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.