James Druckman
Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science
IPR Associate Director; IPR Fellow
PhD, Political Science, University of California, San Diego, 1999
James Druckman's research focuses on political preference formation, communication, and experimental methods. He also studies sports and politics (with a focus on gender), democratic responsiveness as well as the impact of race in various decision-making setting. He recently co-authored Equality Unfulfilled: How Title IX's Policy Design Undermines Change to College Sports and authored Experimental Thinking: A Primer on Social Science Experiments. He has served as editor of the journals Political Psychology and Public Opinion Quarterly as well as the University of Chicago Press's series in American Politics. He currently is the co-Principal Investigator of Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS), and the Civic Health and Institutions Project, a 50-States Survey (CHIP50). He also sits on the Board of Trustees for the Russell Sage Foundation as well as numerous other advisory boards, organizing committees, prize committees, and editorial boards.
Druckman's work has been recognized with various awards including many best paper/book awards; he also has received grant support from such entities as the National Science Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and Phi Beta Kappa. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (pdf) and the recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship. He further received Northwestern’s Martin E. and Gertrude G. Walder Award for Research Excellence. His teaching/advising has been recognized with the Outstanding Award for Freshman Advising, an Outstanding Faculty citation by Northwestern's Associated Student Government, and the Karl Rosengren Faculty Mentoring Award.
Druckman obtained his BA from Northwestern, majoring in mathematical methods in the social sciences and political science. He is also an Honorary Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University in Denmark.
Current Research
Polarization and Science. Druckman explores the evolution of trust in science and how it has polarized along partisan lines, and with what consequences.
Mental Health and Politics. Druckman is exploring the impact of experience severe depression on various political outcomes such as support for political violence and support for election denialism.
Democratic Stability. Druckman Is working on various projects concerning democratic stability In the U.S. This Includes work on measurement and Interventions to strengthen democracy. Along these lines he is part of a project aimed at testing various.
Campaigns in a New Media Age: How Candidates Use the World Wide Web to Win Elections. Martin Kifer of High Point University, Michael Parkin of Oberlin College, and Druckman are studying the congressional elections and representation. This project has been ongoing since 2002 and has coding of 1,000s of candidate websites, along with surveys of campaigns and experiments on campaign effects.
Selected Publications
Books
Druckman, J.N. and E. Sharrow. 2023. Equality unfulfilled: How policy design, sex segregation, and organizational culture shape college sports. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Druckman, J. N. 2022. Experimental thinking: A primer on social science experiments. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Druckman, J. N., and D. P. Green, eds. 2021. Advances in experimental political science. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Druckman, J. N., and L. R. Jacobs. 2015. Who governs? Presidents, public opinion, and manipulation. University of Chicago Press.
Druckman, J. N., with D. P. Green, James H. Kuklinski, and Arthur Lupia, eds. 2011. Cambridge handbook of experimental political science. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Journal Articles
Lacombe, M., M. Simonson, J. Green, and J. Druckman. Forthcoming. Social Disruption, Gun Buying, and Anti-System Beliefs. Perspectives on Politics.
Hall, M., and J. Druckman. Forthcoming. Norm-Violating Rhetoric Undermines Support for Participatory Inclusiveness and Political Equality Among Trump Supporters. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Baum, M., J. Druckman, M. Simonson, J. Lin, and R. Perlis. 2023. The Political Consequences of Depression: How Conspiracy Beliefs, Participatory Inclinations, and Depression Relate to Support for Political Violence. American Journal of Political Science.
Druckman, J. 2023. Correcting Misperceptions of the Other Political Party Does Not Robustly Reduce Support for Undemocratic Practices or Partisan Violence. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120(37): e2308938120.
Green, J., J. Druckman, M. Baum, D. Lazer, K. Ognyanova, M. Simonson, J. Lin, M. Santillana, and R. Perlis. 2023. Using General Messages to Persuade on a Politicized Scientific Issue. British Journal of Political Science 53: 698-706.
Druckman, J., S. Kang, J. Chu, M. Stagnaro, J. Voelkel, J. Mernyk, S. Pink, C. Redekopp, D. Rand, and R. Willer. 2023. Correcting Misperceptions of Out-partisans Decreases American Legislators’ Support for Undemocratic Practices. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 120(23): e2301836120.
