Apr 3
Let's Talk Motivated Reasoning and Research Methods with Andrew Little '06
Fri, April 3, 2026
• 5:00pm
- 6:30pm (1h 30m) • Multicultural Center 019
Let’s Talk: Research Methods with Andrew Little ‘06
Friday, April 3 @ 5:00 p.m., MultiCultural Center - 019
Andrew is an Associate Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley.
Most of his current research falls into two (often overlapping) buckets. The first uses formal models and experiments to explore the causes and political consequences of biased beliefs. This work provides some ways to model motivated reasoning (wanting to believe certain things are true), selection neglect (not understanding the biases in observed information), and making simplifying assumptions. The second focuses on measuring and explaining democracy and democratic change, using a variety of methods.
His older research primarily used formal models to study topics like authoritarian politics, communication, information manipulation, discrimination, criminal justice, and conflict.
He earned a B.A. from Carleton College, and a Ph.D from NYU. He also taught at Cornell. He isalso an Associate Editor at the American Journal of Political Science.
Sponsored by the Harold Stassen United Nations Lecture Series
from Public Policy
Event Contact: Julie Buchwald