NICHOLE M. BAUER
I am an Associate Professor of Political Communication in the Department of Political Science & the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. My research examines how strategic campaign communication affects voters decision-making especially when voters are considering non-traditional candidates.
More specifically, my research agenda focuses on identifying the psychological underpinnings motivating political attitudes and behaviors. I focus on examining the influence of the news
media, campaign strategies, and other political institutions on how
voters behave. I incorporate theories and methods from psychology,
public opinion, and mass communication into my research. My work
has been published in the Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, and
Political Behavior among other journals. Read more here about my current
research projects.
My book, The Qualifications Gap: Why Women Must Be
Better than Men To Run for Political Office was published in 2020 at
Cambridge University Press, and won the Robert E. Lane Award from the
APSA Political Psychology section for the best book published in 2020.
The Qualifications Gap examines the underlying biases that affects how voters evaluate women during political campaigns. I show, using experiments, public opinion data and content analyses, that voters hold female candidates to a higher qualification standard compared to men. These higher qualification standards make it much more difficult for women to win elections, and contributes to women's under-representation. I published an article in the Journal of Politics outlining how the theory of shifting standards works, and the article won the Joseph L. Bernd award for the best article published in 2020 in the Journal of Politics.
I teach courses on political psychology, public opinion, and gender and politics. For more information about my courses please visit the teaching page. I also run the Gender & Politics Research Lab at LSU. The Lab provides opportunities for undergraduates to conduct original research in gender and politics including designing and conducting original experiments, collecting and analyzing observational data on women's representation, and designing and undertaking original content analyses. Students interested in working in the lab should email me.
When I'm not teaching or researching I enjoy traveling, baking, reading, sitting on the beach, and running marathons.