Overview
Jan G. Voelkel's research focuses on political change, behavior change, and metascience. His work examines under which conditions micro-level preferences for more equality and unity translate into voting decisions that are crucial for systemic change. For example, Voelkel’s research has examined the conditions under which American voters refuse undemocratic elites, support women candidates for president, and back economically progressive politicians. He is a member of the faculty at the Brooks School and the Department of Sociology.
Professor Voelkel received his Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University, his M.S. in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Tilburg University, and his B.S. in Social Sciences from the University of Cologne.
In the News
- The New York Times (Meet the People Working on Getting Us to Hate One Another Less)
- The Atlantic (How to Save Democracy)
- The New York Times (How Much Does How Much We Hate Each Other Matter?)
- The New York Times (Elizabeth Warren and the Curse of "Electability")
- The New York Times (The Moral Chasm That Has Opened Up Between Left and Right is Widening)
Select Publications
- OSF Preprints (Megastudy testing 25 treatments to reduce anti-democratic attitudes and partisan animosity)
- Nature Human Behaviour (Interventions reducing affective polarization do not necessarily improve anti-democratic attitudes)
- PNAS (Pragmatic bias impedes women's access to political leadership)
- PNAS Nexus (Moral reframing increases support for economically progressive candidates)
- PNAS (Academics are more specific, and practitioners more sensitive, in forecasting interventions to strengthen democratic attitudes)
