Elizabeth C. Connors
Political Science PhD
Research
Book:
- Elizabeth C. Connors, Matthew T. Pietryka and John Barry Ryan. 2022. Examining Motivations in Interpersonal Communication Experiments. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Elements in Experimental Political Science.
Peer-Reviewed Articles:
- Elizabeth C. Connors and John V. Kane. 2026. "Un-Priming Politics: A Method to Reduce Overreporting of Political Engagement." Political Behavior, accepted.
- Elizabeth C. Connors, Taylor Carlson, and Steven W. Webster. 2026. “You’re Making Us Look Bad: Can Partisan Embarrassment Dampen Partisanship and Polarization?” Public Opinion Quarterly 90(2):336-360.
- Elizabeth C. Connors, Alessandro Del Ponte, and Peter DeScioli. 2025. “Indirect Restrictions Demobilize Supporters of Abortion Rights.” Policy Studies Journal, 53(4):1123-1157.
- Eric Groenendyk, Yanna Krupnikov, John Barry Ryan, and Elizabeth C. Connors. 2025. “Selecting Out of ‘Politics’: The Self-Fulfilling Role of Conflict Expectation.” American Political Science Review 119(1):40-55.
- Elizabeth C. Connors. 2024. “Party Foul: The Effectiveness of Political Value Rhetoric is Constrained by Party Ownership.” Political Behavior 46(2):707-726.
- Elizabeth C. Connors. 2023.
“Social Desirability and Affective Polarization.”
Public Opinion Quarterly 87(4):911-934.
- Earlier draft awarded American Political Science Association’s 2021 award for best paper in political psychology delivered at the 2020 meeting
- Partly funded by Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS)
- Steven W. Webster, Elizabeth C. Connors, and Betsy Sinclair. 2022. “The Social Consequences of Political Anger.” The Journal of Politics 84(3):1292-1305.
- Chandler Case*, Christopher Eddy*, Rahul Hemrajani*, Christopher Howell*, Daniel
Lyons*, Yu-Hsien Sung*, and Elizabeth C. Connors. 2022.
“The Effects of Source Cues and Issue Frames During COVID-19.”
Journal of Experimental Political Science 9(3):369-378.
- Funded by University of South Carolina internal grant
- Elizabeth C. Connors. 2020.
“The Social Dimension of Political Values.”
Political Behavior 42(3):961-982.
- Earlier draft awarded American Political Science Association’s 2018 John Sullivan Award for best paper delivered by a graduate student on an Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior (EPOVB) panel at the 2017 meeting
- Yanna Krupnikov, Kerri Milita, John Barry Ryan, and Elizabeth C. Connors. 2020. “How Gender Affects the Efficacy of Discussion as an Information Shortcut.” Political Science Research and Methods 8(2):268-284.
- Elizabeth C. Connors, Yanna Krupnikov, and John Barry Ryan. 2019.
“How Transparency Affects Survey Responses.”
Public Opinion Quarterly 83(S1):185-209.
- Partly funded by Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS)
Papers Under Review:
- Elizabeth C. Connors and Christopher Howell*. “Heatedness in Political Talk: Do Perceptions of Tone Shape Reported Political Discussion Aversion?”
- Elizabeth C. Connors, Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov, and John Barry Ryan. “Political Disconnection: When Are Partisan Differences a Reason to End Relationships?”
- Elizabeth C. Connors and Katelyn Stauffer. “Feminism Through a Partisan Lens: How Group Perceptions Shape Affect and Identity.”
- Tobias Heinrich, Menevis Cilizoglu, Elizabeth C. Connors, Lauren Poupore**, and Yoshiharu Kobayashi. “Welcoming Strangers? How Confidence in Vetting Shapes the Early Reception of Refugees.”
- Partly funded by the Institute for Humane Studies
- Kristin Lunz Trujillo, David Darmofal, Elizabeth C. Connors, and Todd C. Shaw. “Evaluating Common Strategies to Detect AI-Generated Political Images.”
- Funded by McCausland Innovation Fund
Select Working Projects:
- The Femin[ist] Mystique (book project), with Katelyn Stauffer.
- Partly funded by Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS)
- “Political Discussions 101: Understanding How Young People Perceive and Experience Political Conversation,” with Kathleen Searles.
- “Perceptions of Police Killings: How Do Victim Intentionality and Partisan Bias Shape Responses?” with Joshua Ayers*, Insu Hwang*, Kaitlin Kirkley*, Deki Peldon*, and Grace Tanner*.
- “How Low Candidate Approval Affects Partisanship,” with Robert Bird, Samara Klar, and Yanna Krupnikov.
- “What’s Wrong with Being Confident? A Lot: How Confidence Shapes Political Interactions,” with Christopher Howell* and Taylor Carlson.
- “Revisiting the Link between Expected Election Outcomes and Turnout,” with Jacob A. Martin* and John Barry Ryan.
- “Immigration Support: Does Immigrant Skill-Level Override the Effects of Racial and Ethnic Prejudice,” with Leonie Huddy, Stanley Feldman, and Romeo Gray*.
Other Select Work:
- Invited contributor to the Niskanen Center’s The Science of Politics podcast: “How Political Values and Social Influence Drive Polarization,” 2021.
- Elizabeth C. Connors. 2020. “Do Republicans Really Believe the Election was Stolen – Or Are They Just Saying That?” The Monkey Cage.
- Elizabeth C. Connors, Samara Klar, and Yanna Krupnikov. 2016. “There May Have Been Shy Trump Supporters After All.” The Monkey Cage.