UROP Research Mentor Project Submission Portal: Submission #1323
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
| Primary Research Mentor Name | Marli Dunietz |
|---|---|
| Research Mentor Preferred Pronouns | |
| When potential research assistants are reaching out via email, what is your preferred honorific? | |
| 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 |
| Headshot (optional) | |
| Research Assistant Supervisor (if different from above) | |
| Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Pronouns | |
| Research Assistant Supervisor Preferred Honorific? | |
| Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) | |
| Name of Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) (if applicable) | |
| Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Pronouns | |
| Other Faculty/Collaborator(s) Preferred Honorific? | |
| Contact Email (FSU Email if affiliated) | |
| 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. |
| Please provide a link to your publications, a video clip, or a website for your research project (if applicable): | |
| Please add any additional information here (if applicable): | |
| Are you interested in participating in the UROP Research Mentor Roundtable? | Yes |
| Roundtable times and Zoom links | |
| Roundtable Info |
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| 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 |
| Year | 2025 |
| update url | https://cre.fsu.edu/urop-research-mentor-project-submission-portal?ajax_form=1&_wrapper_format=drupal_ajax&token=TtTE8PgRKLdIQ1BD-tbX0Z_dfm147GxWmVYuXzkTvLo |