The Different Effects of PAC Funding Refusal Based on Candidate Race and Gender. 

Dudley, Jennifer S.K. and Olivia T. Neff. 2025. "The Cost of Political Action Committee Funding: Evidence on Political Action Committee Funding Refusal Across Candidate Race and Gender." The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. Published online 2025:1-27. doi:10.1017/rep.2024.32

Research on campaign finance suggests that Americans prefer candidates who are not funded by Political Action Committees (PACs). However, prior research has not examined how perceptions of a candidate who is PAC-funded vs. PAC-free might differ for racial minority and female candidates compared to White, male candidates. Using experimental vignettes, we test the causal impact of PAC funding, race, and gender on voter perceptions of the candidate. We find that refusing PAC funds, for example, is associated with appearing more ethical and more likely to work for voters’ interests over special interests, less corrupt, and more capable of winning elections. However, we show that race, more than gender, interacts with PAC funding to impact voter perceptions. We find that White female and male candidates benefit the most from PAC refusal. While Black female and male candidates receive little or no significant change in perceptions, Black PAC-funded candidates are perceived favorably compared to White PAC-funded candidates. Our results have implications for White and Black political candidates considering their funding strategies. Additionally, we contribute to existing literature by showing that refusing PAC funds status does not signal the same qualities for all candidates. 

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Experimental Evidence for the Effects of Race and Negative Rhetoric on Voter Choice. (working paper)

In contemporary U.S. elections, political candidates increasingly engage in negative rhetoric. Research and polls have yielded contradicting evidence about the impact negative rhetoric has on favorability towards candidates. I argue that the contradiction exists because research has not yet identified whether Americans distinguish between types of negative rhetoric, such as critiques, insults, and lies. Such distinctions are important because different types of negative rhetoric could interact with other important status characteristics (such as candidate race) to impact favorability. This paper examines how Americans evaluate different forms of negative rhetoric, specifically distinguishing between critiques, insults and lies. Drawing on sociological insights into identity and behavior evaluation, I administered a conjoint experiment to over 3,000 U.S. adults across two samples (Cooperative Election Study and Prolific Academic, Ltd.). The study measures the effects of rhetoric that supports democratic discourse – critiques – versus rhetoric that harms democratic discourse – insults and lies. I find that respondents consistently prefer critiques to insults and lies. I further demonstrate the power of these distinctions by interacting negative rhetoric with candidate statement to show that when candidates resort to insults, differences in favorability emerge across racial categories. Specifically, favorability towards Asian and Latino candidates who insult their opponents increases but declines for Black and white candidates who do the same. These findings reveal that Americans distinguish between types of negative rhetoric and highlight flexible normative boundaries around insults, creating opportunities for certain non-white candidates to leverage uncivil behavior. I discuss the implications for understanding public perceptions of political candidates amidst partisan polarization and the nuanced role of race in evaluating political behavior.

Manuscript available upon request

The Impact of the 2023 SCOTUS Decision on Affirmative Action on Hiring: Spillover Effects from Higher Ed to Employment. (under review)

This chapter examines the spillover effects of the 2023 SCOTUS decision limiting race-conscious university admissions (SFFA v. Harvard/UNC) on broader employer hiring practices. Drawing on survey data from 505 human resources experts that was collected approximately one year post-ruling in summer of 2024, we find marked confusion regarding the ruling's applicability to workplaces. Specifically many employers—particularly those uncertain or mistaken about its scope—made precautionary changes to hiring processes, including sourcing, screening, and selection activities. These findings suggest a chilling effect, where a policy aimed at higher education prompted risk-averse behaviors that dampened corporate DEI efforts, well before the 2024 U.S. Presidential election. We argue that understanding these indirect, systemic consequences is crucial for P-20 educators, administrators, and policymakers seeking to navigate the anti-DEI climate and uphold equity commitments to stakeholders, as it highlights the profound interconnectedness between higher education policy and the wider employment landscape.

Manuscript available upon request

Civility in Congress: Demonstrating Organizational Change Through Automated Text Analysis. (working paper)

Do Congress members become more civil over the course of their tenure? I address this question using an automated text analysis of 35 years of the daily Congressional Record. My results reveal two conflicting trends. First, while older cohorts did increase their use of polite language, more recent cohorts do not increase their polite language over the course of their tenure. Second, older cohorts and men use polite language at higher rates than newer cohorts and women. However, women and newer cohorts use more prosocial language than men and older cohorts. These shifts reveal changes in both the relative value of traditional measures of civility and the limited power of organizational influence on member behavior in Congress.  

Manuscript available upon request

Creating Community through Informal Culture 

Dudley, Jennifer, Moshoula Capous Desyllas, Theresa Cisneros, Nayeli Perez, and David Boyns.  "Understanding the strengths and challenges of grandparent caregivers raising children and youth: Creating community through informal culture." The Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26408066.2022.2159778

Grandparents are increasingly finding themselves taking care of their grandchildren for various reasons, including their adult child’s incarceration, mental health issues, drug and alcohol addiction, or child abuse or neglect. The purpose of this mixed-methods needs-assessment research study was to highlight the caregiving experiences of custodial grandparents and to identify their unique set of needs, strengths, and challenges. Recruiting from a support network known as Grandparents as Parents (GAP), we invited grandparent caregivers to participate in surveys, focus groups and a photovoice project in order to identify the types of services they received, their unmet needs and their lived experiences in their role as a grandparent caregiver. Findings highlight the increasing number of custodial grandparents who create an informal community among caregivers to address their unmet needs. We advocate for a multi-disciplinary approach, including the implementation of formal kinship navigation services prior to the placement of children with their grandparents.

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A Tool Kit for Relation Induction in Text Analysis

Stoltz, Dustin, Marshall Taylor, and Jennifer S.K. Dudley. “Dictionaries and Distances: A Tool Kit for Relation Induction in Text Analysis.” Sociological Methods and Research. 

Distances derived from word embeddings can measure a range of gradational relations—similarity, hierarchy, entailment, and stereotype—and can be used at the document-and author-level in ways that overcome some of the limitations of weighted dictionary methods. We provide a comprehensive introduction to using word embeddings for relation induction, and demonstrate how such techniques can complement dictionary methods as unsupervised, deductive methods.

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