Elizabeth Suhay, PhD

Welcome!

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

I am currently completing a book manuscript—Debating the American Dream: How Explanations for Inequality Polarize U.S. Politics. The book explores the close connections between Americans' beliefs about the causes of socioeconomic inequality and the political system, arguing that party coalitions adopt economic narratives that justify their policy agendas. My current work on science & politics spans several topics, including communication between Congress and outside experts and public perceptions of scientific consensus on controversial topics.

My research has appeared in 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. I have co-edited three edited volumes: The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Persuasion (2020), with Bernard Grofman and Alex Trechsel, The Politics of Truth in Polarized America (2021, Oxford), with David Barker, and "The Politics of Science" (2015, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science), with James Druckman. My research has been sponsored by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences.

I currently serve as Editor of the Cambridge University Press Elements in Political Psychology series and will be Co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal Political Psychology beginning in 2025. At American, I regularly teach Politics in the U.S., Political Opinion in the U.S., Research Design (PhD), & Proseminar in American Politics (PhD).