Politicians are not ignoring you, statistical analysis suggests
The article discusses new research by political scientist Peter K. Enns, who argues that previous studies incorrectly concluded that U.S. government policy ignores the median voter. Enns suggests that the original research suffered from methodological flaws and that the real disparity in political influence exists between the general population and the 'superrich'.
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Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-politicians-statistical-analysis.html
analyticsAnalysis
10%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 95%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.
fact_checkFact-Check Results
8 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.
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“Peter K. Enns, professor of government in the College of Arts and Sciences and in the Brooks School of Public Policy”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Multiple authoritative sources, including Wikipedia and the Cornell University Department of Government website, confirm Peter K. Enns is a professor in the Department of Government and the Brooks School of Public Policy.
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— This is a list of people named Peter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_given_name…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_with_given_name…
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— Messiah University is a private interdenominational evangelical Christian university with it main campus in Grantham, Pennsylvania and Upper Allen Township, Pennsylvania, near Mechanicsburg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_University
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messiah_University
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— Peter Eric Enns (born January 2, 1961) is an American Biblical scholar and theologian. He has written widely on hermeneutics, Christianity and science, historicity of the Bible, and Old Testament inte…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Enns
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Enns
+ 3 more evidence sources
“His paper, "How a Seemingly Innocuous and Intuitive Methodological Choice Confused a Generation of Research on Policy Responsiveness," is published in Sociological Science.”
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A web search result explicitly cites the paper title and its publication in 'Sociological Science' (Volume 13, pages 528-564).
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— Citation: Enns, K. Peter. 2026. “How a Seemingly Innocuous and Intuitive Methodological Choice Confused a Generation of Research on Policy Responsiveness” Sociological Science 13: 528-564.
https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v13-21-528/
https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v13-21-528/
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— Arksey H, O'Malley L. Scoping studies: towards a methodological framework.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1364557032000119…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1364557032000119…
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— About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42QuXLucH3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42QuXLucH3Q
“research first published in 2005 and built upon with papers in 2012, 2014 and 2017, concluding that federal government policy is not at all responsive to the median-income voter, especially when affluent voters disagree.”
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The Cornell Chronicle explicitly mentions Enns' study identifying problems with research first published in 2005 and built upon in 2012, 2014, and 2017, regarding the lack of responsiveness to the median-income voter.
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— In his study, Enns identifies problems with the method at the heart of research first published in 2005 and built upon with papers in 2012, 2014 and 2017, concluding that federal government policy is …
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/05/politicians-are-not…
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/05/politicians-are-not…
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— About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42QuXLucH3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42QuXLucH3Q
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— Detailed information on median income by country, providing insights into the average earnings of individuals within each nation with additional details related to this topic.This data was based on se…
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-in…
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/median-in…
“the original study claimed, economic elites, measured as the top 20% of the income distribution, have substantial impacts on U.S. government policy.”
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Multiple sources (Journalist's Resource, Internet Archive, and other web results) confirm that Gilens and Page's research found that economic elites have substantial impacts on U.S. government policy while average citizens have little impact.
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— Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page present historical data that show that average Americans, even when represented by majoritarian interest groups, have negligible influence in shaping public policy.
https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-…
https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-…
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— Martin Gilens, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and Benjamin I. Page, Professor of Decision Making at Northwestern University. Publication date.
https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th…
https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th…
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— The authors, Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin Page of Northwestern, based their research on a database of voters’ and interest groups’ positions on 1,779 issues between 1981 and 2002, and how t…
https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/the-…
https://journalistsresource.org/politics-and-government/the-…
“author Martin Gilens (later joined by Benjamin Page) analyzed survey data that includes measures of how much different groups supported 1,779 potential policies between 1981 and 2002 and whether those policies were enacted.”
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Multiple sources confirm the specific methodology: analyzing 1,779 policy issues between 1981 and 2002 using survey data to measure group support and policy enactment.
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— We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups …
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli…
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli…
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— Comment: By Don McCanne, MD Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page present historical data that show that average Americans, even when represented by majoritarian interest groups, have negligible influence i…
https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-…
https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-…
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— Gilens and a small army of research assistants 29 gathered data on a large, diverse set of policy cases: 1,779 instances between 1981 and 2002 in which a national survey of the general public asked a …
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli…
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli…
“The initial finding has been cited more than 8,250 times in academia”
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While the evidence confirms the existence and impact of the Gilens and Page study, none of the provided search results explicitly mention the specific citation count of '8,250'.
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— Martin Gilens, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and Benjamin I. Page, Professor of Decision Making at Northwestern University. Publication date.
https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th…
https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_th…
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— Gilens and Page (2014) claim to reveal through statistics which groups truly have “independent impact” on policy outcomes in the United States.A secondary finding in the original study is that busines…
https://medium.com/@omar.bashir/what-to-know-before-citing-g…
https://medium.com/@omar.bashir/what-to-know-before-citing-g…
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— Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page present historical data that show that average Americans, even when represented by majoritarian interest groups, have negligible influence in shaping public policy.
https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-…
https://pnhp.org/news/gilens-and-page-average-citizens-have-…
“Gilens chose to eliminate this overlap by only analyzing policies where groups' preferences diverge by more than 10 percentage points.”
CORROBORATED
The Cornell Chronicle explicitly states that Gilens chose to eliminate overlap by analyzing policies where preferences diverged by more than 10 percentage points.
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— Gilens chose to eliminate this overlap by only analyzing policies where groups’ preferences diverge by more than 10 percentage points. Enns found that the conclusions were skewed by their selective us…
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/05/politicians-are-not…
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2026/05/politicians-are-not…
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— The preference/policy link when preferences across income. Groups diverge.790 Martin Gilens. Predicted Probability of Change. Questions where Preferences of the 10th and 90th Income Percentiles Diverg…
https://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens+homepage+materials…
https://www.princeton.edu/~mgilens/Gilens+homepage+materials…
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— And when preferences between income groups diverge, only the higher incomes have an effect on policy change. When it comes to possible causal mechanisms, political participation—measured as voting dur…
https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/86066685/mwz018.pdf
https://pure.uva.nl/ws/files/86066685/mwz018.pdf
“Enns found that the conclusions were skewed by their selective use of policies, which fed into a statistical phenomenon called Simpson's paradox.”
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The Cornell Chronicle explicitly links Enns' finding that the conclusions were skewed by selective use of policies to the statistical phenomenon of Simpson's paradox.
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— Simpson's paradox is a phenomenon in probability and statistics in which a trend appears in several groups of data but disappears or reverses when the groups are combined.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson's_paradox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson's_paradox
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— Gilens and Page’s defense doesn’t really rescue the argument. I reached out to Gilens and Page to see what they made of the emerging critique of their work, and in particular the one included in the B…
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11502464/gilens-page-oligarchy-…
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/9/11502464/gilens-page-oligarchy-…
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— This study aimed to synthesize the findings of qualitative studies focused on...
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10503307.2023.2…
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10503307.2023.2…
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Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.