Graeme Blair Livres

The book introduces the MIDA framework—Model, Inquiry, Data Strategy, and Answer Strategy—designed to evaluate and refine research designs in the social sciences. It offers a comprehensive toolkit for assessing observational, experimental, qualitative, and quantitative designs, addressing key properties like bias and precision. With a library of common designs and guidance on their strengths and weaknesses, this resource is invaluable for researchers at all levels. Online resources complement the text, making it an ideal choice for graduate students and advanced undergraduates.

A bold re-examination of how political attitudes change in response to information. Many mistakenly believe that it is fruitless to try to persuade those who disagree with them about politics. However, Persuasion in Parallel shows that individuals do, in fact, change their minds in response to information, with partisans on either side of the political aisle updating their views roughly in parallel. This book challenges the dominant view that persuasive information can often backfire because people are supposedly motivated to reason against information they dislike. Drawing on evidence from a series of randomized controlled trials, the book shows that the backfire response is rare to nonexistent. Instead, it shows that most everyone updates in the direction of information, at least a little bit. The political upshot of this work is that the other side is not lost. Even messages we don't like can move us in the right direction.

Introduces a Bayesian approach to the use of causal models to design and carry out qualitative and mixed-methods research. Addressed to researchers across the social sciences, this book shows how causal models allow us to combine extensive and intensive data strategies to answer both general and case- specific causal questions.