Martin Gilens

Work examines the psychological and sociological bases of public opinion and the impact of public opinion on public policy. Why Americans Hate Welfare (1999) is a much-cited landmark, synthesizing and contributing to scholarly literatures on the mass media, racial politics, and social policy by demonstrating that white Americans' attitudes toward welfare are shaped by misperceptions of black beneficiaries grounded in biased media portrayals of welfare recipients stemming from journalists' own professional values, perceptions, and work routines. Affluence and Influence (2012) provides the most detailed and authoritative study to date of the unequal political influence of affluent, middle-class, and poor Americans. Using an enormous data base of public opinion polls covering hundreds of policy issues over twenty-five years, he shows that the average policy preferences of these income groups sometimes differ substantially; that in cases of disagreement, actual policy is much more likely to track the preferences of affluent citizens than of poor or middle-class citizens, and that these apparent disparities in political influence vary by issue domain, era, and the proximity of elections.