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Department of Political Science

Cindy D. Kam

Professor
William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair
Director, Research on Individuals, Politics & Society Lab
Professor of Psychology and Human Development (by courtesy)

Professor Kam received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2003. Her research focuses on political psychology, public opinion, political participation, and political methodology.  Her work has appeared in the Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Political Behavior, among other outlets, and she has published two books: Us Against Them: Ethnocentric Foundations of American Opinion, co-authored with Donald R. Kinder, and Modeling and Interpreting Interactive Hypotheses in Regression Analysis, co-authored with Robert J. Franzese, Jr.. She received the Best Dissertation in Political Psychology award in 2004, the Pi Sigma Alpha award for Best Paper Presented at the Midwest Political Science Association in 2006, and the award for the Best Paper Published in the Journal of Politics in 2009. In 2011, she was awarded the Emerging Scholar Award from the Elections, Voting Behavior, and Public Opinion Section of the American Political Science Association and the Erik H. Erikson Award from the International Society of Political Psychology.  She teaches courses on public opinion, political psychology, and research methods, and she regularly co-authors papers with graduate students.

 

Featured Media

TEDx Nashville: “The Hidden Power of Disgust.”  A TED.com featured talk.

Search Engine with PJ Vogt, podcast.  “Do Political Yard Signs Actually Do Anything?”

 

Representative publications

  • Anoll, Allison P., Cindy D. Kam, and Colette Marcellin.  2025.  “What Does Race Mean? Racial Disparities in the Public Mind.”  Journal of Politics.
  • Kim, Eunji and Cindy D. Kam.  2023.  “Othering in Everyday Life: Anti-Chinese Bias in the COVID-19 Pandemic.”  Public Opinion Quarterly 87(3): 733-748.  
  • Kam, Cindy D., Sara M. Kirshbaum, and Lauren M. Chojnacki.  2023.  “Babies and Ballots: Timing of Childbirth and Voter Turnout.”  Journal of Politics 85(1): 314-319.
  • Archer, Allison M.N. and Cindy D. Kam.  2022. “She is the Chair(man): Gender, Language, and Leadership.”  Leadership Quarterly 33(6): 101610.
  • Kam, Cindy D. and Maggie Deichert.  2020.  “Boycotts, Buycotts, and the Psychology of Political Consumerism.”  Journal of Politics 82(1): 72-88.
  • Kam, Cindy D.   2020.  “‘And Why Is That a Partisan Issue?’ Source Cues, Persuasion, and School Lunches.”   Journal of Politics 82(1): 361-366.
  • View Curriculum Vitae