Sam Fuller
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Research

My research sits at the intersection of political behavior, public opinion, experiments, and machine learning methods for social science. Substantively, I study partisanship, polarization, anti-democratic attitudes, and political violence. Methodologically, I work on practical tools for experimental analysis, survey research, and causal inference.

Project links include articles, preprints, code, supplements, and replication materials where publicly available.

Forthcoming

Advanced Machine Learning for Experiments in the Social Sciences

Forthcoming Cambridge Element · with Jack T. Rametta & Christopher D. Hare

This Element introduces machine learning methods for balance testing, attrition detection, measurement, and treatment effect estimation in experimental political science.

Working draft

Publications

Attitudes Surrounding Fairness and Competition in Sports Predict Choices to Partisan Gerrymander

Political Behavior · with Hilary Izatt

Develops a sports-based battery measuring fairness and competitiveness and links those traits to support for partisan gerrymandering.

Article Replication

Affect, Not Ideology: The Heterogeneous Effects of Partisan Cues on Policy Support

Political Behavior · with Nicolás de la Cerda & Jack T. Rametta

Uses causal forests to examine heterogeneity in partisan cue effects and shows how affective attachments shape policy responsiveness.

Article Replication

Populism and the Affective Partisan Space in Nine European Publics

Frontiers in Political Science · with Will Horne, James Adams, & Noam Gidron

Maps affective party evaluations across European publics and examines how citizens’ affective ratings relate to party populism and ideology.

Article Replication

Assessing the Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccine Lotteries

PLOS One · with Sara Kazemian, Carlos Algara, & Daniel J. Simmons

Uses cross-state synthetic control methods to evaluate whether COVID-19 vaccine lottery programs increased vaccination uptake.

Article Replication

The Role of Race and Scientific Trust on Support for COVID-19 Social Distancing Measures in the United States

PLOS One · with Sara Kazemian & Carlos Algara

Examines how scientific trust shapes support for social distancing policies across racial and ethnic groups in the United States.

Article Replication

The Interactive Effects of Scientific Knowledge and Gender on COVID-19 Social Distancing Compliance

Social Science Quarterly · with Carlos Algara, Christopher D. Hare, & Sara Kazemian

Studies the interaction between scientific knowledge and gender in explaining COVID-19 social distancing compliance.

Article

The Conditional Effects of Scientific Knowledge & Gender on Support for COVID-19 Government Containment Policies in a Partisan America

Politics & Gender · with Carlos Algara & Christopher D. Hare

Analyzes how scientific knowledge and gender condition support for COVID-19 government containment policies.

Article Supplementary material

Research in Progress

Under Review

What Predicts Support for Political Violence? Results from a Machine Learning Meta-Reanalysis

Under review at AJPS · July 2026 · with Jack T. Rametta & Alexa Federice

Analyzes 54 datasets across the social sciences to identify predictors of support for political violence and related attitudes.

Preprint

The Changing Landscape of Democratic (Dis)Satisfaction: Results from the American National Election Study 1996-2024

Under review at BJPS · July 2026 · with Neil S. Williams & Jack T. Rametta

Uses ANES data from 1996-2024 to examine changes in democratic satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

Preprint

Policy or Partisanship? How Polarization Biases Valence Evaluations in the U.S., U.K., and Taiwan

Under review at BJPS · July 2026 · with Tzu-Ping Liu

Examines how polarization biases valence evaluations across three political contexts.

Preprint

Leaving Money on the Table: A Monte-Carlo Study Comparing Causal Forest and Standard Regression Models for Experiments

Under review at JOP · June 2026 · with Jack T. Rametta

Compares causal forests and standard regression models for experimental analysis using Monte Carlo simulations.

Preprint

Are Random Forests Still “Good Enough”? Tabular Prior-Data Fitted Networks for Predictive and Causal Tasks

Under review at Political Analysis · July 2026 · with Jack T. Rametta

Evaluates tabular prior-data fitted networks for predictive and causal tasks in social science data.

Preprint

More Than a Feeling: Theoretical and Empirical Gaps Between Out-Party Affect and Negative Partisanship

Under review at Political Psychology · July 2026 · with Alexa Bankert & Tabitha Lamberth

Clarifies theoretical and empirical differences between out-party affect and negative partisanship.

Working Papers

The Balance Permutation Test: A Machine Learning Replacement for Balance Tables

Working paper · with Jack T. Rametta · presented at MPSA 2023

Introduces a machine-learning balance test for experimental designs and motivates the accompanying MLbalance R package.

Preprint MLbalance

The Heterogeneous Influence of Democratic Attitudes and Electoral Advantage on Election Policy Attitudes

Working paper · with Hilary Izatt · presented at the New England Area Political Psychology Meeting

Incivility Spirals

Working paper · with Ryan D. Enos · presented at the Social and Moral Norms, Political Violence, and Threats to Democracy Workshop at Nuffield College, Oxford University

The Dangers of Calculating Conditional Effects: A Reevaluation of Barber and Pope (2019)

Working paper · with Jack T. Rametta · presented at MPSA 2024

Preprint

Rational Voting in the Age of Ideological Polarization & Responsible Parties: Examining Presidential Elections from 1972-2020

Working paper · with Carlos Algara & Jack T. Rametta · presented at SPSA 2026

All content by Sam Fuller, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0