Jon Krosnick delivers public lectures
to general public audiences around the world.
to general public audiences around the world.
"A fascinating lecture - Everyone said they had a wonderful time and asked to keep having more lectures like this."
-Karni Chagal, Head of Strategic Affairs Division, Lexidale Foreign Law & Regulation Analysis
-Karni Chagal, Head of Strategic Affairs Division, Lexidale Foreign Law & Regulation Analysis
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Examples of Lecture Topics
Title: Asking Questions to Learn What You Want
Abstract:
Everyone's day is filled with asking and answering questions, and for some professionals, asking questions is at the heart of their work:insurance investigators, detectives, and, attorneys trying to learn how events took place,, human resources staff interviewing job applicants, journalists and debate moderators interrogating political candidates, and anyone designing a questionnaire for a survey. Sometimes, questioners hope to obtain a specific answer ("So shall I start preparing the paperwork so you can buy the car?"), and sometimes, questionnaires hope to learn the truth, whatever that happens to be. Fortunately, for 100 years, psychologists, linguists, and other scholars have been studying how different ways of asking a question can produce different answers, how some ways of asking questions distort people's answers, and how to ask questions to get the most accurate answers. In this lecture, Dr. Krosnick offers a fascinating journey into how we think and make decisions and how we communicate with each other, and how we influence each other even without realizing it.
Title Are American Elections Unfair? Exploring the Impact of Candidate Name Order
Abstract:
In 2000, President George Bush’s name was listed first on every ballot in Florida and won that State and the Presidency by the narrowest of margins. Was his victory the result of the order of candidates' names on ballots? Have the outcomes of many recent elections been influenced by name order? During this presentation, Dr. Krosnick will describe evidence showing that election results have been affected by name order for decades. His research illuminates the psychology of why and when name order to be consequential and when its effects on election outcomes are largest. In the end, audience members will gain insights into how voters think and make decisions and how seemingly trivial aspects of the way choices are presented to people in many contexts of life can subtly manipulate our behavior.
Title: What Americans Really Think About Climate Change
Abstract:
During the past two decades, many natural scientists have been frustrated by the lack of substantial government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transform America’s energy economy. And headlines on newspapers across the country have regularly blamed the American public: “Scientists and the American Public Disagree Sharply over Global Warming.” One U.S. Senator recently pronounced that the global warming issue is “dead” in the minds of Americans. Is it really true that Americans reject the opinions of natural scientists on climate change? And if not, what explains the lack of government action on the issue? In this presentation, Dr. Krosnick will describe findings of national surveys since 1996 illuminating what Americans do and do not believe on this issue and what they do and do not want to have done about it. Surprising results challenge many widely-held presumptions about public opinion, illuminate the increasing politicization of the issue, and help set the stage for understanding what may happen in the future on this issue.
Title: The Impact of Racism on U.S. Presidential Elections
Abstract:
With the nomination of the first African-American candidate for President by a major political party, the 2008 election made history, as did Barack Obama's victory. How much did racism influence the outcome of that election? To answer this question, a team of researchers from Stanford University worked with researchers at the Associated Press to design a national survey and used innovating approaches to illuminating the influences on voters' thinking. Racism was gauged both using traditional questions asking respondents explicitly to report how they would feel about a black more subtle measures of racism, including questions designed to tap unconscious opinions. During this presentation, Dr. Krosnick will illuminate how prevalent racism is in America and how consequential it was in the 2008 election. The findings have important implications for the present and future of race relations in America.