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 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) and serve as the New Hampshire campaign correspondent for Columbia Journalism Review.

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.

Publications

The Role of Social Networks in Influenza Vaccine Attitudes and Intentions Among College Students in the Southeastern United States. Forthcoming, Journal of Adolescent Health (with Jason Reifler and Sean Richey)

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

One Vote Out of Step? The Effects of Salient Roll Call Votes in the 2010 Election. Forthcoming, American Politics Research. (with Eric McGhee, John Sides, Seth Masket, and Steven Greene)

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)

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

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)

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)

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

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)

Current research

Passing the Bucks: The Congressional contribution network 1985-2006 (with Michael Tofias) [R&R at Social Networks]

Scandal Potential: How political and media context affect the president's vulnerability to allegations of misconduct [R&R at American Journal of Political Science]

The Party Edge: Consultant-Candidate Networks in American Political Parties (with Jacob Montgomery)

  • Media coverage

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

The Effects of Semantics and Social Desirability in Correcting the Obama Muslim Myth (with Jason Reifler and undergraduates from my PS 199AS class at Duke)


Courses taught

Experiments in Politics (Dartmouth College, Duke University)

The Presidency (Dartmouth College, Duke University)

Quantitative Political Analysis (Dartmouth College)

Political writing

brendan-nyhan.com (personal blog; 2004-present)
-Featured blogger, HuffPost Pollster (formerly Pollster.com)
-Featured blogger, Washington Monthly's Ten Miles Square blog
-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)

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

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

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