Dept. Political Science

Univ. of Kentucky

Mark Peffley

I received my Ph.D from the University of Minnesota. I study public opinion and political psychology, mostly in the U.S. but also in a comparative context. Currently, I’m involved in three projects:  1) Jon Hurwitz and I are completing a book, Justice in America: Why Black and Whites See Separate Realities, that examines the sources and political consequences of the huge gulf in the way Whites' and Blacks' view the fairness of the criminal justice system, based on a national survey funded by the NSF; 2) Michal Shamir, Marc Hutchison and I are studying how changing threats to Israeli security over the last 30 years influenced Israeli citizens' political tolerance for various domestic groups on the right and the left; and 3) I am exploring the impact of news coverage of welfare policy to explain why welfare reforms in the late 1990s failed to improve public support for welfare.

My research has appeared in American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Communications, Political Research Quarterly and Public Opinion Quarterly. I coauthored and edited,
Perception and Prejudice: Race and Politics in the U.S. (Yale University Press), and I'm co-editor of the journal, Political Behavior, with Jon Hurwitz.

Areas of Specialization: Public opinion, mass media, racial attitudes and political tolerance

Recent Publications (see my Research Page)

Justice in America: Why Black and Whites See Separate Realities, (with Jon Hurwitz). Forthcoming, Cambridge University Press.

"Persuasion and Resistance: Race and the Death Penalty in America," (with Jon Hurwitz). American Journal of Political Science, 2007.

"Explaining the Great Racial Divide: Perceptions of Fairness in the U.S. Criminal Justice System," (with Jon Hurwitz). Journal of Politics, 2005.

"Playing the Race Card in the Post Willie Horton Era: The Impact of Racialized Code Words on Support for Punitive Crime Policy,"” (with Jon Hurwitz). Public Opinion Quarterly, 2005.

"Democratization and Political Tolerance in Seventeen Countries: A Multi-level Model of Democratic Learning,” (with Robert Rohrschneider). Political Research Quarterly, 56(3), 2003.

Current Courses (Spring 2009)

PS 681, American Political Behavior

Previous Syllabi

PS 473G -- Public Opinion

PS 475G -- Politics and the Mass Media

PS 711--009, Public Opinion and Political Communication

PS 474G--Political Psychology

PS 491--005, Political and Racial Tolerance

PS 271-002-Political Behavior (Spring 2002)

Contact Info (use email!)

1653 Patterson Office Tower
mpeffl@uky.edu
Phone 859 257-7033
Fax 859 257-7034