Overall, this provides evidence that the coalition funding urban policing extends across municipal boundaries, organized less by exposure to the service than by defense of a racial-spatial boundary, and provides an opinion explanation why police budgets continue to be high in many urban cores.

We find symbolic concerns play a role: racial resentment strongly predicts support for police funding among all residents, while fear of racial change is a significant driver for white suburbanites. These symbolic variables persist in their predictiveness after controlling for demographics.

However, this partially reverses after controlling for demographics. Suburban willingness to pay for urban policing is partly explained by demographics, particularly ideology and age, but material self-interest, such as commuting to the city for work, is not a significant driver.

Through a divide-the-dollar game in a survey of six U.S. metros (N = 6,200), we tested the extent to which suburban residents support using their taxes to fund police in the urban core compared to core residents. Surprisingly, suburban residents are as or more willing to pay than urban residents.

Why would suburban residents use their taxes to fund policing in the city center? Two literatures generate divergent answers: one treats policing as a spatial public good whose support tracks direct benefit, another as an instrument of racial hierarchy whose support tracks group-position defense.

I recover little evidence of opinion backlash: a pro-climate decision moves norms but not beliefs, and an anti-climate decision moves neither. This is good news for the movement: activists can pursue climate cases with confidence such cases may help, and are unlikely to hurt, public opinion (end).

I randomized participant exposure to news about a climate change case similar to the one currently before the Court. I randomized exposure to a pro-climate decision, an anti-climate one, or a control group, differentiating between personal beliefs and social norms a la Tankard and Paluck (2017).

We are hiring at LMU Munich: two PhD positions and one postdoc on democracy, political psychology and computational social science. Start: January 2027 or as soon as possible. We review applications on a rolling basis until October 20. Details below. Reposts very welcome! 1/7