Professor Kerri Milita published three articles in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. The first article, published in the Journal of Public Policy, examines how individuals’ perceptions of economic risk exposure shape their attitudes toward welfare spending by the government. This research marks an important contribution to the understanding of policy attitudes, particularly those that are oriented toward redistribution of wealth; namely, individuals’ actual and perceived levels of exposure to economic risk rarely align. And it is the perceived exposure to risk, rather than the actual that shapes one’s orientation toward redistributive spending by government.
The second article, published in Public Opinion Quarterly, looks at how individuals consume and share policy news. Her work finds that while individuals are more likely to read “negative” stories, they are more likely to share “positive” ones with their social network. This article plays an important role in understanding how people become informed about public policy and subsequently share that information and positive/negative tone with others.
The third article appears in Political Science Research & Methods and explores how gender impacts the sharing and receiving of political information. Namely, this study shows that women are more likely to be open to new political information from others, even when that new information may impede their decision-making (i.e. when it should be ignored). Whereas, men are less likely to listen to information shared by others, even when that information would have helped their decision-making (i.e. when it should be listened to). In short, this work suggests that when it comes to making up their minds on some policy or candidate, women may “listen to much” to others, while men may “not listen enough.”
