Professor Ryan Claassen was on NPR’s Sound of Ideas following the second presidential debate. He discusses how the candidates did with a panel of experts and describes how political scientists study voters scientifically in advance of an appearance at the Science Café, a monthly lecture sponsored by Case Western Reserve University. The Science Café lecture, “The Scientific Study of Voters: Culture Wars, Gender Gaps, and Other Divisions in the 2016 Presidential Electorate,” featured Claassen along with John C. Green (University of Akron). Both discussed the science of polling and the 2016 presidential election.
Claassen also just published research in a special elections issue of PS: Political Science and Politics investigating whether Clinton will face sex bias among voters in November. The research was featured in an online Washington Post article. The PS article highlights that when Gallup first asked Americans whether they would vote for a well-qualified woman nominated by their party for the presidency in 1937, only 33% said, “yes.” Now that number stands at near record levels at 92%. However, 92% is not 100% and it may understate biases against women if some give a "politically correct" response rather than a sincere answer. Using methods for uncovering hidden biases in surveys, Claassen and his co-author, John Barry Ryan, demonstrate small hidden biases that are likely electorally inconsequential. They also find explicit (unhidden) biases but, on balance, positive and negative biases cancel out again indicating that bias is, likely electorally inconsequential.