DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Interests

Research Interest(s): partisan bias in political thinking; political knowledge; education; causal mechanisms

Program Area(s): Methods; Experimental Methods; American Politics

Regional Specialization(s): United States

Subfield Specialties: Experimental Methods

Biography

Bullock studies the effects of partisanship on people's political views. Three questions motivate his work in this area: how can people make sensible political choices when they know so little about politics? When will partisanship dominate people's thinking about political choices? And to what extent does partisan polarization create or reflect bias in political thinking? With these questions in mind, Bullock's research speaks to concerns about "fake news," partisan response patterns in surveys, and the effects of position-taking by party leaders on the views of ordinary citizens.

Bullock's scholarly articles have appeared in many venues, including the American Political Science Review and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Bullock earned his doctorate in political science from Stanford. He was an assistant professor at Yale and the University of Texas at Austin before joining Northwestern as an associate professor in 2017.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS

• Bullock, John G. 2021. Education and Attitudes toward Redistribution in the United States. British Journal of Political Science.
• Bullock, John G., and Gabriel Lenz. 2019. Partisan Bias in Surveys. Annual Review of Political Science 22 (April): 325-42.
• Bullock, John G, Alan S. Gerber, Seth J. Hill, and Gregory A. Huber. 2015. Partisan Bias in Factual Beliefs about Politics. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 10 (December): 519-78.
• Bullock, John G. 2011. Elite Influence on Public Opinion in an Informed Electorate. American Political Science Review 105 (August): 496-515.
• Luskin, Robert C., and John G. Bullock. 2011. “Don’t Know” Means “Don’t Know”: DK Responses and the Public’s Level of Political Knowledge. Journal of Politics 73 (April): 547-57.
• Bullock, John G., Donald P. Green, and Shang E. Ha. 2010. Yes, But What’s the Mechanism? (Don’t Expect an Easy Answer). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 98 (April): 550-58.
• Bullock, John G. 2009. Partisan Bias and the Bayesian Ideal in the Study of Public Opinion. Journal of Politics 71 (July): 1109-24.