Current Focus

Simon Chauchard’s current research focuses on three main themes:

• Causes and consequences of social media misinformation in the Global South. Building on prior research, he explores the prevalence of misinformation online, strategies to reduce misinformation or correct it, and the uses that parties make of social media (mainly WhatsApp) in India, as part of an ERC consolidator grant (starting January 2022).
  • Relatedly, Chauchard is a co-PI on one of the teams in the SSRC´s Mercury project, a large program at the SSRC to fight health misinformation. With Sumitra Badrinathan, Chauchard led the Bihar Information and Media Literacy Initiative (BIMLI), and the team conducted a large (N=14k) RCT about its effects. Find out about BIMLI here, here and here.
• Gender, Identity and “Proxy politics”. In another co-authored project (with Rachel Brulé and Alyssa Heinze), he explores limitations to the political influence of elected officials from disadvantaged groups in India’s rural institutions, and the dynamics that lead to the capture of this influence by more powerful local actors.
• Identity and Preferences for Redistribution. With Pavithra Suryanarayan, he explores preferences for redistribution among the Indian electorate, and the ways in which caste stratification prevents the emergence of a pro-redistribution majority.

Outputs

Peer-Reviewed Publications (and forthcoming…)

Book

• “Why Representation Matters: The Meaning of Ethnic Quotas in Rural India” (2017). Available at Cambridge University Press.
  • Read Anirudh Krishna’s review in Perspectives on Politics here.
  • Mark Schneider’s review on Georgetown’s India Ink here.

Articles and Chapters

• “Using MP3 Players in Surveys: The Impact of a Low-tech Self-Administration Mode on Misreporting and Bystanders’ Influence“, 2013,  Public Opinion Quarterly.
• “Can Descriptive Representation Change Beliefs about a Stigmatized Group? Evidence from Rural India“, 2014, American Political Science Review.
• “Disadvantaged Groups, Reservation and Political Dynasties in India”.  chapter in Democratic Dynasties: State, Party and Family Ties in the Indian Parliament, ed. Kanchan Chandra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• “Unpacking Ethnic Preference: Theory and Micro-level Evidence from North India”, 2016, Comparative Political Studies.
• “Electoral Handouts in Mumbai Elections: The Cost of Political Competition“, 2018, Asian Survey. Online appendix. BBCnews write-up on the article here.
  
• “What Costs So Much in Indian Elections? Intuitions From Recent Electoral Campaigns in Mumbai”. Book chapter.  in ‘Costs of Democracy’ (Eds. Milan Vaishnav and Devesh Kapur), Oxford University Press 2018
• “Getting Rich Too Fast? Voters’ Reactions to Politicians’ Wealth Accumulation in India”. With Marko Klasnja and S.P. Harish. Journal of Politics, 2019. Appendix.
• “Voter Information Campaigns and Political Accountability: Cumulative Findings From a Preregistered Meta-analysis of Coordinated Trials”. with Thad Dunning, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys, Susan Hyde, Craig McIntosh, Gareth Nellis and 24 co-authors. Science Advances, 2019.
  
• “Dilemmas & Challenges of Citizen Information Campaigns: Lessons from a Failed Experiment in India”. Joint with Neelan Sircar. Book chapter. In ‘Information and Political Accountability: A New Method for Cumulative Learning” (Eds Thad Dunning, Guy Grossman, Macartan Humphreys, Susan Hyde, Gareth Nellis and Craig McIntosh), Cambridge University Press, 2019.
• “Srinivasan, Political Worker or Kingmaker?”. Book chapter. Forthcoming in “Bombay Broker” (Ed. Lisa Björkman), Duke University Press.
• “Rethinking India and the Study of Electoral Politics in the Developing World”. With Adam Auerbach, Jennifer Bussell, Francesca Jensenius, Gareth Nellis, Mark Schneider, Neelanjan Sircar, Pavithra Suryanarayan, Tariq Thachil, Milan Vaishnav, Rahul Verma and Adam Ziegfeld. Perspectives in Politics, 2021. 
  
• “Do SC Reservations for Political Office Improve the Lives of Dalits?” With Francesca Jensenius. Forthcoming book chapter.
• “What Circulates on Partisan WhatsApp in India? Insights From an Unusual Dataset.“, with Kiran Garimella. Journal of Quantitative Description: Social Media (2022)
  
• “I Don’t Think That’s True, Bro!” Social Corrections of Misinformation in India, with Sumitra Badrinathan. International Journal of Press and Politics (2023).
  
• “Researching and Countering Misinformation in the Global South“, with Sumitra Badrinathan. Current Opinions in Psychology (2024).
• “Who Actually Governs? Gender Inequality and Representation in Rural India”. with Rachel Brulé and Alyssa Heinze. Forthcoming at the Journal of Politics. 
• “Misinformation and Support for Vigilantism: An Experiment in India and Pakistan” with Sumitra Badrinathan and Niloufer Siddiqui. Forthcoming at the American Political Science Review.
• “Collecting WhatsApp Data for Social Science Research: Challenges and a Proposed Solution.” with Kiran Garimella. 

Book Reviews

• Review of Chhibber and Verma’s “Ideology and Identity” here.
• Review (in French) of Chris Bail’s “Breaking the Social Media Prism” here

In Progress

Under Review

• “Leveraging Religion Against Covid-19: An Experiment in India”, with Sumitra Badrinathan.
• “WhatsApp Explorer: A Data Donation Tool To Facilitate Research on WhatsApp.” with Kiran Garimella. 
  
• “Inclusive Reforms as Levers for Social Exclusion: The Paradoxical Consequences of Quotas for Women in Rural India”. with Rachel Brulé and Alyssa Heinze.

Working Papers

• “Countering Misinformation Early: A Media Literacy Intervention for School Children in India.” with Priyadarshi Amar, Sumitra Badrinathan and Florian Sichart.
• “What Really Circulates on Indian WhatsApp? (Preliminary) Insights From a Data Donation Program.” with Kiran Garimella.
• “Family Norms, Gender and Vulnerability to Misinformation: An Experiment in India“, with Sumitra Badrinathan.
• “The Truth in Sharing: Dissecting the Dynamics of Misinformation Spread“, with Florian Sichart, Priyadarshi Amar & Sumitra Badrinathan.
• “Does the Style of Misinformation Condition Its Effect? An Experiment in Brazil”, with Rodrigo Fernandez Caba & Fernando Mello.
• “Discussion Rules Matter for Representation: Experimental Evidence from Rural India.” with Rachel Brulé and Alyssa Heinze.
• Redistribution in Ranked Systems: Experimental Evidence from India.
  
  • with Pavithra Suryanarayan. 

            Dormant Manuscripts

• “Is ‘Ethnic Politics’ Responsible for ‘Criminal Politics’? A Vignette-Experiment in North India”.
• “Social Media Workers and IT Cells in Indian Parties: a Survey in North India”.
• “Who Are “Brokers”? Low-level Party Officials and Their Role in Clientelism in Mumbai”.
• “Electoral Influence in Rural India: Evidence from a Cross-referencing Survey”, with Neelanjan Sircar.
• “Courting Votes Without Party Agents: Political Competition and Partisan Networks in Rural India”, with Neelanjan Sircar.

 Book Projects

• “Political Work: Electoral Brokerage in Mumbai Elections”, with Hanmant Wanole.
• “Proxy Politics”: Representation and Political Inequality in Rural India”
  • with Rachel Brulé and Alyssa Heinze.

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