My current research and published work span American politics, political psychology, public opinion and political communication. I am particularly interested in how people resolve tension between their political orientations and their social identities and personal experiences when engaging in politics. 

Current Projects

Engaging Imperfect Partisans. Partisanship has a tremendous influence on political preferences and behavior in American politics. However, people are not perfect partisans. Most partisans disagree with their party on at least one issue or have a social identity that is more typically associated with the opposing party. In this project, I study how these conflicts influence political behavior, and potential interventions to help reduce the often aversive nature of political experiences for these individuals to help broaden political participation.

Information and Opinion Formation. In a series of papers, co-authors and I examine how the quantity, frequency, and tone of information about political events influences the extent to which people participate in politics, as well as how people form opinions about political issues and candidates. 

Medical Costs and Public Opinion. A majority of U.S. adults report that they have at some point experienced a medical bill they could not afford. In a series of papers, I examine how personal experiences with high and unexpected health care costs influence the attitudes individuals hold toward health reform policy and government involvement in the health care system.

Peer-Reviewed Publications

McCabe, Katherine T. 2022. "Can We Learn from 2012? Priming and Abortion’s Influence on Voting Decisions." Electoral Studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2022.102518

McCabe, Katherine T. 2022. "Variation in Public Support for Government Action on Unexpected Medical Bills." Accepted at the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

McCabe, Katherine T. 2022. “Spreading the Blame: Personal Experience and Attribution for Health Care Expenses.” Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2022.2113089.

McCabe, Katherine T. 2022. “Engaging Multiple Identity Frames in Political Discussion.” Politics, Groups, and Identities. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2022.2086473

Chen, Amanda and Katherine T. McCabe. 2022. “Roses and Thorns: Political Talk in Reality TV Subreddits. New Media and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F14614448221099180

Kolcak, Burcu and Katherine T. McCabe. 2022. "Public Opinion, Federalism, and Level of Governmental Intervention: Perceptions of Law Enforcement Response to the 2020 George Floyd Protests." Publius: The Journal of Federalism. https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjac009

Asbury, Victoria, Keng-Chi Chang, Katherine McCabe, Kevin Munger, and Tiago Ventura. 2021. "The Effect of Streaming Chat on Perceptions of Debates." Journal of Communication 71:947-975. jqab041 https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab041.

Kolcak, Burcu and Katherine T. McCabe. 2021. Federalism at a partisan’s convenience: public opinion on federal intervention in 2020 election policy. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 31(sup1), 167-179. https://doi.org/10.1080/17457289.2021.1924741

Ventura, T., Munger, K., McCabe, K., & Chang, K.-C. 2021. Connective Effervescence and Streaming Chat During Political Debates. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 1. https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2021.001

Walker, Hannah L., Katherine T. McCabe & Yalidy Matos. 2021. "Proximal contact with Latino immigrants and immigration attitudes." Politics, Groups, and Identities. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2021.1882315 

Funck, Amy S. and Katherine T. McCabe. 2021. "Partisanship, Information, and the Conditional Effects of Scandal on Voting Decisions." Political Behavior https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-020-09670-x

Feick, Lukas, Karsten Donnay, and Katherine T. McCabe. 2021. "The Subconscious Effect of Subtle Media Bias on Perceptions of Terrorism." American Politics Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X20972105.

McCabe, Katherine, Yalidy Matos, and Hannah Walker. 2021. "Priming Legality: Perceptions of Latino and Undocumented Latino Immigrants." American Politics Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X20959600

McCabe, Katherine T. 2021. “Variation in Perceptions of Sexual Identity: Partisanship and Personal Exposure.” Politics, Groups, and Identities. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2019.1674673.

McCabe, Katherine T. 2019. “The Persistence of Racialized Health Care Attitudes: Racial Attitudes among White Adults and Identity Importance among Black Adults. The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 4(2), 378-98. doi:10.1017/rep.2019.20.

McCabe, Katherine T. 2019. “Person-Positivity Bias, Social Category Labels, and Attitudes toward Gays and Lesbians.” Research & Politics. doi: 10.1177/2053168019858850.

Lerman, Amy E. and Katherine T. McCabe. 2017. “Personal Experience and Public Opinion: Assessing Conditional Policy Feedback.” The Journal of Politics 79(2): 624-41. https://doi.org/10.1086/689286

Mendelberg, Tali, Katherine T. McCabe, and Adam Thal. 2017. “College Socialization and the Economic Views of Affluent Americans.” American Journal of Political Science 61(3): 606-23. doi: 10.1111/ajps.12265.  

McCabe, Katherine T. 2016. “Attitude Responsiveness and Partisan Bias: Direct Experience with the Affordable Care Act.” 2016. Political Behavior 38(4): 861-82. doi: 10.1007/s11109-016-9337-9.

Lerman, Amy E., Katherine T. McCabe, and Meredith L  Sadin. 2015. “Political Ideology, Skin Tone, and the Psychology of Candidate Evaluations.” Public Opinion Quarterly 79(1): 53-90. doi: 10.1093/poq/nfu055.

Hopkins, Daniel J. and Katherine T. McCabe. 2012. “After It's Too Late: Estimating the Policy Impacts of Black Mayoralties in U.S. Cities.” American Politics Research 40(4): 665-700. doi: 10.1177/1532673X11432469.