UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1323 | Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement

Submission information

Submission Number: 1323

Submission ID: 21211

Submission UUID: 5eaa2e2c-e4b9-46d1-ad30-1cc72e236479

Submission URI: /urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal

Submission Update: /urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?token=TtTE8PgRKLdIQ1BD-tbX0Z_dfm147GxWmVYuXzkTvLo

Created: Fri, 08/22/2025 - 02:20 PM

Completed: Fri, 08/22/2025 - 02:21 PM

Changed: Tue, 09/02/2025 - 05:16 PM

Remote IP address: 144.174.212.6

Submitted by: Anonymous

Language: English

Is draft: No

Webform: UROP Project Proposal Portal

Submitted to: UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal

Research Mentor Information

Primary Research Mentor Name Marli Dunietz

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Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) mdunietz@fsu.edu

Position Title Graduate Student

Faculty Advisor Name Jens Grosser

Faculty Advisor's FSU Email jgrosser@fsu.edu

FSU College (if applicable) Social Sciences and Public Policy

FSU Department or Non-FSU Organization Affiliation Political Science

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Additional Research Mentor(s)

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Overall Project Details

Title of the Project Political discussion and information transmission under social pressure

Project Keywords behavioral economics, social norms, self-censorship, public opinion

Are you currently looking for research assistants? Yes

Number of Research Assistants Needed 2

Relevant Research Assistant Major(s) Economics, political science, computer science

Project Location: On FSU Main Campus

If the project location is off campus, does the research assistant(s) need to provide their own transportation? No, the project is remote

Please select the choice that most accurately describes your expectations for the research assistant(s): Partially Remote

Approximately how many hours a week would the research assistant(s) need to work? 8-10

Roughly what time frame do you expect research assistant(s) to work? Flexible schedule (Combination of business and outside of business. TBD between student and research mentor.)

Overall Research Project Description When citizens discuss their views on public policy with one another, they may not always be forthcoming about what they really think. Their willingness to speak up sincerely can depend on whether they believe others will agree and how they believe others will react (that is, will they be rewarded, punished, or neither?) At the same time, citizens tuning into the public conversation may try to "correct" for these distortions -- but we don't know much about how they do this. For instance, to what extent to they think others are merely trying to be politically correct? Do they think someone who didn't participate has no opinion, is hiding an unpopular opinion, or are they invisible? Mistakes of inference can happen on both sides, which can lead to falsely believing that the public is much more divided than it truly is, or that people agree much more than they truly do.

This project applies the tools of behavioral and experimental economics to investigate how social norms and social incentives influence what opinions people share, how other people interpret what they hear, and what we can do to help citizens learn about public opinion more accurately. The research assistant(s) will join an ongoing project in which ordinary citizens from around the US discuss public policy proposals and try to learn where others stand. In particular, we will explore the costs and benefits of encouraging highly personal styles of communication and more impersonal language, and how this affects perceptions of extremity and polarization.

Research Tasks The research assistant(s) will assist in analyzing data from group discussion experiments (text and/or quantitative). This will involve:
1) Reading the written (text) communication between study participants, and processing the text data into quantitative data that will then be analyzed using statistical methods.
2) Using LLMs (e.g. ChatGPT) to parse the text data and analyze the quality of arguments, similarity of arguments, emotional content of arguments

Skills that research assistant(s) may need: Required:
- native/fluent English language
- interest in American politics
- organization and motivation
- courage to ask questions and make mistakes

Recommended:
- familiarity with social science research methods
- familiarity with LLMs/AI

Ideal but not necessary:
- human subjects research ethics training (CITI certification)
- familiarity with coding in R and/or Python
- familiarity with text-as-data/natural language processing methods

Mentoring Philosophy While a few undergraduates who get involved in research come with a wealth of research experience and a list of goals in hand, others may be unsure what's possible to get out of a research apprenticeship. In my view, a mentor's role is to meet the mentee where they are, to guide the mentee to make, set, and accomplish their research goals, and to discover their potential as a member of a research team and as an independent researcher.

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Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable? Yes

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Roundtable Info

Day: Tuesday, September 2
Start Time: 4:00
End Time: 4:30
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/8311863175?omn=95439238945
Day: Thursday, September 4
Start Time: 2:30
End Time: 3:00
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/8311863175?omn=99074144140
Day: Wednesday, September 3
Start Time: 2:00
End Time: 2:30
Zoom Link: https://fsu.zoom.us/j/8311863175?omn=95439238945

UROP Program Elements

Mentor Handbook, FAQs, and Communication Yes

UROP Performance Evaluation Yes

Materials Grant Yes

UROP Poster Presentation Yes

Faculty Advisor Confirmation Yes

Are you interested in attending in a UROP Research Mentor Workshop Series? Yes

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Year 2025

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