Ciera Hammond

My research interests include political communication, political psychology, electoral politics, and media. My current research explores the idea of credibility in party position taking. When parties send an individual to be the face of an issue, such as abortion or immigration, who do they choose to send and why? Furthermore, how are they received by the public? This research seeks to explain the source of their credibility in the eyes of the public. Is it a function of their identity, a function of bestowed credibility by party leaders, or both? 

​

My past research has explored political ambition, efficacy among young voters, personality and policy preferences, media coverage of candidates in presidential primaries, and the effects of media coverage on attitudes about the institution of the presidency.

​

I employ mixed methods in my research. Quantitatively, I specialize in survey research and design, as well as experiments. With respect to qualitative methods, I am interested in interviews and focus groups, in addition to photo analysis, text analysis, and content analysis.