#  Joris Frese (APRW) 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **February 3, 2026** 

 12:00PM - 02:00PM EST 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **CGIS Knafel room K354**  



 

 [ Join via Zoom arrow\_circle\_right ](https://harvard.zoom.us/j/99320596113) 

 



 

### Speaker & Title

Joris Frese, "Politicians as Opinion Leaders and Shifts in Policy Alignment Caused by Valence Events"

### Abstract

Negative valence events, such as political scandals, can shift the electoral fortunes of politicians dramatically. Nevertheless, political parties often retain ties to implicated actors. I argue and demonstrate that such collaboration is a losing strategy due to spillover effects. Besides directly damaging the actor and indirectly damaging the party brand, scandals also depress voters’ policy alignment even when proposals are unchanged. Survey experiments in Germany and the USA confirm this hypothesis and also show that positive valence events yield asymmetric, but smaller, gains. A follow-up module deploying randomized response techniques to mitigate social-desirability bias suggests two complementary mechanisms: genuine loss of influence, and social norm pressure that discourages policy alignment with a tainted actor. A real-world quasi-experiment in a least-likely case corroborates external validity. Finally, the implications of these findings are discussed in relation to theories of voter behavior and the political calculus of parties and policy entrepreneurs when faced with transgressive opinion leaders in their ranks.



 

The American Politics Research Workshop (Gov 3004) meets all academic year, Tuesdays, 12:00–2:00 PM, in CGIS K354. This workshop presents an opportunity for graduate students and Harvard faculty to present and receive feedback on their current research. The workshop highlights key theoretical and empirical findings from Harvard affiliates on topics related to American politics.

All interested Harvard affiliates are invited to attend. Lunch will be provided.



 

 



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