About

Andrew Engelhardt is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Vanderbilt University and holds a B.A. in Government from The College of William & Mary. Prior to joining Stony Brook, he was an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and held a postdoctoral research associate position at Brown University’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, along with an affiliation with The Policy Lab. His research utilizes insights from political psychology to understand how multi-racial liberal democracies like the United States navigate challenges related to fostering inclusion and addressing group-based inequalities. He investigates how individuals’ attitudes about social groups, particularly racialized groups, develop and change, and how these attitudes influence political opinions and decision-making. His current projects explore group-centric thinking in American politics, the ways in which people want children to learn about race and racism, and how pre-political philosophies about life give rise to ideological thinking.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Law
• Social psychology
• Psychology
• History

Selected publications

• Separate Effects of Correction Formats and News Source Trustworthiness on Beliefs in False Headlines in a U.S. Sample of Democrats and Republicans

  2026-02-11

  articleOpen access

  Restating false information before correcting it reduces beliefs more than correcting it with only true information. However, correction effectiveness may also depend on the trustworthiness of sources, especially in the polarized political environment of the United States. Across two experiments, we examined the roles of correction format and source credibility on beliefs in false news headlines. Samples of Republicans and Democrats tested online read both true and false social media headlines as well as corrections of false headlines attributed to media sources associated with different political and ideological leanings (e.g., Fox News, CNN). The first experiment found that reminder-based corrections were more effective than corrections without reminders at reducing false beliefs across partisan affiliation and news sources, so the second experiment only used a reminder-based correction format. In both experiments, Democrats initially believed false headlines more when it was attributed to an ideologically congruent (liberal) source than an ideologically incongruent (conservative) source, but Republicans did not show this difference. Corrections reduced false beliefs to the same levels within party regardless of sources. For Democrats, the magnitude of belief change was driven by the initial headline source and not the correction source. Republicans’ magnitude of belief change, in contrast, was relatively consistent regardless of the sources. Recognized corrections were consistently associated with reduced false beliefs. Collectively, these findings show how the memorability of corrections of false headlines is a key determinant of their effectiveness in improving belief accuracy, across the dimensions of partisanship and news source trustworthiness.

  PublisherDOI

• Separate Effects of Correction Formats and News Source Trustworthiness on Beliefs in False Headlines in a U.S. Sample of Democrats and Republicans

  PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) · 2026-02-10

  preprintOpen access

  Restating false information before correcting it reduces beliefs more than correcting it with only true information. However, correction effectiveness may also depend on the trustworthiness of sources, especially in the polarized political environment of the United States. Across two experiments, we examined the roles of correction format and source credibility on beliefs in false news headlines. Samples of Republicans and Democrats tested online read both true and false social media headlines as well as corrections of false headlines attributed to media sources associated with different political and ideological leanings (e.g., Fox News, CNN). The first experiment found that reminder-based corrections were more effective than corrections without reminders at reducing false beliefs across partisan affiliation and news sources, so the second experiment only used a reminder-based correction format. In both experiments, Democrats initially believed false headlines more when it was attributed to an ideologically congruent (liberal) source than an ideologically incongruent (conservative) source, but Republicans did not show this difference. Corrections reduced false beliefs to the same levels within party regardless of sources. For Democrats, the magnitude of belief change was driven by the initial headline source and not the correction source. Republicans’ magnitude of belief change, in contrast, was relatively consistent regardless of the sources. Recognized corrections were consistently associated with reduced false beliefs. Collectively, these findings show how the memorability of corrections of false headlines is a key determinant of their effectiveness in improving belief accuracy, across the dimensions of partisanship and news source trustworthiness.

  Publisher

• Validating Whites’ Reactions to the “Racial Shift”

  Journal of Experimental Political Science · 2025-03-12

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract A prominent paradigm demonstrates many White Americans respond negatively to information on their declining population share. But this paradigm considers this “racial shift” in a single hierarchy-challenging context that produces similar status threat responses across conceptually distinct outcomes, undercutting the ability to both explain the causes of Whites’ social and political responses and advance theorizing about native majorities’ responses to demographic change. We test whether evidence for Whites’ responses to demographic change varies across three distinct hierarchy-challenging contexts: society at large, culture, and politics. We find little evidence any racial shift information instills status threat or otherwise changes attitudes or behavioral intentions, and do not replicate evidence for reactions diverging by left- versus right-wing political attachments. We conclude with what our well-powered (n = 2100) results suggest about a paradigm and intervention used prominently, with results cited frequently, to understand native majorities’ responses to demographic change and potential challenges to multiracial democracy.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Some white folks: the interracial politics of sympathy, suffering, and solidarity

  Politics Religion & Ideology · 2025-09-11 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A racial reckoning? racial attitudes in the wake of the murder of George Floyd

  Political Science Research and Methods · 2025-08-27 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Abstract Did George Floyd’s murder and its ensuing protests produce a racial reckoning? Conventional social-science accounts, emphasizing the stability of racial attitudes, dismiss this possibility. In contrast, we theorize how these events may have altered Americans’ racial attitudes, in broadly progressive or in potentially countervailing ways across partisan and racial subgroups. An original content analysis of partisan media demonstrates how the information environment framed Black Americans before and after the summer of 2020. Then we examine temporal trends using three different attitude measures: most important problem judgments, explicit favorability towards Whites versus Blacks, and implicit associations. Challenging the conventional wisdom, our analyses demonstrate that racial attitudes changed following George Floyd’s murder, but in ways dependent upon attitude measure and population subgroup.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Sustaining corrected beliefs in false news headlines over time: The roles of correction format and recognizing corrections

  Memory & Cognition · 2025-08-06 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Exposure to false information on social media can erode the accuracy of beliefs and memory. These effects can be mitigated by issuing fact-checked corrections. Mounting evidence suggests that corrections improve belief accuracy the most when consumers recognize that a statement was earlier corrected. Two experiments examined this relationship further by testing whether correction formats vary in how they promote encoding and recognition of corrections as well as belief accuracy. To assess baseline beliefs, participants first rated the veracity of true and false headlines from the internet. Participants then read three types of corrections that all included veracity labels. Corrections showed only false headlines from the prior phase, only true headlines that contradicted false headlines from the prior phase, or false and true headlines, in that order. Finally, participants rerated the veracity of the original headlines and rated their recognition that headlines were corrected, both immediately after the correction phase and again after 1 week (Experiment 1) or month (Experiment 2). Corrections improved belief accuracy by lowering veracity ratings for false headlines, especially for corrections with false and true information. Highly confident recognition of corrected headlines was associated with durable improvements in rbelief accuracy, whereas less confident recognition was associated with less improvement and sometimes impairment. Corrections with false and true information led to the most high-confidence recognition of corrections. Collectively, these findings suggest that modifying correction formats to promote encoding and recognition of corrections can lead to sustained improvements and belief accuracy over time that counteract regression to false beliefs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Testing the stability and temporal order of People of Color <i>Identity</i> and People of Color <i>Solidarity</i>: New evidence from a survey panel of Asian, Black, Latino, and multiracial adults

  American Journal of Political Science · 2025-08-28 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Two crucial variables in the study of people of color (PoC) are identity and solidarity . Existing work construes identity as more stable than solidarity , with identity shifting solidarity between PoC. However, this view rests on cross‐sectional evidence, limiting researchers’ ability to formally appraise these key variables’ stability and sequence. We report the first longitudinal evidence on these matters by leveraging a unique two‐wave survey of Asian, Black, Latino, and multiracial adults. First, contrary to the current conceptualization, we find PoC solidarity is as stable as PoC identity , suggesting two alternate but durable sources of political unity among these groups. Second, consistent with its present conceptualization, we show PoC identity is associated with shifts in solidarity , but not vice versa. Third, we offer evidence that the dynamics between these variables hold uniformly across different PoC subgroups, highlighting this mega‐group's coherence and political relevance. We conclude by discussing our results’ implications for US inter‐minority politics.

  PublisherDOI

• From Protest to Child-Rearing: How Movement Politics Shape Socialization Priorities

  American Political Science Review · 2024-04-02 · 11 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract Classic political behavior studies assert that childhood socialization can contribute to later political orientations. But, as adults consider how to introduce children to politics, what shapes their decisions? We argue socialization is itself political with adults changing their socialization priorities in response to salient political events including social movements. Using Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests and race socialization as a case, we show the summer 2020 information environment coupled movement-consistent concepts of race with child-rearing guidance. A survey of white parents after the summer activism suggests that many—but especially Democrats and those near peaceful protest epicenters—prioritized new forms of race socialization. Further, nearly 2 years after the protests’ height, priming BLM changes support for race-related curricular materials among white Americans. Our work casts political socialization in a new light, reviving an old literature, and has implications for when today’s children become tomorrow’s voters.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Mass Public’s View of Implicit Bias, with Implications for Scientific Communication in a Politically Polarized Age

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-12-21 · 3 citations

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Correction Effects on the Perceived Accuracy of Fake News Headlines Over Time: The Critical Role of Recollecting Corrections

  2023-11-13 · 2 citations

  preprintOpen accessSenior author

  Fake news exposure on social media can diminish the accuracy of memory and beliefs. To mitigate these effects, social media sites issue fact-checked corrections. Competing theories propose that repeating fake news in corrections will either increase false beliefs by enhancing familiarity (familiarity backfire account) or reduce false beliefs by increasing co-activation and integration of real and fake details (integration account). Reductions in fake news beliefs also depend on the degree to which corrections promote recollection of their occurrence. In two experiments, we tested these accounts and examined the role of correction recollection in reducing the perceived accuracy of fake news headlines from the internet. Participants first rated the familiarity and accuracy of real and fake news of unclear veracity. Next, they read veracity-labeled corrections of fake news with only fake news details, only real news details, or fake before real news details. Finally, they re-rated the accuracy of real and fake news and rated their memory for corrections immediately and after a week (Experiment 1) or month (Experiment 2). On immediate tests, corrections with fake news, with and without real news, reduced accuracy ratings for fake news more than corrections with only real news. Fake news accuracy ratings regressed over time and remained lowest for corrections with both fake and real news. Such reductions depended on correction recollection, which occurred most for corrections with fake and real news. These findings are compatible with the view that including fake and real news in corrections promotes integration and subsequent recollection of corrections.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Allison P. Anoll

  Vanderbilt University

  16 shared

• Mackenzie Israel-Trummel

  Vanderbilt University

  14 shared

• Stephen Utych

  7 shared

• Stanley Feldman

  2 shared

• Marc J. Hetherington

  2 shared

• Joshua D. Clinton

  Vanderbilt University

  1 shared

• Paige L. Kemp

  University of North Carolina at Greensboro

  1 shared

• Marc Trussler

  Consortium for Policy Research in Education

  1 shared

Labs

• Political Psychology LabPI

Education

• Ph.D.

  Vanderbilt University

Awards & honors

• 2022 ISPP Roberta Sigel Award for a paper by early career sc…