Carey Stapleton

Carey E. Stapleton is a Lecturer in the Data Analytics and Computational Social Science (DACSS) program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, affiliated with the School of Public Policy. He teaches courses focusing on Survey Research and Survey Experiments. Dr. Stapleton holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Colorado-Boulder (2020), with research emphasizing Political Psychology, Emotions, Emotional Contagion, and innovative Political Polling methods.

His work explores how elite emotions influence public opinion, the role of personality traits in partisanship development, and the dynamics of affective polarization. Recent studies analyze the political consequences of anger propagation, the impact of optimistic personalities on political behavior, and methodological advancements in survey data collection via mobile technologies.

Stapleton’s research portfolio (2013-2024) spans topics like interpersonal persuasion networks, elite rhetoric, and quantitative modeling of voter psychology. He has contributed to pre-analysis plans for studies on political discussion networks and developed innovative polling techniques to capture contemporary voter sentiments. His work bridges computational social science with traditional political inquiry, emphasizing rigorous methodologies and real-world applicability.