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10/31/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 10/31/2024 12:53

Brainiacs Episode 16: Election 2024

YOUTUBE MEDIA
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The Brainiacs series offers a monthly snapshot of the range of research underway at NYU, exploring its impact on health, society, and our understanding of the world around us. Here's what researchers have been doing to help make sure the November election is a fair one.

Ahead of the 2024 election and after reports of extremist militia organizing on Facebook, researchers from the NYU Cybersecurity for Democracy project have created a working group of experts to determine what social media platforms can do to address election integrity, extremism, and political violence. The recommendations also accompany suggestions from NYU Stern's Center for Business and Human Rights.

One important factor this election season: candidates' incumbency status. But its a phenomenon that's complex and difficult to study with observational data. John Kane, a professor at SPS's Center for Global Affairs, has studied the advantage incumbent presidents have in winning a second term but also how it can put the party at a disadvantage. How does that data play into the current election? Could be anyone's guess!

In a nation with a growing percentage of "party misfits," NYU sociologist Delia Baldassarri studies how the identities that make us feel different could bring us together.

"When we ask them about their close ties-people they talk to about important matters-more than one-third of respondents report that of the few people they talk to on a regular basis, at least one of them is a supporter of the opposite party," Beldassarri says. Here's how the data shows we're not as divided as media reports suggest.