Elizabeth Suhay, PhD

Welcome!

 

I specialize in public opinion and political psychology and am especially interested in the political causes and consequences of Americans' beliefs about socioeconomic inequality as well as scientific topics. 

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My first book—Debating the American Dream: How Explanations for Inequality Polarize Politics—will be published in September 2025 by Russell Sage. The book draws on decades of party platforms and public opinion survey data to explore the close connections between Americans' beliefs about the causes of socioeconomic inequality and party politics. I argue that Democratic and Republican party leaders craft and disseminate distinct economic narratives meant to justify their partisan policy agendas: Republican elites claim the American Dream is alive and well, justifying limited social welfare spending, whereas Democratic elites argue structural barriers hold many people back, justifying greater redistribution. Members of the public follow suit, sorting into "American Dream believers" and "American Dream skeptics" not because of income, race, or sex but, rather, due to party allegiance. Debating the American Dream helps us to understand why members of the two party coalitions disagree so vehemently over policy while both believing they have Americans’ best interests in mind.

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Debating the American Dream is coming soon! www.russellsage.org/publications/debating-american-dream

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I have also co-edited three edited volumes: The Politics of Truth in Polarized America (2021, Oxford), with David Barker, The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Persuasion (2020), with Bernard Grofman and Alex Trechsel, and "The Politics of Science" (2015, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science), with James Druckman.

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My article publications have appeared in many highly regarded peer-reviewed journals, including The American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, and The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, among other journals.

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Ongoing and completed research projects have been sponsored by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences.

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I currently serve as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Political Psychology and Editor of the Cambridge University Press Elements in Political Psychology series. At American University, I regularly teach Politics in the U.S., Political Opinion in the U.S., Research Design (PhD), & Proseminar in American Politics (PhD).

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