Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Duke University in 2009 and served as a RWJ Scholar in Health Policy Research at the University of Michigan from 2009-2011.

My research focuses on political scandal and misperceptions about politics and health care. I also study social networks and applied statistical methods. My research has been published or is forthcoming in journals including Political Analysis, Political Behavior, Political Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Health, Medical Care, Public Choice, and Social Networks. (My publications and working papers are listed below; see my curriculum vitae or Google Scholar profile for more.)

From 2001-2004, Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer, and I edited Spinsanity, a non-partisan watchdog of political spin that was syndicated in Salon and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2004, we published All the President's Spin, a New York Times bestseller that Amazon.com named one of the ten best political books of the year.

I currently blog at brendan-nyhan.com (cross-posted at HuffPost Pollster and Washington Monthly), tweet at @BrendanNyhan, and serve as a media critic for Columbia Journalism Review. I've been called one of "a new breed of conscientious political science bloggers" who are "creating reputational hazards to seat-of-the-pants punditry."

Previously, I was a marketing and fundraising consultant for Benetech, a Silicon Valley technology nonprofit, and Deputy Communications Director of the Bernstein for US Senate campaign in Nevada. I grew up in Mountain View, CA and attended Swarthmore College.

Peer-reviewed publications

Beliefs Don't Always Persevere: How political figures are punished when positive information about them is discredited (pre-publication version). Forthcoming, Political Psychology. (with Michael Cobb and Jason Reifler)
-Replication data and code (Stata)

The Hazards of Correcting Myths about Health Care Reform. 2013. Medical Care 51(2): 127-132. (with Jason Reifler and Peter Ubel; lead article with accompanying editorial by Aaron E. Carroll)
-Replication data and code (Stata)

• Media coverage
  • -Sarah Kliff, Washington Post's Wonkblog (1/9/13)
    -Peter Ubel, Forbes (1/9/13)
    -Kyle Cheney, Politico Pulse (1/9/13)
    -Max Brantley, Arkansas Times (1/9/13)
    -Tony Shan, Duke Chronicle (3/21/13)
    -Cass Sunstein, Bloomberg View (4/15/13)

The Role of Social Networks in Influenza Vaccine Attitudes and Intentions Among College Students in the Southeastern United States (pre-publication version). 2012. Journal of Adolescent Health 51(3): 302-304. (with Jason Reifler and Sean Richey)
-Web appendix
-Replication data and code (Stata)

One Vote Out of Step? The Effects of Salient Roll Call Votes in the 2010 Election (pre-publication version). 2012. American Politics Research 40(5): 844-879. (with Eric McGhee, John Sides, Seth Masket, and Steven Greene)
-Replication data and code (R/Stata)

• Media coverage
  • -John Sides, Al Jazeera (3/5/12)
    -Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine (3/8/12)
    -Julian Pecquet, The Hill (3/8/12)
    -Sarah Kliff, Washington Post's Wonkblog (3/8/12)
    -Andrew Sullivan, Daily Beast (3/8/12)
    -California Healthline (3/9/12)
    -Peter Suderman, Reason (3/9/12)
    -Aaron Blake, Washington Post's The Fix (3/9/12)
    -Kaiser Health News (3/9/12)
    -Jeffrey H. Anderson and William Kristol, Weekly Standard (3/10/12)
    -Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times (3/11/12)
    -Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner (3/12/12)
    -Jennifer Harper, Washington Times (3/13/12)
    -Grace-Marie Turner, Forbes.com (3/14/12)
    -Stephen Hayes, Fox Special Report with Bret Baier (3/14/12)
    -Jonathan Alter, Bloomberg View (3/15/12)
    -John Wihbey, Journalist's Resource (3/21/12)
    -Paul Blumenthal, Huffington Post (3/22/12)
    -Carie Budoff Brown, Politico (3/23/12)

The Limited Effects of Testimony on Political Persuasion (pre-publication version). 2011. Public Choice 148(3-4): 283-312.
-Replication data and code (R/Stata)

The "Unfriending" Problem: The Consequences of Homophily in Friendship Retention for Causal Estimates of Social Influence (pre-publication version). 2011. Social Networks 33(3): 211-218. (with Hans Noel)
-Replication code (R)

• Media coverage
  • -Dave Johns, Slate (7/5/11)
    -Gina Kolata, New York Times (8/9/11)
    -Barbara R. Jasny, Science (8/26/11)
    -John Gregg, Valley News (10/30/11)

When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions (pre-publication version). 2010. Political Behavior 32(2): 303-330. (with Jason Reifler)
-Replication data and code (Stata)

• Media coverage
  • -"On the Media", National Public Radio (9/7/07)
    -Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post (9/15/08)
    -Shankar Vedantam, washingtonpost.com (9/15/08)
    -Kevin Drum, Mother Jones (9/15/08)
    -WUNC's "The State of Things" (9/18/08)
    -Christian Science Monitor (9/18/08)
    -Chuck Raasch, Gannett News Service (9/18/08)
    -"Tell Me More", National Public Radio (9/19/08)
    -"On the Media", National Public Radio (9/19/08)
    -Stuart Taylor, National Journal (9/20/08)
    -Bill Bishop, Slate (9/22/08)
    -Columbus Dispatch (9/22/08)
    -Andrew Romano, Newsweek (9/24/08)
    -Freakonomics blog, nytimes.com (9/24/08)
    -Edward Wasserman, Miami Herald (9/29/08)
    -Albany Times-Union (9/29/08)
    -Jonathan Chait, The New Republic (10/08/08)
    -Going to Extremes: How Like Minds Unite and Divide by Cass Sunstein (Oxford University Press, 5/13/09)
    -"The Conversation with Ross Reynolds", KUOW (NPR) Seattle (8/4/09)
    -Columbia Journalism Review (8/14/09)
    -Farhad Manjoo, Slate (8/17/09)
    -"KSCO Presents with David Coursey," KSCO Santa Cruz (8/18/09)
    -Gregory Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times (9/28/09)
    -On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done by Cass Sunstein (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9/29/09)
    -Joseph Vandehey, Daily Illini (12/2/09)
    -Mark Blumenthal, NationalJournal.com (3/8/10)
    -Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress (4/15/10)
    -Christie Aschwanden, Miller-McCune (4/20/10)
    -Jonathan Chait, Bloggingheads.tv (4/21/10)
    -Ben Goldacre, The Guardian (5/1/10)
    -The 7th Avenue Project, KUSP Santa Cruz (5/2/10)
    -Matt Steinglass, The Economist (5/5/10)
    -Daniel W. Drezner, The Spectator (5/8/10)
    -Jim Giles, New Scientist (5/12/10)
    -Sarah Ficocelli, la Repubblica (5/24/10)
    -Joe Keohane, Boston Globe (7/11/10)
    -Michael Smerconish, "The Michael Smerconish Program" (7/12/10)
    -"Talk of the Nation", National Public Radio (7/13/10)
    -Debra Black, Toronto Star (7/13/10)
    -Michael Kesterton, Globe and Mail (7/14/10)
    -Anna Shapiro, Guardian (7/17/10)
    -Jim Borden, Kalamazoo Gazette (7/18/10)
    -Ron Claiborne, ABC News (7/19/10)
    -Leslie Brokaw, Sloan Review (7/20/10)
    -"Whatever with Alexis and Jennifer," Martha Stewart Living Radio (7/21/10)
    -"The World Today", ABC Radio Australia (7/22/10)
    -Jason Murphy, Australian Financial Review (7/23/10)
    -Alan Williams, Ottawa Citizen (7/24/10)
    -Robert Jakubowicz, Berkshire Eagle (7/25/10)
    -Eric Deggans, St. Petersburg Times (7/25/10)
    -Barth Keck, New Haven Register (7/29/10)
    -Kevin Eisenmann, Medill News Service (7/29/10)
    -Keith Magill, Houma Courier (8/1/10)
    -Dave Stancliff, Times-Standard (8/2/10)
    -Joe Keohane, ABC Radio Australia (8/2/10)
    -A. Barton Hinkle, Richmond Times-Dispatch (8/6/10)
    -Ted Diadiun, Cleveland Plain Dealer (8/8/10)
    -Wendy Harmer, Sunday Telegraph Australia (8/8/10)
    -John Blake, CNN.com (8/9/10)
    -Jeffrey Weiss, Politics Daily (8/9/10)
    -"The Conversation with Ross Reynolds", KUOW (NPR) Seattle (8/11/10)
    -Jeffrey Weiss, Politics Daily (8/19/10)
    -Stan Layne, KPSI Palm Springs (8/20/10)
    -Eric Berger, Houston Chronicle (8/21/10)
    -James Poniewozik, Time (8/23/10)
    -Peter Grier, Christian Science Monitor (8/23/10)
    -Angie Drobnic Holan, PolitiFact.com (8/26/10; reprinted in the St. Petersburg Times 8/27/10)
    -"Here and Now", WBUR Boston (9/8/10)
    -Benjamin Spillman, Las Vegas Review Journal (9/10/10)
    -Paul Waldman, The American Prospect (10/12/10)
    -The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann, RT America (12/28/10)
    -Thom Hartmann Program, syndicated radio/Free Speech Network (12/29/10)
    -Burt Cohen Show, Portsmouth Community Radio (1/6/11)
    -Bill Moyers, History Makers (1/27/11)
    -Bruce Bartlett, The Fiscal Times (2/4/11)
    -Marcia Clemmitt, CQ Researcher (2/18/11)
    -Chris Mooney, Mother Jones (4/18/11)
    -Mark Blumenthal, HuffPost Pollster (4/28/11)
    -John Quiggin, Crooked Timber (5/13/11)
    -The Influencing Machine by Brooke Gladstone (W. W. Norton & Company, 5/23/11)
    -Sean Gonzales, Cape Cod Times (6/16/11)
    -Craig Silverman, Columbia Journalism Review (6/17/11)
    -"Radio Smart Talk", WITF Harrisburg (6/21/11)
    -Beyond Performance: How Great Organizations Build Ultimate Competitive Advantage by Scott Keller and Colin Price (Wiley, 6/21/11)
    -John Dickson, Sidney Morning Herald (7/9/11)
    -Mindhacker: 60 Tips, Tricks, and Games to Take Your Mind to the Next Level by Ron Hale-Evans and Marty Hale-Evans (Wiley, 9/6/11)
    -Nathan Pippenger, The New Republic (10/26/11)
    -John Gregg, Valley News (10/30/11)
    -Paul Waldmann, The American Prospect (11/1/11)
    -Ben Smith, Politico (11/2/11)
    -Beyond the Blogosphere: Information and Its Children by Aaron Barlow and Robert Leston (Praeger, 12/7/11)
    -The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption by Clay Johnson (O'Reilly Media, 1/18/12)
    -Jamelle Bouie, The American Prospect (2/6/12)
    -Trevor Thrall, The National Interest (2/9/12)
    -Bill Moyers, Moyers & Company (2/10/12)
    -Peter M. Nardi, Miller-McCune (2/14/12)
    -Paul Rosenberg, Al Jazeera (3/1/12)
    -David Graham, The Atlantic (3/13/12)
    -James Taranto, Wall Street Journal (3/13/12)
    -Henry J. Gomez, Cleveland Plain Dealer (3/24/12)
    -The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science--and Reality by Chris Mooney (Wiley, 4/10/12)
    -Martha Gill, New Statesman (4/26/12)
    -Guy Raz, NPR's Weekend All Things Considered (4/29/12)
    -Earl Lane, American Association for the Advancement of Science (5/8/12)
    -Ted Brader, Washington Post (7/19/12)
    -Craig Silverman, Nieman Reports (7/19/12)
    -Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holliday (Portfolio Hardcover, 7/19/12)
    -"The Conversation with Ross Reynolds", KUOW (NPR) Seattle (8/9/12)
    -Michael Cooper, New York Times (9/1/12)
    -Dylan Matthews, Washington Post's Wonkblog (9/10/12)
    -Cass Sunstein, New York Times (9/18/12)
    -Jim Giles, New Scientist (9/19/12)
    -Michael Scherer, Time (10/3/12)
    -Sheila Eldred, Discovery News (10/10/12)
    -"Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane", WHYY Philadelphia (11/9/12)
    -"Future Tense", ABC Radio National Australia (11/18/12)
    -Sam Fulwood III, Center for American Progress (5/7/13)

Bayesian Model Averaging: Theoretical Developments and Practical Applications (pre-publication version). 2010. Political Analysis 18(2): 245-270. (with Jacob Montgomery)
-Replication data and code (R/Stata) [7.3 MB]
-R package: readme.txt, Unix/Mac, Windows-32, Windows-64

Other publications

Does the US Media Have a Liberal Bias? A Discussion of Tim Groseclose's Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind. 2012. Perspectives on Politics 10(3): 767-771.
-Replication code (Stata)

Misinformation and Fact-checking: Research Findings from Social Science. 2012. New America Foundation Media Policy Initiative Research Paper. (with Jason Reifler)

• Media coverage
  • -Amy Gahran, Knight Digital Media Center (2/29/12)
    -Craig Silverman, Poynter Institute (3/1/12)
    -John Wihbey, Journalist's Resource (3/1/12)
    -Henry J. Gomez, Cleveland Plain Dealer (3/24/12)
    -Craig Silverman, Nieman Reports (7/19/12)
    -Jim Giles, New Scientist (9/19/12)
    -Reed Richardson, The Nation (1/4/13)
    -Jonathan Bernstein, Washington Post PostPartisan (2/5/13)

How Political Science Can Help Journalism (and Still Let Journalists Be Journalists) (local copy). 2011. The Forum 9(1). (with John Sides)

• Media coverage
  • -David Bernstein, Boston Phoenix (5/1/11)
    

Why the "Death Panel" Myth Wouldn't Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate (local copy). 2010. The Forum 8(1).
-Replication code (Stata)

• Media coverage
  • -Ed Kilgore, The Democratic Strategist (4/28/10)
    -The 7th Avenue Project, KUSP Santa Cruz (5/2/10)
    -Matt Steinglass, The Economist (5/5/10)
    -Andrew Sullivan, The Dish (5/7/10)
    -Marcia Clemmitt, CQ Researcher (2/18/11)
    -Chris Mooney, The American Prospect (6/13/11)
    -"Radio Smart Talk", WITF Harrisburg (6/21/11)
    -John Gregg, Valley News (10/30/11)
    -Chris Mooney, Alternet (2/22/12)
    -Paul Krugman, New York Times (2/27/12)
    -The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Deny Science--and Reality by Chris Mooney (Wiley, 4/10/12)

Party and Constituency in the U.S. Senate, 1933-2004. 2008. In Why Not Parties?, Nathan W. Monroe, Jason M. Roberts, and David Rohde, eds. University of Chicago Press. (with John Aldrich, Michael Brady, Scott de Marchi, Ian McDonald, David Rohde, and Michael Tofias)
-Replication data and code (Stata)

All the President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media and the Truth. Touchstone, 2004. (with Ben Fritz and Bryan Keefer)
-Amazon.com Best Books of 2004 (11/10/04)
-New York Times bestseller (9/5/04)

Current research

Scandal Potential: How political context and news congestion affect the president’s vulnerability to media scandal [under review]

• Media coverage
  • -Taegan Goddard, Political Wire (5/26/11)
    -NBC News, First Read (5/26/11)
    -Andrew Sullivan, The Dish (5/26/11)
    -Caitlin Dickson, Atlantic Wire (5/26/11)
    -Bart Hinkle, Richmond Times-Dispatch (5/27/11)
    -Staff, The Week (5/27/11)
    -Jim Newell, Gawker.com (5/27/11)
    -Andrea Shiell, Washington Examiner (5/27/11)
    -Staff, Daily Mail (5/28/11)
    -Laura Conaway, Maddow Blog (5/31/11)
    -Staff, Times of India (5/30/11)
    -Staff, NOWnews.com (5/30/11)
    -Ross and Burbank, KIRO Seattle (5/30/11)
    -Larry Sabato, Fox News (5/31/11)
    -Jason Linkins, Huffington Post (5/31/11)
    -Elspeth Reeve, The Atlantic (9/16/11)
    -Elspeth Reeve, The Atlantic (10/6/11)
    -KGO Noon News, KGO 810 AM (10/21/11)
    -Jonathan Alter, Washington Monthly (10/24/11)
    -Jonathan Alter, Bloomberg View (10/27/11)
    -John Gregg, Valley News (10/30/11)
    -Michelle Malkin, syndicated columnist (12/28/11)
    -Taegan Goddard, Political Wire (4/3/12)
    -Kyle Kondik, Sabato's Crystal Ball (4/5/12)
    -"On the Media", National Public Radio (4/13/12)
    -Krystal Ball, MSNBC's "Martin Bashir" (4/23/12)
    -Jamelle Bouie, The American Prospect (4/25/12)
    -Jonathan Bernstein, Salon.com (6/16/12)
    -Maria Armoudian, KPFK (10/28/12)
    -Harry Enten, The Guardian (2/12/13)
    -Paul Waldman, American Prospect (5/10/13)
    -Ezra Klein, Washington Post WonkBlog (5/13/13)
    -Nate Silver, Five Thirty Eight (5/13/13)
    -Elspeth Reeve, The Atlantic (5/13/13)
    -Harry Enten, The Guardian (5/13/13)
    -Andrew Sullivan, The Dish (5/14/13)
    -Jason Linkins, Huffington Post (5/14/13)
    -Paul M. Barrett, Business Week (5/16/13)
    -Nate Silver, Five Thirty Eight (5/16/13)
    -"Up with Steve Kornacki", MSNBC (5/19/13)
    -Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor (5/19/13)
    -Ari Shapiro, National Public Radio (5/20/13)

Connecting the Candidates: Consultant Networks and the Diffusion of Campaign Strategy in American Congressional Elections (with Jacob Montgomery) [under review]

• Media coverage
  • -Ben Smith, Politico (10/7/10)
    

The Effects of Semantics and Context in Correcting the Obama Muslim Myth (with Jason Reifler and undergraduates from my PS 199AS class at Duke) [under review]

• Media coverage
  • -Ben Smith, Politico (6/10/09)
    -Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress (6/10/09)
    -Hattie Garlick, Times of London (6/10/09)
    -Steve Benen, Washington Monthly (6/11/09)
    -Alex Koppelman, Salon.com (6/11/09)
    -Daniel Finkelstein, Times of London (6/13/09)
    -"On the Media", National Public Radio (7/3/09)
    -"The Jaco Report," KTRS 550 AM St. Louis (7/23/09)
    -Jeffrey Weiss, Politics Daily (8/19/10)
    -Stand UP with Pete Dominick, POTUS XM Radio (8/19/10)
    -Jamelle Bouie, The American Prospect (8/19/10)
    -Alexander C. Hart, The New Republic (3/29/11)
    -Chris Mooney, Mother Jones (4/18/11)
    -Craig Silverman, Columbia Journalism Review (6/17/11)

Opening the Political Mind? The effects of self-affirmation and graphical information on factual misperceptions (with Jason Reifler)

• Media coverage
  • -Walter Frick, The Atlantic (6/10/11)
    -"Radio Smart Talk", WITF Harrisburg (6/21/11)
    -Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress (9/12/11)
    -Ezra Klein, Washington Post (9/12/11)
    -Chris Mooney, DeSmog Blog (9/14/11)
    -Megan Garber, Nieman Lab (9/14/11)
    -Christopher Shea, Wall Street Journal Online (9/16/11)
    -Christopher Shea, Wall Street Journal (9/17/11)
    -Marty Kaplan, Huffington Post (9/19/11)
    -Peter Aldhous, New Scientist (10/29/11)
    -John Pavlus, Fast Company's Co.Design (1/3/12)
    -Felix Salmon, Reuters (1/9/12)
    -Shankar Vedantam, National Public Radio (5/9/12)
    -Robbie Schwartz, Walton Tribune (5/13/12)
    -Dave Berri, Freakonomics (5/24/12)
    -Reihan Salam, National Review Online (8/14/12)
    -Michael Scherer, Time (10/3/12)

Passing the Bucks: Partisan contribution networks and theories of congressional organization (with Michael Tofias)

Courses taught

Experiments in Politics (Dartmouth College, Duke University)

Political Misinformation and Conspiracy Theories (Dartmouth College)

The Presidency (Dartmouth College, Duke University)

Quantitative Political Analysis (Dartmouth College)

Political writing

brendan-nyhan.com (personal blog; 2004-present)
-Media critic, Columbia Journalism Review
-Featured blogger, HuffPost Pollster (formerly Pollster.com)
-Featured blogger, Washington Monthly's Ten Miles Square blog
-Crystal Ball column (10/6/11)
-Crystal Ball column (5/26/11)
-CNN.com commentary (4/28/11)
-Boston Review article (11/11/10) [with Eric McGhee and John Sides]
-New York Times op-ed (3/25/10)

Spinsanity (with Ben Fritz and Bryan Keefer; 2001-2004)
-Featured columnist, Philadelphia Inquirer (2004)
-Award of Distinction, 2003 Paul Mongerson Prize for Investigative Reporting on News Coverage
-Featured columnist, Salon.com (2002)

Previous experience

Marketing and fundraising consultant (2001–2003)
The Benetech Initiative

Deputy Communications Director (2000)
Bernstein for US Senate, Nevada

Resources for academics

Robert Peters, Getting What You Came For: The Smart Student's Guide to Earning an M.A. or a Ph.D.

Fabio Rojas, Grad Skool Rulz: Everything You Need to Know about Academia from Admissions to Tenure

Mike Munger, IHS essays and Kosmos podcasts on academic success

Emily Hanford, Don't Lecture Me: Rethinking the Way College Students Learn

Tom Carsey, What Makes for a Good Research Presentation

Phil Agre, Networking on the Network

Richard Hamming, You and Your Research

Phil Arena, Signaling Advice For Grad Students

Phil Arena, Things I Wish I Knew When I Started Out as a Professor

Cal Newport, Some Thoughts on Grad School

Don Davis, Ph.D. Thesis Research: Where do I Start?

Ira Glass on the gap between your taste and your work and how to close it

Journal editors on what makes a good review

Tyler Cowen on academic publishing

Chris Blattman, How to get a PhD *and* save the world

Paul Edwards, How to Give an Academic Talk

Ezra W. Zuckerman, Tips to Article-Writers

Philip J. Guo, The Ph.D. Grind: A Ph.D. Student Memoir

Karen Kelsky, Should I Do an Edited Collection?

Hugo Lindgren, Be Wrong as Fast as You Can

Eric Chown, Giving Computer Science Students Freedom

Tyler Cowen on the relative importance of incentives vs. where we are on the innovation curve

David Karpf, The Dissertation as Teacher

Robert J. Stenberg, Self-Sabotage in the Academic Career

Andrew Oswald, Things I would have found it useful to have been told when I was a young researcher

Assistant Professor
Dept. of Government
Dartmouth College

Ph.D., Duke University
Dept. of Political Science

305 Silsby Hall
HB 6108
Hanover, NH 03755

Curriculum vitae

Google Scholar profile

nyhan@dartmouth.edu