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Stephen Vaisey

Professor of Sociology
Sociology

Overview


The main goal of my research is to understand moral and political beliefs: what they are, where they come from, and what they do. I lead the Measuring Morality project, the goal of which is to understand how different ideas of morality fit together and influence politics and other domains of life.

I also work quite a bit on statistical methods for observational data, including panel datatreatment effects analysis, and multilevel modeling

Current Appointments & Affiliations


Professor of Sociology · 2016 - Present Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Sociology · 2013 - Present Sociology, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Co-Director of the Worldview Lab in the Kenan Institute for Ethics · 2018 - Present Kenan Institute for Ethics, University Institutes and Centers
Professor of Political Science · 2018 - Present Political Science, Trinity College of Arts & Sciences
Faculty Research Scholar of DuPRI's Population Research Center · 2010 - Present Duke Population Research Center, Duke Population Research Institute

In the News


Published January 8, 2025
A New Study Asks: How Do Kids Figure out Where They Stand Politically?
Published October 17, 2023
Helping Social Scientists Grow an Idea into a Research Project
Published September 2, 2014
How Do You Measure Morality?

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Recent Publications


Deviations from cultural consensus about occupations: The duality of occupation meanings and Americans’ meaning communities

Journal Article Social Networks · July 1, 2025 We examine ratings of 642 occupations by a national online sample of U.S respondents in 2019 (Freeland et al., 2020). We analyze the respondents’ ratings of occupations on three dimensions of cultural meaning—evaluation (good versus bad), potency (powerful ... Full text Cite
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Education, Training & Certifications


University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · 2008 Ph.D.