CPD CONTRIBUTIONS
Erik C. Nisbet is the Owen L. Coon Endowed Professor of Policy Analysis & Communication and director of the Center for Communication & Public Policy in the School of Communication at Northwestern University. His research lies at the intersection of communication, public opinion, and public policy in the areas of science, technology, and environmental policy, governance and elections, and international security. An expert on cross-national survey methodology and field experiments, Erik has led research projects in the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Turkey, Iran, France, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, and several Arab countries. His research has been supported by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of State.
Erik’s scholarship centers on three broad theoretical questions: 1) how strongly held partisan, national, religious, or ethnic identities bias the processing of media or persuasive messages and the consequences for policy attitudes and behavior, 2) causes and consequences of online information-seeking and expression in authoritarian and non-democratic contexts, and 3) how macro contextual factors interact with individual differences or behaviors to explain heterogeneity in communication processes and outcomes.
Recent Publications:
Nisbet, E.C., Hart, P.S., Myers, T., & Ellithorpe, M. (in press). Attitude change in competitive framing environments? Open/close-mindedness and framing effects about climate change. Journal of Communication.
Garret, R.K., Nisbet, E.C., Lynch, E. (in press) Undermining the corrective effects of media-based political fact checking? The role of contextual cues and naïve theory. Journal of Communication.
Nisbet, E.C. & Stoycheff, E. (in press). Let the people speak: a multi-level model of supply and demand for press freedom. Communication Research. doi: 10.1177/0093650211429117
Hart, P.S. & Nisbet, E.C. (2012). Boomerang effects in science communication: How motivated reasoning and identity cues amplify opinion polarization about climate mitigation policies. Communication Research., 39(6), 701-723 doi: 10.1177/0093650211416646
Nisbet, E.C., Stoycheff, E., & Pearce, K. E., (2012). Internet use and democratic demands: A multi-national, multi-level model of internet use and citizen attitudes about democracy. Journal of Communication. 62(1), 249-262 doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2012.01627.x
Fahmy, S., Wanta, W., & Nisbet, E.C. (2012). Mediated public diplomacy: satellite TV news in the Arab world and perception effects. International Communication Gazette, 74, 8 728-749 doi: 10.1177/1748048512459144
Nisbet, E.C. & Myers, T. (2011). Anti-American Attitudes as a media effect? Arab media, political identity, and public opinion in the Middle East. Communication Research. 38(5), 684-709 doi: 10.1177/009365021140564