Valentino specializes in political psychological approaches to understanding public opinion formation, socialization, information seeking and electoral participation.
Valentino is currently exploring the changing nature of racial rhetoric in America and around the world, and the ways empathy for outgroups can blunt dangerous overreactions to threats from globalization and multiculturalism.
[4] With Alex Mintz and Carly Wayne, Valentino is a co-author of Beyond Rationality: Behavioral Political Science in the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press 2021).
Seeing Us in Them examines outgroup empathy as a powerful predisposition in politics that pushes individuals to see past social divisions and work together in complex, multicultural societies.
[7] [8] Valentino has served as chair or co-chair on the dissertation committees of: Hilary Izatt, Sara Morell, Anil Menon, Kirill Zhirkov, Marzia Oceno, James Newburg, Erin Cikanek, Princess Williams, Julia Kamin, Fabian Neuner, Timothy Ryan, Ismail White, Eric Groenendyk, Antoine Banks, Yanna Krupnikov, Patrick O’Mahen; Katie Brown, Debra Melican, Krysha Gregorowicz, Rossie Hutchinson, Christine Brittle, Thomas Buhr, and Matthew Vandenbroek.