WAPOR 2025 Conference Awards

WAPOR is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 conference awards. We express our gratitude to all nominees and the award committees, and congratulate the winner!

Naomi C. Turner Award

The Naomi C. Turner Prize is presented at the WAPOR annual conference for the best graduate student paper. This prize was endowed by WAPOR past president Fred Turner in memory of his mother. Fred was president of WAPOR in 1989-1990. A special thank you to the Turner Prize committee, including Thomas Roessing (Chair), Colin Irwin, Alice Siu, Jui Shrestha, and Rima Sinicke. The committee is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Naomi Turner prize is Chloe Mortenson (Northwestern University, USA) for the paper “Benefit-Seekers or Principle-Holders? A Behavioral Experiment Assessing Americans’ Preference’s for Democratic Governance”. This paper makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of trust in government within a complex political context. It thoughtfully integrates theoretical perspectives with strong empirical analysis. The methodological approach is robust, and the writing effectively guides the reader through the findings. The study’s insights deepen our grasp of how citizens navigate institutional trust in turbulent times, offering lasting value to both democratic theory and the practice of public policy.

Janet A. Harkness Award

The Janet A. Harkness Award is a joint award of the WAPOR and the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR). This award is given in memory of Dr. Janet A. Harkness, internationally recognized for her contributions to cross-cultural survey methodology. The award is given for the best paper on multi-national, multi-regional or multi-cultural survey research (aka 3M survey research) produced by a student. Thank you to the members of the Janet Harkness Student Paper Award Committee. These include Chanhoong Leong (Chair), Angela Ambitho, Lydia Repke, Sunghee Lee, Heather Smalley, and Evgenia Kapousouz. The committee is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Janet A. Harkness Award is Phuong Linh Nguyen (University of Essex, UK) for the paper “Studying Language Switching in Multilingual Survey Interviews”. This paper tackles an important and underexamined issue in survey methodology: language switching in multilingual interviews. Drawing on over 800 recorded survey interactions in Zambia, it provides rare empirical insight into how language shifts affect data quality. The author reframes language switching as a signal of interactional difficulty, linking it to cognitive challenges and interviewer behaviour. Using rigorous behavioural coding and multilevel modelling, the paper shows that language switching is both systematic and consequential. The study stands out for its originality, methodological care, and relevance to the global practice of survey research.

Elizabeth H. Nelson Award

The Elizabeth H. Nelson Prize is awarded for best conference paper from a society in transition. This prize was endowed by WAPOR past president Elizabeth Nelson who was president of WAPOR from 1991-1992. Thank you to our review committee members for the Nelson Prize – Eva Aizpurua (Chair), Chase Harrison, Nedal Swehli, Bilal Gilani, and Adam Zammit. The committee is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Elizabeth H. Nelson Award is Nebil Belaam (EMRHOD Consulting, Tunisia) for the paper “What are the factors that lead to better accuracy of pre-election polls in the Tunisian context? Analysis of comparative experiences between the 2019 and 2024″. This paper tackles an important and underexamined issue in survey methodology: language switching in multilingual interviews. Drawing on over 800 recorded survey interactions in Zambia, it provides rare empirical insight into how language shifts affect data quality. The author reframes language switching as a signal of interactional difficulty, linking it to cognitive challenges and interviewer behaviour. Using rigorous behavioural coding and multilevel modelling, the paper shows that language switching is both systematic and consequential. The study stands out for its originality, methodological care, and relevance to the global practice of survey research.

Alexis de Tocqueville Award

De Tocqueville saw democracy as an equation that balanced liberty and equality, concern for the individual and as well as for the community. Given the ongoing relevance of his observations, this award is given annually to a paper presented at the WAPOR conference that is concerned with democracy and public opinion in the world, whether in consolidated or in emerging democracies. A special thank you goes to the 2025 Award Committee, including former WAPOR Presidents Timothy Johnson, Marita Carballo, Claire Durand, Kathy Frankovic, Alejandro Moreno, President Robert Chung and the current President Christian Haerpfer. This year’s the Alexis de Tocqueville Award goes to Thomas Roessing (Germany), Kristina Beckmann (Germany), Leonie Krzistetzko (Germany), Günther Rager (Germany) and Michael Steinbrecher (Germany) for the paper “Tackling the peculiar connection between media skepticism and dissatisfaction with democracy in Germany”. This paper offers a thoughtful and empirically grounded investigation into the link between media skepticism and democratic dissatisfaction in contemporary Germany. Drawing on multi-year survey data across journalists, politicians, and the general public, it reveals how perceptions of journalistic bias—especially the hostile media effect—are associated with declining trust in both journalism and democracy. The authors carefully connect economic anxieties, institutional trust, and political identity to these attitudes, highlighting how material and symbolic factors shape democratic confidence. Its insights are timely, policy-relevant, and of broad interest to scholars of public opinion, media, and democratic resilience.

Robert M. Worcester Award

Every year, the Robert M. Worcester Prize is given in recognition of the best article published in IJPOR – the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, the journal of WAPOR. Evaluation of all papers published in the previous calendar year takes place in two steps, first by the members of the international editorial board of the journal, and then by an award committee appointed by the WAPOR council. A winning article is selected as a result of these two rounds of evaluation. Thank you to the members of the editorial board who participated in the evaluation as well as the members of the WAPOR award committee including Rico Neumann (Chair), Anna Andreenkova, Jaeho Cho, Yariv Tsfati, and Robert Worcester as ex officio member. The recipients of the 2024 Worcester Award are Jennifer Brundidge (The Ohio State University, USA) and Kelly Garrett (The Ohio State University, USA) for the paper “The “Clinching Effect” and Affective Polarization: Exposure to Incivility via Social Media in the Presence of Online New”. Nearly 80 years ago, Lazarsfeld and Merton wrote that direct personal contact and local discussions serve to reinforce the effects of mass media content. Brundidge and Garrett reexamine this ‘clinching effect’ against the backdrop of today’s heavily fragmented and information-rich media environment ripe with divisive debates. Using a three-wave panel survey administered during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, they analyze how digital news use and exposure to incivility on social media – individually and jointly – influence affective partisan polarization. They find that both pro- and counter-attitudinal news use reinforce the effect of exposure to incivility, intensifying affective polarization, but that nonpartisan news use combined with perceived incivility online attenuates that effect. Their study is conceptually sound, analytically rigorous, and provides novel empirical insights into relevant mechanisms of influence in the contemporary media environment and thus a better understanding of the drivers behind polarization.

Helen H. Dinerman Award

This award, given since 1981, honors particularly significant contributions to survey research methodology. The award, presented annually to an individual or individuals, is in memory of Helen Dinerman’s scientific achievements over three decades of public opinion research. Recent recipients of the award include Takashi Inoguchi, Mitchell Seligson, Juan Díez Nicolás, Michael Traugott, and Christian Haerpfer. A special thank you to this year’s review committee, including Robert Chung (Chair), Timothy Johson, Marita Carballo, Frits Spangenberg, and Christian Haerpfer.

WAPOR is pleased to present the 2025 Helen Dinerman Award to Professor Ian McAllister of The Australian National University, in recognition of his exceptional and enduring contributions to the field of public opinion research. Professor McAllister is one of the world’s leading scholars in electoral studies, political behavior, and democratic attitudes. As the long-time director of the Australian Election Study, he has built one of the most respected longitudinal survey programs globally, providing vital insights into how public opinion evolves over time in response to political, institutional, and social change. His comparative work, including contributions to the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES), has advanced cross-national understanding of voting behavior and democratic legitimacy. Professor McAllister’s career exemplifies the values the Helen Dinerman Award seeks to honour: methodological excellence, international collaboration, and a profound commitment to understanding how citizens engage with democracy. His research has shaped scholarly debates, guided policy conversations, and trained generations of researchers in Australia and beyond. By honouring Ian McAllister, WAPOR recognizes not only a leading figure in public opinion research, but also a lifelong contributor to strengthening democratic inquiry and evidence-based political understanding.