3 students are sought for a project on “Tracing trends of cynicism and distrust in global survey data” with Prof. Jonathan Eastwood that will begin on 6/10/2024 and last for 10 weeks
Project Description:
I am beginning a new project on cynicism, people’s loss of faith in each other. A cynic, as I use the term, is someone who expects that others are out just for themselves (which, experimental evidence suggests, is generally not true of most people). Societies vary in how widespread such views and expectations are, and they matter because our own cooperation is often conditional on what we expect of others. As such, pervasive cynicism — even when sometimes justified by the behavior of some among us — potentially endangers common projects.
As part of my research, and beginning this summer, I intend empirically to trace trends in cynicism and distrust, across the United States and internationally, by making use of publicly available survey data (GSS, ANES, WVS, and other sources). This aspect of the project is basically descriptive. When, where, and for whom, we’ll ask, did cynicism and distrust begin to grow? Who, if anyone, seems resistant to these trends? Are there clear spatial, temporal, and/or network patterns in global cynicism? What are some of the key predictors of distrust and cynicism and how consistently are they predictive across time and space?
This summer, I hope to work with a team of 2-3 student researchers to explore some of these questions.
Prerequisites
Applicants should have completed social science coursework and previous R experience, preferably including exposure to the tidyverse suite of packages. You don’t need to be an R expert, but I won’t have time to teach you basics from the ground up, and you need to be enthusiastic about developing these skills as you’ll send most of your research time using them. You need to be comfortable working independently, detail-oriented and conscientious, and to know when to ask for feedback and guidance. If you have questions about your qualifications, don’t hesitate to reach out to me with an email (eastwoodj@wlu.edu).
Special Comments
Start date is flexible and something we can work out together, and the date I listed here is very provisional. I do expect student researchers to be on campus for the majority of the weeks in which we’ll be working together.
We’ll begin the summer with a few days of R review and reading some key relevant literature. But most weeks will involve 5 days of data work. The team will meet with me most days to check in but will spend most of the day working independently with survey data, focusing on tasks we establish together during our meeting. We will have weekly gelato sessions to take stock of how our week’s work relates to our broader goals for the summer.
Previous SRS students who have worked with me on projects like this seem to have developed strong data wrangling, visualization, and exploratory modeling skills. This summer will also include coverage of some challenges in measurement and in working with complex survey data.
Project Information
Estimated Start Date: 6/10/2024
Estimated End Date: 8/16/2024
Maximum number of students sought: 3
Contact Information: Prof. Jonathan Eastwood (eastwoodj@wlu.edu)