Welcome! I am an assistant professor of political science at the department of Politics, Governance, and Economics at American University's School of International Service. Before joining AU, I was a postdoc
fellow at the University of Oxford's Reuters Institute.
I earned my Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021.
My research examines misinformation, media, and politics, with a regional focus on South Asia. My work spans three
substantive areas.
(1) Countering misinformation: How can we make citizens more resilient to falsehoods?
(2) Accountability for misinformation: How do we hold elites responsible for spreading false information?
(3) Impacts of misinformation: What are the political and societal consequences of misinformation on
violence, prejudice, and quality of democracy?
Methodologically, I rely on field experiments, original surveys, and primary data collection. I often collaborate with civil
society organizations and government institutions to design projects that evaluate policy impacts and produce
actionable evidence. My latest project involves a long-term randomized controlled trial providing education on misinformation
to over 13,000 schoolchildren across nearly 600 villages in India
(learn more here).
I hold an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in Psychology from St. Xavier’s College,
Mumbai. Outside of work, I enjoy hiking in U.S. national parks, going to indie/alternative rock gigs, and cheering (mostly suffering)
alongside Philadelphia sports fans.
You can access my CV here and my Google Scholar page here.
American University
School of International Service
Washington DC 20016
sumitrab[at]american[dot]edu
[11] Badrinathan, Sumitra, Simon Chauchard, and Niloufer Siddiqui. 2024.
Misinformation and Support for Vigilantism: An Experiment in India and Pakistan.
American Political Science Review
[10] Fletcher, Richard, Sumitra Badrinathan, et al. 2024.
The link between changing news use and trust: Longitudinal analysis of 46 countries.
Forthcoming, Journal of Communication
[9] Badrinathan, Sumitra and Simon Chauchard. 2024. Researching and Countering
Misinformation in the Global South.
Current Opinion in Psychology.
[8] Badrinathan, Sumitra and Simon Chauchard. 2023.
"I Don't Think That's True, Bro!" Social Corrections of Misinformation in India.
International Journal of Press/Politics: 1--23.
[7] Mont'Alverne, Camila, Sumitra Badrinathan, Amy Ross Arguedas, Benjamin Toff,
Richard Fletcher, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2023. Domain-Specific Influence
on Facebook: How Topic Matters when Assessing Influential Accounts in Four Countries.
Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media: 3
[6] Mont'Alverne, Camila, Sumitra Badrinathan, Amy Ross Arguedas, Benjamin Toff,
Richard Fletcher, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2023. Fair and Balanced: What News Audiences in Four Countries
Mean When They Say They Prefer Impartial News.
Journalism Studies: 1--18.
[5] Ross Arguedas, Amy, Sumitra Badrinathan, Camila Mont’Alverne, Benjamin Toff,
Richard Fletcher, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2023. Shortcuts to Trust:
Relying on Cues to Judge Online News from Unfamiliar Sources on Digital Platforms.
Journalism: 1--23.
[4] Kim, Eunji, Sumitra Badrinathan, Donghyun Danny Choi, Sabrina Karim, and Yang-Yang Zhou. 2022.
Navigating Insider and Outsider Status as Researchers Conducting Field Experiments.
PS: Political Science & Politics: 1--5
[3] Ross Arguedas, Amy, Sumitra Badrinathan, Camila Mont’Alverne, Benjamin Toff,
Richard Fletcher, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2022. ”It’s a Battle You Are Never Going to
Win”: Perspectives from Journalists in Four Countries on How Digital Media Platforms
Undermine Trust in News.
Journalism Studies: 1--20.
[2] Badrinathan, Sumitra. 2021.
Educative Interventions to Combat Misinformation: Evidence From A Field Experiment in India.
American Political Science Review 115(4): 1325--1341
[1] Badrinathan, Sumitra, Devesh Kapur, Deepaboli Chatterjee, and Neelanjan Sircar. 2021.
Partisan Disagreement: The Role of Media, Personal Networks and Gender in Forming Political Preferences.
Urbanisation 6(1): 141--157.
The Religious Roots of Belief in Misinformation: Experimental Evidence from India,
with Simon Chauchard (R&R, British Journal of Political Science)
Working Paper
Countering Misinformation Early: Evidence from a Classroom-Based Field Experiment in India
with Priyadarshi Amar, Simon Chauchard, Florian Sichart Working Paper
WhoWants Impartial News? Investigating the Determinants of Preferences for Impartiality
in 40 Countries with Richard Fletcher et al. (R&R, International Journal of Communication)
The Effect of Labeling False Social Media posts in Brazil, India, and the UK, with Richard Fletcher Simge Andi, Benjamin Toff, Camila Mont'Alverne, Rasmus K. Nielsen Pre-analysis plan
Examining Urban/Rural Gaps in Trust in News Across Four Countries with Camila Mont'Alverne, Amy Ross Arguedas, Benjamin Toff, Richard Fletcher, Rasmus K. Nielsen
Deconstructing Meta-Narratives of Misinformation to Counter Prejudice: A WhatsApp-based Experiment,
with Niloufer Siddiqui and Simon Chauchard
The Political Economy of Local Journalism and Misinformation,
with Adam Auerbach
Sharing Falsehoods in an Information-poor Environment: An Experiment with Indian Teenagers
with Priyadarshi Amar, Simon Chauchard, Florian Sichart pre-analysis plan
Home and Away: Explaining the Political Behavior of the Indian American Diaspora,
with Milan Vaishnav and Devesh Kapur
Norms of Deference and Belief in Misinformation
with Simon Chauchard pre-analysis plan
The effect of credibility labels on trust in news
with Richard Fletcher, Camila Mont'Alverne, Amy Ross Arguedas, Benjamin Toff, Rasmus K. Nielsen pre-analysis plan
The effect of corrections featuring fact-checks from news organisations on false COVID-19 social media posts
in Brazil, India and the UK
with Richard Fletcher, Simge Andi, Benjamin Toff, Rasmus K. Nielsen pre-analysis plan
Ethnic Identity vs. Partisan Loyalty: A Multi-Experiment Analysis of Indian American Voting Preferences,
with Milan Vaishnav and Devesh Kapur
From Pilot to Policy: Successes and Lessons from a Long-Term Media Literacy RCT in India,
with Priyadarshi Amar, Simon Chauchard, Florian Sichart
Badrinathan, Sumitra, and Devesh Kapur. 2021.
Religion, Caste, Class, Politics: How Urbanization Affects Social Interactions and Political Behaviors.
Chapter.
In Colossus: The Anatomy of Delhi, edited by Sanjoy Chakravorty and Neelanjan Sircar.
Cambridge University Press
Seeds of Discord: How Misinformation Erodes Democratic Norms in South Asia,
with Niloufer Siddiqui and Simon Chauchard. (Manuscript in progress for Cambridge Elements series on Politics of Development)
Spring 25: Experimental Design (Undergraduate Seminar)
Fall 24: Comparative Political Economy (Graduate Seminar)
Fall 23: Political Misinformation and Fake News (Graduate Seminar)
Political Change in the Third World (PSCI 116) Teaching Assistant. Instructor: Professor Rudy Sil
Statistics for Political Science (PSCI 338) Teaching Assistant. Instructor: Professor Marc Meredith Lab R code is available in this repository.
