Bio: Richard R. Lau is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and the director of the Research in Political Psychology Laboratory in the Department. He received a PhD in social psychology from UCLA in 1979. An expert in political psychology, public opinion, and voting behavior, Lau taught for ten years at Carnegie Mellon University before coming to Rutgers in 1990. 

Project Title: Does Informing Potential Voters Make for an Informed Vote?

Project Description:  If a democratic government is to represent the “will of the people,” then its citizens must share their views with elected leaders, voting for the candidate who most closely approximates the voter’s own preferences. But are most citizens up to the task, particularly in “off-years” when a presidential election is not on the ballot? We explore this question in the context of the 2025 New Jersey gubernatorial election. We will examine the effectiveness of interventions designed to provide voters with information prior to an election, testing how different types of interventions influence political participation, vote choice, the quality of voter decision making, political efficacy, and trust in government. Our study contributes to ongoing efforts from practitioners and political psychologists seeking to find the best ways for voters to retrieve and process candidate information. The findings will speak to two of the Rutgers Democracy Lab’s core components of increasing civic learning and democratic engagement.