Adam R. Panish

PhD Candidate
Stony Brook University
adam.panish@stonybrook.edu

Welcome! I am a PhD Candidate in the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University.

My research focuses on the psychological roots of public opinion - namely, how anxiety shapes support for social welfare programs by moderating political responses to both economic and non-economic threats. My work also spans topics in public opinion and political psychology such as the nature of political sophistication and the influence of ethnic diveristy on authoritarians' support for redistribution. Methodologically, I combine standard approaches like survey experiments with techniques for analyzing panel data like structural equation modeling.

My research has appeared in the British Journal of Political Science and Political Studies.

I am on the 2025-2026 academic job market!


Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

  1. Americans’ Responses to COVID-19 and the Conditional Role of Dispositional Needs for Security: A Replication and Extension. Conditionally Accepted. Public Opinion Quarterly. (with Trent Ollerenshaw and Joseph A. Vitriol).

  2. Polarized Attitudes and Anti-Democratic Orientation: Robust Evidence for Paradoxical Relationships Among American Partisans. Forthcoming. Political Studies. (with Ariel Malka, Christopher M. Federico, & Thomas H. Costello)

  3. Informed or overwhelmed? Disentangling The Effects of Cognitive Ability and Information on Public Opinion. 2025. British Journal of Political Science.

  4. Why Anxious People Lean to the Left on Economic Policy: Personality, Social Exclusion, and Redistribution. 2025. British Journal of Political Science. (with Andrew W. Delton)

  5. The Neurobiology of Political Ideology: Theories, Findings, and Future Directions. 2024. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. (with H. Hannah Nam)

  6. Big Five Personality and COVID-19 Beliefs, Behaviors, and Vaccine Intentions: The Mediating Role of Political Ideology. 2023. Social and Personality Psychology Compass. (with Steven G. Ludeke and Joseph A. Vitriol)

Under Review

In Progress


Teaching

Instructor of Record

Teaching Assistant