I am interested in how the public (especially the American public) forms attitudes toward foreign policy issues. I am especially interested in attitudes toward military security issues including casualties in war, attitudes toward terrorism, and more recently emergent security threats including grey-zone tactics, election interference, etc. I am currently engaged in a project on the impact of epistemic uncertainty on a variety of emerging security threats. The project examines the extent to which misinformation and uncertainty limit the public's ability to act as a check on foreign policy behavior. Methodologically, my research relies primarily on survey experiments as well as some reliance on observational survey data.

College of Arts and Sciences profile

Select Publications

Silverman, D., Kent, D., & Gelpi, C. (2022). Putting Terror in Its Place: An Experiment on Mitigating Fears of Terrorism among the American Public. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 66(2), 191-216. DOI.

Gelpi, C. (2010). Performing on cue? The formation of public opinion toward war. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 54(1), 88-116. DOI.

Gelpi, C., Feaver, P. D., & Reifler, J. (2009). Paying the human costs of war: American public opinion and casualties in military conflicts. Princeton: Princeton University Press. DOI.