Joanne Miller

Professor, Political Science & International Relations and Psychological & Brain Sciences University of Delaware

  • Newark DE

Prof. Miller is an expert on political psychology, focusing on the causes and consequences of belief in conspiracy theories.

Contact

University of Delaware

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Media

Social

Biography

Joanne Miller, PhD (Psychology, The Ohio State University) joined the Department in January 2019. She teaches courses on research design, quantitative methods, political psychology, political propaganda, and misinformation and conspiracy theories. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trusts and has won awards from the following American Political Science Association sections: Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior, Political Communication, and Political Organizations and Parties. She has published in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, Public Opinion Quarterly and American Politics Research.

Industry Expertise

Political Organization

Areas of Expertise

Conspiracy Theories
Political Propaganda
Misinformation
Public Opinion
Polling
QAnon

Media Appearances

The QAnon Delusion Has Not Loosened Its Grip

The New York Times  online

2021-02-03

Millions of Americans continue to actively participate in multiple conspiracy theories. Why?

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Why Do People Turn to Conspiracy Theories During Times of Uncertainty?

Inside Edition  online

2020-10-30

The emergence of these inaccurate beliefs is giving new insight into how and why people turn to conspiracy theories as a way to cope during times of uncertainty, according to a new study conducted by political psychologist Dr. Joanne Miller.

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Three Tips for Talking to Believers in QAnon Conspiracies

NBC4 (Washington)  online

2020-10-22

“It requires us to be empathetic; to ask questions; to come at this with an open mind, or at least seem like you have an open mind,” said Dr. Joanne Miller, a psychologist at the University of Delaware who teaches courses on political propaganda, misinformation, and conspiracy theories.

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Articles

Putting the Political in Political Interest: The Conditional Effect of Politics on Citizens’ Interest in Politics

American Politics Research

2022

Given that political interest is one of the best predictors of political participation, it remains curious that the causes of interest are undertheorized and understudied. Notably absent from much of the research on political interest is an exploration of how variations in the nature of politics itself might have an impact on individual-level political interest. We develop a theory and a set of testable predictions about how partisanship interacts with the presence of a presidential (vs. midterm) election, the party of the sitting president, and elite polarization, to affect political interest.

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Are republicans and conservatives more likely to believe conspiracy theories?

Political Behavior

2022

A sizable literature tracing back to Richard Hofstadter’s The Paranoid Style (1964) argues that Republicans and conservatives are more likely to believe conspiracy theories than Democrats and liberals. However, the evidence for this proposition is mixed. Since conspiracy theory beliefs are associated with dangerous orientations and behaviors, it is imperative that social scientists better understand the connection between conspiracy theories and political orientations.

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Self-affirmation and identity-driven political behavior

Journal of Experimental Political Science

2022

Psychological attachment to political parties can bias people’s attitudes, beliefs, and group evaluations. Studies from psychology suggest that self-affirmation theory may ameliorate this problem in the domain of politics on a variety of outcome measures. We report a series of studies conducted by separate research teams that examine whether a self-affirmation intervention affects a variety of outcomes, including political or policy attitudes, factual beliefs, conspiracy beliefs, affective polarization, and evaluations of news sources. The different research teams use a variety of self-affirmation interventions, research designs, and outcomes.

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Education

The Ohio State University

PhD

Psychology

The Ohio State University

MA

Psychology

University of Richmond

BA

Psychology, Political Science

1991

Languages

  • English

Event Appearances

Ideological Symmetry in Conspiratorial Thinking

(2022) Stanford University’s Political Psychology Research Group  

The Structure and Antecedents of COVID-19 Conspiracy Theory Beliefs

(2021) University of North Carolina’s American Politics Research Group  

The Info-demic: The Rise of Conspiracy Theories and How Governments can Respond

(2020) APolitical  

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