You’ll never guess what’s happening in the Columbia sociology department! Tune in at 2pm to find out.

I’ll be speaking 2pm, Thurs 15 Oct, at 509 Knox Hall (606 W 122 St) in the sociology department seminar.

The political impact of social penumbras

Andrew Gelman, Department of Statistics and Department of Political Science

The penumbra of a group is the set of people who know at least one person in that group. We conducted a survey to learn the size and characteristics of the penumbra for several groups that are relatively small in number but are associated with important political issues—groups such as gay people, Muslims, the unemployed, recent immigrants, and active military personnel. Using a two-wave panel study we find some evidence that entering a penumbra is associated with a changing attitude on related political questions. More generally, we see penumbras as a way of understanding the political relevance of small groups in the population. This work is in collaboration with Yotam Margalit.

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