Current Projects

DIVERSITY AND SOLIDARITY

How do people think about their political community and the people who are part of it? My research focuses on how intergroup attitudes influence the types of policies people endorse. I am particularly interested in the activation of prejudicial attitudes and their effect on policy attitudes, especially related to redistributive policies and immigration, as well as conceptions of national identity and its interplay with racial, ethnic and immigrant-driven diversity.

This research has been primarily supported by grants from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR).

To learn more about my work in this area, here is some of my published work on this theme.

2025 Allison Harell, Keith Banting & Will Kymlicka. Inclusive Redistribution and Perceptions of Membership: A Cross-National Comparison. Comparative Political Studies. (firstview). https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140251342924

2025 Allison Harell & Christian Albrekt Larsen. Why are minorities poor? Cross-Atlantic explanations for poverty and public support for redistribution. Journal of European Social Policy, 35(3), 298-312. https://doi.org/10.1177/09589287251331567

2025 Christopher Alcantara, Allison Harell, Megan Kelly Payler & Laura Stephenson. Determinants of Attitudes Toward Indigenous Reconciliation Policies. Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. (firstview) https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2025.30

2025 Seyoung Jung, Allison Harell, Karen Neilsen Briedahl & Laura Stephenson. Race, Immigration Status, and the Nature of Government Interactions. Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. pp. 1-23 https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2024.31

2025 Linda Basile, Keith Banting & Allison Harell. Newcomers in Regions: Exploring the Impact of Regional Dynamics in Support for Inclusive Redistribution Across Europe. In Olivier Jacques and Alain Noel (eds). Territories of Inequality: How Federalism and Redistribution Interact. McGill-Queen’s Press, pp. 131-162.

2024 Irene Bloemraad, Allison Harell & Nicolas A. R. Fraser. Categorical Inequalities and Canadian Attitudes toward Positive and Negative Rights. Canadian Journal of Political Science. 57(2): 231-253. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423924000076

2024 Mia Carbone, Allison Harell & Stuart Soroka. Critical Race Theory: How Policy Language Differentially Engages Symbolic Racism and Partisanship. Perspectives on Politics. 22(3): 659-670. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592724000240 .

2023 Marco Mendoza Aviña, Vincent Arel-Bundock, André Blais, Rita De La Feria & Allison Harell. Outgroup Bias and the Unacceptability of Tax Fraud. Political Studies Review. 22(1): 223-231. https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299231162017

2022 Keith Banting, Allison Harell & Will Kymlicka. Nationalism, Membership and the Politics of Minority Claims-Making. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 55(3): 537-560. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423922000403

2022 Allison Harell & Robert Hinckley. Racial Attitudes and Opposition to Immigration. Cameron Anderson & Mathieu Turgeon (eds). Comparative Public Opinion. Routledge. pp. 331-348.

2022 Allison Harell, Will Kymlicka & Keith Banting. Boundaries of Generosity: Membership, Inclusion and Redistribution. in Markus Crepaz (ed.) Handbook on Migration and Welfare. Edward Elgar. pp. 102-117.

2021 Allison Harell, Keith Banting, Will Kymlicka & Rebecca Wallace. Shared Membership Beyond National Identity: Deservingness and Solidarity in Diverse Societies. Political Studies. 70(4): 983-1005 https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321721996939

2021 Allison Harell & Evan Lieberman. How Information about Race-Based Health Disparities Affects Policy Preferences: Evidence from a Survey Experiment about the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States. Social Science and Medicine. 277.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.113884

2021 Allison Harell, Robert Hinckley & Jordan Mansell. Valuing Liberty or Equality? Empathetic Personality and Political Intolerance of Harmful Speech. Frontiers in Political Science. 3:663858.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpos.2021.663858

2020 Keith Banting, Will Kymlicka, Allison Harell & Rebecca Wallace. Beyond National Identity: Liberal Nationalism, Shared Membership and Solidarity. In Gina Gustavsson & David Miller (eds.) Liberal Nationalism and Its Critics: Normative and Empirical Questions. Oxford University Press, pp 205-225.

2019 Nicholas Valentino, John Ishiyama, Stuart Soroka, Shanto Iyengar, Toril Aalberg, Raymond Duch, Marta Fraile, Kyu Hahn, Allison Harell, Marc Helbling, Simon Jackman & Tetsuro Kobayashi. Economic and Cultural Drivers of Immigrant Support Worldwide. British Journal of Political Science. 49(4): 1201-1226. https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/S000712341700031X

2017 Allison Harell, Stuart Soroka & Shanto Iyengar. Locus of Control and Support for Immigration in Canada, the US and the UK. Political Psychology. 38(2): 245-260. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12338

2016 Dietlind Stolle, Allison Harell, Stuart Soroka & Jessica Benkhe. Religious Symbols, Multiculturalism and Policy Attitudes. Canadian Journal of Political Science. 49(2): 335-358. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423916000561

2016 Allison Harell, Stuart Soroka & Shanto Iyengar. Racial Cues, Prejudice and Attitudes toward Redistribution: A Comparative Experimental Approach. European Journal of Political Research. 55(4): 723-744. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12158

2016 Stuart Soroka, Allison Harell & Shanto Iyengar. Heterogeneity in the Impact of Immigration on Social Welfare Spending. Gary Freedman (ed.) Elgar Handbook on Migration and Social Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 330-342.

2015 Allison Harell & Dietlind Stolle. Diversity and Social Cohesion. Steven Vertovec (ed.) Routledge International Handbook of Diversity Studies. New York: Routledge. Pp. 294-301.

2015 Dietlind Stolle & Allison Harell. The Consequences of Ethnic Diversity : Advancing the Debate. Ruud Koopmans, Bram Lancee and Merlin Schaeffer (eds.) Social Cohesion and Immigrant in Europe and North America. London: Routledge. Pp.105-122.

2015 Allison Harell. Measuring Outcomes: Youth and Interculturalism in the Classroom. Ricard Zapata-Barrero (ed.) Monitoring Interculturalism in Cities : Concept, Policy and Implementation. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., pp. 166-182.

2014 Allison Harell, Stuart Soroka & Kiera Ladner. Public Opinion, Prejudice and the Racialization of Welfare in Canada. Ethnic and Racial Studies. 37(14): 2580-2597. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2013.851396

2013 Shanto Iyengar, Simon Jackman, Solomon Messing, Nicholas Valentino, Toril Aalberg, Ray Duch, Stuart Soroka, Allison Harell & Tetsuro Kobayashi. Do Attitudes About Immigration Predict Willingness to Admit Individual Immigrants? A Cross-National Test of the Person-Positivity Bias. Public Opinion Quarterly. 77(3): 641-665. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nft024

2012 Allison Harell, Stuart Soroka, Shanto Iyengar & Nicholas Valentino. The Impact of Economic and Cultural Cues on Support for Immigration in Canada and the US. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 45(3): 499-530. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423912000698

2011 Allison Harell & Dietlind Stolle. Reconciling Diversity and Community? Defining Social Cohesion in Democracies. M. Hooghe (ed.) Social Capital and Social Cohesion: Interdisciplinary Theoretical Perspectives. Brussels: Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.

2010. Allison Harell, Elisabeth Gidengil, Stuart Soroka & Dietlind Stolle (guest editors). “Diversity and Democratic Politics.” Revue canadienne de science politique. 43(2).

2010 Allison Harell. The Limits of Tolerance in Diverse Societies: Hate Speech and Political Tolerance Norms Among Youth. Canadian Journal of Political Science. 43(2): 407-432. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423910000107

2010 Allison Harell. Political Tolerance, Racist Speech and the Influence of Peer Networks. Social Science Quarterly. 91(3): 723-739. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00716.x

ELECTIONS AND VOTING

I am interested in exploring how electors in Canada engage with electoral democracy, with a special interest in how political identities and group politics shape elections in Canada. I was a co-PI for the 2019, 2021 and 2025 Canadian Election Studies. I also co-direct (with Laura Stephenson) the Consortium on Electoral Democracy (C-Dem) which has overseen not only the CES studies for the past three election cycles, but also a provincial election study for each province in Canada as well as yearly Democracy Checkup surveys. These surveys are all publicly available through the C-Dem page at Harvard’s dataverse.

To learn more about my work in this area, here is some of my published work on this theme.

2025 Baowen Liang & Allison Harell. Understanding the Electoral Participation Gap: A Study of Racialized Minorities in Canada. Politics and Governance. Politics and Governance, 13, Article 9377. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.9377

2025 Allison Harell & Philippe Duguay. Les élections au Québec et Canada. Félix Mathieu, Paul May et Alain-G. Gagnon. (eds.) Politique canadienne et québécoise, 3e édition, Presses de l’Université du Québec, pp. 447-470.

2025 Christian Schimpf, Laura B. Stephenson & Allison Harell. Studying Voting Behaviour in Elections: Theory and Explanation. Tamara Small and Royce Koop (eds.) Elections in Canada: Peoples, Players and Processes, University of Toronto Press, pp. 189-202.

2023 Matt Polacko & Allison Harell. Racial Discrimination at the Polls? The Canadian Case of Jagmeet Singh” Politics, Groups and Identities. 12(4): 876–895. https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2023.2251651

2023 Holly Ann Garnett, Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau, Laura B. Stephenson & Allison Harell Contagious Elections: The Influence of COVID-19 on Comfort in Voting in Canadian Provincial Elections. Election Law Journal. 22(2). https://doi.org/10.1089/elj.2022.0062

2023 Laura French Bourgeois, Allison Harell, Laura Stephenson, Philippe Guay & Martin Lysy. Always a Bridesmaid: A Machine Learning Approach to Minor Party Identity in Multi- Party Systems. Statistics, Politics and Policy. 14(1) https://doi.org/10.1515/spp-2022-0009

2023 Laura B. Stephenson & Allison Harell. Blame, Hope, or Gratitude? Voting Decisions during the Pandemic. Regional and Federal Studies. 33(4): 441-461. https://doi.org/10.1080/13597566.2023.2189241

2023 Amber H. Lee, Allison Harell, Laura Stephenson, Daniel Rubenson & Peter Loewen. Motivated to Forgive? Partisan Scandals and Party Supporters. Political Psychology. 44(4): 729-747. http://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12882

2021 Laura Stephenson, Allison Harell, Daniel Rubenson & Peter Loewen. Measuring Preferences and Behaviours in the 2019 Canadian Election Study. Canadian Journal of Political Science. 54(1): 118-124.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423920001006

2020 Allison Harell, Dietlind Stolle, Philippe Duguay & Valérie-Anne Mahéo. Young People: Politics and Digital Technologies. Tamara Small and Harold Jansen (eds.) Digital Politics in Canada. University of Toronto Press, pp. 202-222.

2020 Allison Harell, Laura Stephenson & Lyne Deschatelêts. Public Opinion and Political Cleavages in Canada. Alain-G. Gagnon and James Bickerton (eds.) Canadian Politics, 7th Edition. University of Toronto Press. pp. 237-252.

2018 Philippe Duguay & Allison Harell. La communication interpersonnelle et la socialisation politique : L’école de Columbia à l’ère de Facebook. Anne-Marie Gingras (ed.) Histoire de la communication politique. Montréal, Presses de l’Université du Québec à Montréal, pp. 277-298.

2017 Allison Harell & Philippe Duguay. Les élections au Québec et au Canada. Alain-G. Gagnon and David Sanschagrin (eds). La politique québecoise et canadienne : une approche pluraliste, Édition 2, pp. 395-417.

2015 Allison Harell & Tania Gosselin. The Youth Vote in the 2015 Election. Canadian Election Analysis: Communication, Strategy and Democracy. Alex Marland and Thierry Giasson (eds.). UBC Press. pp. 118-119.

2015 Patrick Fournier, François Gélineau & Allison Harell. Les Systèmes d’Aide au Vote peuvent-ils être utiles pour l’étude des élections? Revue internationale de la politique comparée. 22(2): 117-146. https://doi.org/10.3917/ripc.222.0269

2014 Allison Harell & Lyne Deschatelêts. Political Culture(s) in Canada : Orientations to Politics in a Pluralist, Multicultural Federation. James Bickerton and Alain-G. Gagnon (eds.). Canadian Politics, 6th Edition. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, pp. 229-248.

2013 Allison Harell & Dimitrios Panagos. Locating the Aboriginal Gender Gap: The Political Preferences and Participation of Aboriginal Women in Canada. Politics and Gender. 9(4): 414-438. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X1300038X

2013 Dietlind Stolle, Eva Falk Pederson, Allison Harell & Pascale Dufour. Le « printemps érable » et l’élection québécoise de 2012. Frédérick Bastien, Éric Bélanger et François Gélineau (eds.) Les Québécois aux urnes: Les partis, les médias et les citoyens en campagne. Presses de l’Université de Montréal, pp. 267-280.

2012 Allison Harell. Revising the Ethnic Vote: Liberal Allegiance and Vote Choice among Racialized Minorities. A. Bittner and R. Koop (eds.) Change and Continuity in Canadian Parties and Elections. Vancouver: UBC Press, pp. 140-160.

2012 Allison Harell. L’Administration de la démocratie representative. Pierre Tremblay (ed.), L’administration contemporaine de l’État: une perspective canadienne et québécoise, Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université du Québec, pp. 333-350.

2011 Ellen Quintelier, Dietlind Stolle & Allison Harell. Politics in Peer Groups: Exploring the Causal Relationship Between Network Diversity and Political Participation. Political Research Quarterly 65(4): 868-881. https://doi.org/10.1177/106591291141109

2011 Allison Harell, Dimitrios Panagos & J. Scott Matthews. Explaining Aboriginal Turnout in Federal Elections: Evidence from Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. J. White, J.R. Peters, D. Beavon and P. Dinsdale (eds.) Aboriginal Policy Research : Voting, Governance and Research Methodology. Toronto:Thompson Educational Publishing, pp. 3-24.

GENDER AND POLITICS

Gender identities and gender stereotypes shape how we think about ourselves and our relationship to others. My work focuses on how gender shapes attitudes toward politics and the political system, from how we think about political competency to how women, men and gender diverse people engage in politics.

This work has included developing novel measures of gendered competition, implicit test of gender’s relationship to politics, and new measures of gender identity. To learn more about my work in this area, here is some of my published work on this theme.

2025 Quinn Albaugh, Allison Harell, Peter John Loewen, Daniel Rubenson & Laura Stephenson. Measuring Transgender and Non-Binary Identities in Online Surveys: Evidence from Two National Election Studies . PS: Political Science and Politics, 58(3): 406-412. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096525000137

2025 Chen, Philip, Melanee Thomas, Tania Gosselin & Allison Harell. ‘What’s Her Job?’ Agentic Women, Sexism, and the Consequences for Political Candidate Emergence. Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 46(1):73-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1554477X.2024.2359140

2025 Quinn Albaugh, Allison Harell, Peter John Loewen, Daniel Rubenson & Laura Stephenson. From Gender Gap to Gender Gaps: Bringing Nonbinary People into Political Behavior Research.” Perspectives on Politics. 23(1): 286-304. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592724000975

2023 Philip Chen, Melanee Thomas, Allison Harell & Tania Gosselin. Implicit and Explicit Gender Stereotyping in Politics. Canadian Journal of Political Science. 56(1): 209-221. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423922000890

2023 Joanie Bouchard & Allison Harell. Genre et populisme au Canada. In Frédérick Guillaume Dufour and Efe Peker (eds.) Populisme et sciences sociales: Perspectives québécoises, canadiennes et transatlantiques. Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa, pp. 263-284.

2023 Tania Gosselin & Allison Harell. Quels sont les impacts des stéréotypes en politique ? L’exemple du genre. Jean-Guy Prévost & Paul May (eds.) Problèmes politiques contemporains. JFD Éditions. pp. 45-54.

2022 Jordan Mansell, Allison Harell, Melanee Thomas & Tania Gosselin. Competition and Gendered Backlash: Failure, Sexism, and Consequences for Politics. Political Behavior, 44(1): 455-476. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-021-09724-8

2020 Melanee Thomas, Allison Harell, Sanne A.M Rijkhoff & Tania Gosselin. Gendered Mediation, News-Mediated Normalization, and Women as Heads of Government. Political Communication 38(4): 388-406 https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2020.1784326

2019 Melanee Thomas, Allison Harell & Tania Gosselin. Gender, Tone and Content of Premiers’ News Coverage : A Matched Comparison. In Alex Marland, Andrew Lawlor & Thierry Giasson (eds.) Political Elites in Canada. University of British Columbia Press. pp. 89-108.

2017 Allison Harell. Intersectionality and Gendered Political Behaviour in a Multicultural Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science. 50(2): 495-514. https://doi.org/10.1017/S000842391700021X

2017 Allison Harell, Stuart Soroka, Shanto Iyengar & Valérie Lapointe. Attitudes toward Work, Motherhood and Parental Leave in Canada, the US and the UK. In Amanda Bittner and Melanee Thomas. Mothers and Others. UBC Press, pp. 247-267.

2013 Elisabeth Gidengil & Allison Harell. L’appui des Québécoises aux partis politiques provinciaux. Frédérick Bastien, Éric Bélanger and François Gélineau (eds.) Les Québécois aux urnes: Les partis, les médias et les citoyens en campagne. Presses de l’Université de Montréal, pp. 205-218.

2010 Marc Hooghe, Ellen Claes, Allison Harell, Ellen Quintelier & Yves Dejaeghere. Anti-Gay Sentiment among Adolescents in Belgium and Canada: A Comparative Investigation into the Role of Gender and Religion. Journal of Homosexuality. 57(3): 384-400. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918360903543071

2009 Allison Harell. Equal Participation but Separate Paths?: Women’s Social Capital and Turnout. Journal of Women, Politics and Policy (formerly Women and Politics). 30(1):1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15544770802367770

2007 Elisabeth Gidengil, Allison Harell & Bonnie Erickson. Network Diversity and Vote Choice: Women’s Social Ties and Left Voting in Canada. Politics and Gender 3(2): 151-177. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1743923X07000013