John Holbein

About

John Holbein is an associate professor of public policy, politics, and education at the University of Virginia's Batten School. His research focuses on political participation, political inequality, democratic accountability, political representation, and education policy. Holbein is a Shannon Center Mid-Career Fellow, selected in the 2023 inaugural cohort, and his work has been published in prominent journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and Nature Human Behavior. His research has received support from two National Science Foundation grants. Holbein authored the book 'Making Young Voters: Converting Civic Attitudes into Civic Action,' published in 2020 by Cambridge University Press, which explores strategies to increase voter participation among young people. His work has been covered by various media outlets, including the Washington Post, Vox, New York Magazine, and NPR, and he has served as an expert witness in voting rights cases in several states.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Law
• Computer Science
• Social psychology
• Psychology
• Political economy
• Economics
• Gender studies
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• Making Young Voters

  2020 · 141 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  In 2016, 90% of young Americans reported an interest in politics. 80% intended to vote. Yet only 43% of people between the ages of 18 and 29 ended up actually casting a ballot. Making Young Voters investigates what lies at the core of this gap. The authors' in-depth, interdisciplinary approach reveals that political apathy is not the reason for low levels of youth turnout. Rather, young people too often fail to follow through on their political interests and intentions. Those with 'noncognitive'…

  DOI

• Do Street‐Level Bureaucrats Discriminate Based on Religion? A Large‐Scale Correspondence Experiment among American Public School Principals

  Public Administration Review · 2020 · 90 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Although public administration scholars have long studied discrimination on the basis of race/ethnicity , class , and gender , little to no research exists on whether street‐level bureaucrats provide differential services based on the religious identity of their constituents. This article reports the results from a large‐scale correspondence study of street‐level bureaucrats in the American public school system. The authors emailed the principals of a large sample of public schools and…

  DOI

• There is no liberal media bias in which news stories political journalists choose to cover

  Science Advances · 2020 · 85 citations

  Is the media biased against conservatives? Although a dominant majority of journalists identify as liberals/Democrats and many Americans and public officials frequently decry supposedly high and increasing levels of media bias, little compelling evidence exists as to (i) the ideological or partisan leanings of the many journalists who fail to answer surveys and/or identify as independents and (ii) whether journalists' political leanings bleed into the choice of which stories to cover that Americ…

  DOI

• Validated names for experimental studies on race and ethnicity

  Scientific Data · 2023-03-10 · 59 citations

  articleOpen access

  A large and fast-growing number of studies across the social sciences use experiments to better understand the role of race in human interactions, particularly in the American context. Researchers often use names to signal the race of individuals portrayed in these experiments. However, those names might also signal other attributes, such as socioeconomic status (e.g., education and income) and citizenship. If they do, researchers would benefit greatly from pre-tested names with data on percepti…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Does Voting Have Upstream and Downstream Consequences? Regression Discontinuity Tests of the Transformative Voting Hypothesis

  The Journal of Politics · 2020 · 49 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Voting is a central pillar of political science research; indeed, scholars have long addressed questions like, “Who votes?,” “Why do people vote?,” and “What interventions increase voting?” However, only a few have considered whether voting changes adjacent civic dispositions and behaviors. In this paper, we explore the effects of voting shocks on young citizens’ political interest, memberships, social awareness, and political knowledge in the lead up to the voting experience (“upstream”) and in…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jérôme Schäfer

  36 shared

• D. Sunshine Hillygus

  Duke University

  20 shared

• Charles Crabtree

  Pennsylvania State University

  20 shared

• Adam M. Dynes

  Brigham Young University

  10 shared

• Hans J. G. Hassell

  Florida State University

  8 shared

• S. Michael Gaddis

  Brigham Young University

  8 shared

• Marcos A. Rangel

  University of British Columbia

  5 shared

• William Copeland

  University of Vermont

  4 shared

Awards & honors

• Shannon Center Mid-Career Fellow (2023)

Similar researchers at University of Virginia

• Christopher J. Ruhmh-79
• Michael D. Williamsh-71
• Benjamin Castlemanh-67