What Are They Thinking? New Findings from Political Behavior Research

About This Page

Resources for data-driven research on the political behavior of the mass public (especially the voting public). Topics include political preferences, knowledge, socialization, learning, and engagement. Most datasets are public opinion surveys. Also see voting & elections (for voter turnout and vote choice) and migration & citizenship (for immigration policy preferences).

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ORIGINAL PROJECT: U.S. Presidents' Positions on Roll Call VotesPres. J. Adams's Positions:
5th House 5th Senate
6th House 6th Senate

QUIZ YOURSELF: What are measures of association?

statistics that summarize the relationship between two variables

Answer: Hover over the box!More of this: Review Research Methods

Teach Political Analysis

Theory & Concepts:
The Essentials of Political Analysis, 6th Edition. Classic introductory text, clear writing, helps students learn, great ancillaries. More info.

Companions for SPSS, Stata, Excel & R. Practice with software of your choice.

MORE FOR TEACHERS: Sample Course Syllabi featuring our textbooks, varied software, with/without paper assignments

Review Terms for 5 Minutes - Pick chapters or just press play for quick study

Run Live R Demos in Browser - Excellent for online teaching

Links to More Resources for Teaching Political Analysis

Watch and Learn


Adding Slicers to PivotTable
Demonstrated with business data (14:01).

MORE VIDEOS: Lecture Videos for The Essentials of Political Analysis

Learn How-To Do It with Video Tutorials for R, Stata, SPSS, and Excel


How to Filter Using Numbers in Custom Range
From Excel4Business (1:28)

Blogs, Podcasts & Journals

Public Opinion Quarterly: .Publishes important theoretical contributions to opinion and communication research, analyses of current public opinion, and investigations of methodological issues involved in survey validity.

Politics, Groups, and Identities: .scholarship on social groups, exploring the politics of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, class and other dimensions of identity and structural disadvantage

Political Communication: .Features research at the intersection of politics and communication.

Int'l J. of Public Opinion Research: .A source of informed analysis and comment for both professionals and academics.

Political Psychology: .The journal of the International Society of Political Psychology, dedicated to the analysis of psychological and political processes.

See All Political Science Journals

Pol. Behavior Data Sites

Polling the Nations: .A large online database of public opinion polls.

GESIS: Data Archive for the Social Sciences: .national and international comparative surveys from the fields of social and political science research

European Social Survey: .The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically driven cross-national survey that has been conducted across Europe since 2001. Every two years, face-to-face interviews are conducted with newly selected, cross-sectional samples.

Public Religion Research Institute: .A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research at the intersection of religion, culture, and public policy.

UK Household Longitudinal Study: .Understanding Society is the largest longitudinal household panel study of its kind and provides vital evidence on life changes and stability. See data and documentation.

See All Public Opinion Surveys Data Sites

New Pol. Behavior Articles with Replication Data

Attacking the Weak or the Strong? An Experiment on the Targets of Parochial AltruismSimon Varaine; Ismaël Benslimane; Raul Magni-Berton; Paolo Crosetto (2023)