SPIA researcher and professor Shane Singh recently had an article published online by the American Political Science Review. Singh’s article, “Elections Activate Partisanship across Countries,” explores the effects that elections have on individuals’ attachments to political parties.

“Partisan orientations color how individuals process information, form opinions, and decide their vote choices. While partisanship is an individual-level phenomenon, there is some evidence that environmental factors can induce and amplify partisanship,” Singh explains. “In our article, we hypothesize that elections, in particular, can enhance partisanship by activating predispositions and lessening uncertainty toward parties.”

In the article, Singh and his co-author find strong evidence that elections boost party attachment, increase the strength of attachments, and heighten the relationship between partisanship and evaluations of political actors.

The article is now available online.

Congrats Dr. Singh!