About
Allison Harell is a political scientist interested in the how social diversity affects the political world, especially the ways in which prejudice influences public opinion formation.
Drawing primarily on large-scale survey experimental research, Harell has analyzed many aspects of attitudes held about and by groups in industrialized democracies, and their effects on policy attitudes and political behaviour. She has been the principal and co-investigator on a number of large comparative studies (including the Canadian Election Study, the Comparative Youth Study, the Race, Gender and the Welfare State Survey and the Comparative Rights Survey) and has been at the forefront of developing experimental online protocols in Canada to measure the effect of group cues on public policy attitudes. Her current research focuses on how intergroup relations influence support for both economic and political solidarity, as well as how intergroup perceptions spill over into electoral politics.
Harell founded the Public Opinion and Political Communication Lab at the Université du Québec à Montréal and is associate director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship.
Awards
- Co-Director of the Consortium on Electoral Democracy (C-Dem), Social Science and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant, 2019
- Elected member of the College of New Artists, Scholars and Scientists, Royal Society of Canada, 2018
- Awarded the Eakin Fellowship at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, 2017
- Named the UQAM Research Chair in the Political Psychology of Social Solidarity, 2016
- Rotman Prize for Thesis Contribution to Understanding Public Policy in Canada, McGill University, 2008
Relevant Publications
Harell, A., Soroka, S., & Iyengar, S. (2017). Locus of control and support for immigration in canada, the US and the UK. Political Psychology, 38(2),245-260.
Harell, A. (2017). Intersectionality and gendered political behaviour in a multicultural Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 50(2): 495-514.
Stolle, D., Harell, A., Soroka, S., & Benkhe, J. (2017). Religious symbols, multiculturalism and policy attitudes. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 49(2), 335-358.
Harell, A., Soroka, S., & Iyengar, S. (2016). Racial cues, prejudice and attitudes toward redistribution: A comparative experimental approach. European Journal of Political Research, 55(4), 723-744.
Harell, A., Soroka, S., & Ladner, K. (2014). Public opinion, prejudice and the racialization of welfare in Canada. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 37(14), 2580-2597.