Dr. KEVIN MULLINIX
- Associate Professor, Political Science
- Undergraduate Director
Contact Info
Lawrence
Biography —
Kevin Mullinix is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Kansas. His research is broadly focused on public opinion, political communication, and public policy in the United States.
Education —
Research —
Professor Mullinix has published multiple peer-reviewed articles on partisan polarization, criminal justice, research methods, and political communication. His recent co-authored book, The Politics of Innocence, demonstrates how information about wrongful convictions transforms public opinion. It highlights the power of narratives about the wrongfully convicted to profoundly alter people’s attitudes and isolates messaging strategies that garner support for reforms designed to reduce the likelihood of wrongful convictions.
Underlying his research a passion for understanding why people have the opinions they do and the role of public opinion in a representative democracy. His scholarship is increasingly focused on the challenges to and importance of addressing partisan divisions in society.
Teaching —
Professor Mullinix is passionate about teaching and strives to find innovative and effective ways to help students develop critical thinking skills with respect to public opinion and public policy.
He teaches courses on U.S. politics, public opinion, political psychology, public policy, surveys and experiments, political behavior, conspiracy theories, research design, and capstone research.
Selected Publications —
Brophy, Nathan, and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2024. “Partisan Motivated Empathy and Policy Attitudes.” Political Behavior 46(3): 1701-1723.
Norris, Robert J., William D. Hicks, and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2023. The Politics of Innocence: How Wrongful Convictions Shape Public Opinion. New York, NYU Press.
Caton, Cora, and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2023. “Partisanship and Support for Restricting the Civil Liberties of Suspected Terrorists.” Political Behavior 45: 1421-1445.
Mullinix, Kevin J., and Trent Lythgoe. 2023. "Priming Norms to Combat Polarization." Political Research Quarterly 76(1): 186-199.
Hicks, William D., Kevin J. Mullinix, and Robert J. Norris. 2021. “The Politics of Wrongful Conviction Legislation.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 21(3): 306-325.
Mullinix, Kevin J., Toby Bolsen, and Robert J. Norris. 2021. “The Feedback Effects of Controversial Police Use of Force.” Political Behavior 43: 881-898.
Norris, Robert J. and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2020. “Framing Innocence: An Experimental Test of Wrongful Convictions and Public Opinion.” Journal of Experimental Criminology 16: 311-334.
Mullinix, Kevin J. and Robert J. Norris. 2019. “Pulled-Over Rates, Causal Attributions, and Trust in Police.” Political Research Quarterly 72(2): 420-434.
Chong, Dennis and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2019. “Information and Issue Constraints on the Influence of Partisan Cues.” American Politics Research 47(6): 1209-1238.
Kernell, Georgia and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2019. “Winners, Losers, and Perceptions of Vote (Mis)Counting.” International Journal of Public Opinion Research 31(1): 1-24.
Coppock, Alexander, Thomas J. Leeper, and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2018. “The Generalizability of Heterogeneous Treatment Effect Estimates Across Samples.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115(49): 12441-12446.
Mullinix, Kevin J. 2018. “Civic Duty and Political Preference Formation.” Political Research Quarterly. 71(1): 199-214.
Mullinix, Kevin J. 2016. “Partisanship and Preference Formation: Elite Polarization, Issue Importance, and Competing Motivations.” Political Behavior. 38(2): 383-411.
Robison, Joshua and Kevin J. Mullinix. 2016. “Elite Polarization and Public Opinion: How Polarization is Communicated and its Effects.” Political Communication. 33(2): 261-282.
Mullinix, Kevin J., Thomas J. Leeper, Jeremy Freese, and James N. Druckman. 2015. “The Generalizability of Survey Experiments.” Journal of Experimental Political Science. 2(2): 109-138.
Awards & Honors —
Gene A. Budig Teaching Award, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Kansas, 2025.
Washburn University Alumni Fellow, 2022.
Ethan and Martha Allen Research Chair in American Politics, University of Kansas, 2019.
Outstanding Professor, College of Arts and Sciences, Appalachian State University, 2016-2017.
Best Paper Award in Experimental Research, American Political Science Association, 2015.