Dr. Maxwell Allamong
I am an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston. I use survey experiments, text analysis, and AI to understand how polarization has reshaped Americans’ attitudes toward people, parties, and politics.
Research
Do Prediction Markets Shape Public Opinion?
Working Paper
This study examines whether exposure to prediction market forecasts influences citizens' beliefs about electoral outcomes and downstream political attitudes. Using a pre-registered survey experiment, we test whether probabilistic information from prediction markets causes belief updating — and whether those updates persist.
"As prediction markets become increasingly prominent fixtures of electoral coverage, understanding their influence on public opinion is both a theoretical and democratic imperative..."
Non-Probability Samples and the Limits of Survey Inference
Political Analysis
We evaluate the conditions under which online convenience samples produce valid inferences for population-level claims, offering practical guidance for researchers using platforms like Prolific and Lucid.
Correcting the Record: Fact-Checks, Partisan Identity, and Belief Updating
American Journal of Political Science
A survey experiment examining how partisan identity moderates the effectiveness of fact-checking interventions, with implications for the design of misinformation correction campaigns.
Data Quality in the Era of Web Surveys: Diagnosis and Remediation
Public Opinion Quarterly
A methodological review of threats to data quality in online survey research — including self-selection bias, response bias, and bogus respondents — with a framework for diagnosis and best-practice recommendations.
Electoral Expectations and Turnout: Evidence from a Natural Experiment
Journal of Politics
Leveraging exogenous variation in pre-election polling forecasts, we estimate the causal effect of electoral expectations on voter turnout, finding evidence consistent with a demobilizing effect of lopsided forecasts.