Peer-Reviewed Articles

1.     Measuring age differences among opposite-sex couples: Across religions and 130 countries, men are older than their female partners." 2022. Population Studies. 76(3): 465-476. (with Stephanie Kramer, Anne Fengyan Shi, and Conrad Hackett)

Abstract: Cross-national studies of age patterns among couples have tended to compare the ages at which men and women first marry, but few have analyzed age differences between current spouses or cohabiting partners (i.e. partner age gaps). We address this gap in the literature by using recent census and survey data to analyze age differences between current partners in 130 countries. Worldwide, men are an average of 4.2 years older than their wives or cohabiting partners. However, age gaps vary by region, ranging from 8.6 years in sub-Saharan Africa to 2.2 years in North America. The religious group with the largest age gap is Muslims (6.6 years), while the smallest age gap is seen among Jews (2.2 years). Differences between Muslims and non-Muslims remain even after controlling for country-level gender inequality and per-capita GDP.

Link to article: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36165033/

2.     Measuring the size of the U.S. Jewish population: New estimates from a Pew Research Center survey of Jewish Americans." 2021. Journal of Religion and Demography. 8(1-2): 89-100. (with Conrad Hackett)

Abstract: This paper presents new estimates of the U.S. Jewish population based on a 2019–2020 Pew Research Center survey, which used a stratified address-based sample of all Americans to screen more than 68,000 respondents and complete full interviews with more than 5,800 adults who are Jewish or have some kind of connection to Judaism. We estimate there are about 5.8 million adult Jews living in the United States, including 4.2 million who identify as Jewish by religion and 1.5 million who are Jews of no religion. In addition, 1.8 million children live with at least one adult Jew and are being raised Jewish in some way. Altogether, about 7.5 million people, or 2.4% of the total U.S. population, are Jewish. We present population estimates for additional detailed categories of Jewish adults and children in Jewish households that are not available in any other recent source.

Link to article: https://brill.com/view/journals/jrd/8/1-2/article-p89_2.xml?language=en

Under Review

1.     The reputational penalty: How fact-checking can penalize those who spread misinformation. (with Annika Davies and Ethan Porter)

Abstract: Whether or not political leaders pay a price for spreading misinformation has profound implications for democracy. In this paper, we identify the conditions under which corrections of misinformation can penalize those who spread misinformation. We focus on abortion, a highly salient and polarizing issue that stands as a hard test for the persuasive capacity of fact-checks. Across three studies, we observe fact-checks improving accuracy and degrading attitudes toward political figures who spread misinformation. We take that as evidence that, if a fact-check follows, those who spread misinformation can pay a “reputational penalty.” However, we do not find that fact-checks affect policy attitudes. In Study 3, we show that the reputational penalty applied to political figures depends on participants' pre-treatment familiarity with the figure. These results have important implications for understanding how fact-checks can hold leaders accountable for misinformation. Fact-checks can penalize leaders for spreading misinformation – provided those who spread it are not well-known.

Link to article: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/kgtnb

Works in Progress

1.     Age and representation: The link between elected officials’ ages and their favorability.

2.     Election denialism and candidate favorability: Insights from survey experiments.

3.     "The lingering effect of religion: Does it matter that one in ten American adults identify as Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, or Mormon ‘aside from religion’?” (with Conrad Hackett and Besheer Mohamed)