News

What Makes College Students Support Disciplinary Action for Objectionable Speech?

A new study by Associate Professor Yphtach Lelkes and Professor Guy Grossman finds that U.S. college students oppose punishing objectionable speech unless it is highly harmful, and hateful speech against minority groups elicits stronger punitive responses than statements directed at white students.

• Political Communication
• Technology & Society

Annenberg Scholars Awarded Information and Democracy Research Grants from the Penn Center for Media, Technology, and Democracy

Sixteen members of the Annenberg community received support for information and democracy research projects.

Insults Get Attention, Not Results, for Some U.S. Lawmakers

A new study offers one of the most comprehensive analyses to date of how and why U.S. legislators deploy personal...

• Political Communication

Research Shows There Are No Easy Fixes to Political Hatred

A non-partisan team has found reducing polarization and “partisan animosity” is remarkably difficult.

• Political Communication

OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Google Vary Widely in Identifying Hate Speech

Doctoral candidate Neil Fasching and Associate Professor Yphtach Lelkes have found dramatic differences in how large language models classify hate speech, with especially large variations for language about certain demographic groups, raising concerns about bias and disproportionate harm.

• Technology & Society

Yphtach Lelkes Awarded 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship

Lelkes will study how political hostility is shaped in an overloaded information environment.

• Political Communication

In New Podcast Series, Annenberg Scholars Examine Election Politics

The first season of “Annenberg Conversations” will explore the cutting-edge research on media and communication that shape our world.

• Media Institutions

New Study Reveals Democrats and Republicans Vastly Underestimate the Diversity of Each Other’s Views

A new study by Annenberg researchers has found that Democrats and Republicans consistently underestimate the diversity of views within each party on hot-button issues like immigration and abortion.

• Political Communication

Unpacking Polarization

A Q&A with Annenberg Associate Professor Yphtach Lelkes, co-director of the Polarization Research Lab.

• Political Communication

A New Study Shows That Political Polarization Between Americans Stays Consistent Before and After Elections

Neil Fasching and Yphtach Lelkes of the Polarization Research Lab looked at the U.S. 2022 midterms and found the election didn’t spike political polarization.

• Political Communication