Social media has supercharged the spread of information—and misinformation, which presents significant challenges when trying to distinguish between fact and fiction on social media platforms like Twitter. One of the most prolific, widely shared, and highly scrutinized Twitter accounts of the past several years belonged to former U.S. President Donald Trump. In the final year...
In a democracy, voters choose their political leaders. In a democracy that permits gerrymandering – when state legislatures draw legislative district lines that maximize the dominant party’s chances of winning seats – elected leaders choose their voters. Gerrymandering undermines representative government. But it’s nothing new. The term “gerrymander” stretches all the way back to a...
Results of a study published in the scientific journal Risk Analysis indicate that the recent increase in mail-based voting due to COVID-19 has not jeopardized the safety of the U.S. elections process. Instead, mail-based voting increases voter access and may reduce the likelihood of adversarial interference, the authors argue. The COVID-19 pandemic led to swift changes in...
Packed with rifles and explosives, the SUV hurtled down a Florida interstate beneath bright blue autumn skies, passing other motorists with little notice. It was November 2018, and the driver, Tyler Sumlin, was uncomfortable. Clammy. The husky, bearded former U.S. Army soldier was getting a cold, and understandably tense: He was transporting a platoon’s worth...
American democracy is in crisis—a majority of scholars and the public agree. Allegations of unfair voting practices, such as voter suppression and gerrymandering, abuses of executive power, and mounting concerns about the legitimacy of elections have become regular occurrence in the United States, rather than isolated events. If we accept the premise that politicians and...
Have you ever thought about not voting because your preferred candidate’s victory seems assured? New Cornell University research uses mathematical modeling to show that type of thinking can have the opposite effect, resulting in the election of politicians who do not represent the preferences of the electorate as a whole. Most surprisingly, the culprit of...
From the singing of the national anthem to salutes to military personnel, patriotic displays permeate major sports events in the United States. But only about half of Americans (47%) surveyed in 2018-2019 agreed that sports teach love of country, according to a new study. Even fewer believed sports teach respect for the military (34%) or...
Online advertisements are found frequently splashed across news websites. Clicking on these banners or links provides the news site with revenue. But these ads also often use manipulative techniques, researchers say. University of Washington researchers were curious about what types of political ads people saw during the 2020 presidential election. The team looked at more than...
The instructional models that are used to train police officers across the U.S. at the academy, in-service, mid-rank, and leadership levels are in many cases antiquated, inadequate, and in critical need of immediate transformation, according to a new report released by American University’s School of Public Affairs (SPA). Entitled “Re-Envisioning Police Training in the U.S.:...
The 4 million inhabitants of five U.S. territories – Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Northern Marianas Islands, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands – do not have the full protection of the Constitution, because of a series of Supreme Court cases dating back to 1901 that are based on archaic, often racist language and reasoning. No...
