approaches to understanding public opinion
formation, socialization, information seeking, and electoral
participation. His work employs experimental methods, surveys, and
content analyses of political communication. The research has focused on
the intersecting roles of racial attitudes and public emotions,
especially the distinct power of anger versus fear. He has also written
extensively on the causes and consequences of empathy for ethnic
outgroups.

"Outgroup Empathy and Opposition to Electorally Restrictive Voting Laws"

Abstract: This study examines the role of outgroup empathy in response to
restrictive voting laws and voter suppression efforts. We test a series
of hypotheses using nationally representative data from the 2020
American National Election Studies survey and the 2022 Group Empathy
Study conducted by YouGov. The results indicate that outgroup empathy
has a sizable and significant effect on opinions concerning race-based
electoral injustice, above and beyond the effects of partisanship,
ideology, and a host of socio-demographic controls. We also predict, and
find, that the effects of group empathy on opposition to voting
restrictions are conditional on political sophistication: Those most
likely to be aware of the groups these laws target bring outgroup
empathy (or lack thereof) to bear most strongly on support or opposition
to voter suppression. The findings suggest that group
empathy—especially among the most politically sophisticated—can catalyze
opposition to restrictive voting laws recently adopted by several
states, which threaten the United States’ democratic health, equality,
and representation. (co-authored with Cigdem V. Sirin and José D. Villalobos)