Beatrice Magistro

Research

Full publication list available in my CV and in the publications section.

Technology & Politics

My research examines the political consequences of technological change, particularly artificial intelligence and automation. I study how citizens and political elites understand AI's economic effects, and how these beliefs shape policy preferences and political behavior.

Attitudes Toward AI and Globalization — AJPS, 2025
Causal Beliefs and Political Backlash Against AI — POQ, Accepted
Women's Skepticism toward AI and Risk — PNAS Nexus, Accepted
Automation Trade-offs and Policies Addressing Job Loss — PSRM, 2024
Gender Gap in Attitudes Toward Technological Change — Socio-Economic Review, 2024
Automation, Populist and Nationalist Rhetoric — Political Behavior, 2024
Automation Threat and Vote Choice in Europe — West European Politics, 2024
The Coming AI Backlash — Foreign Affairs, 2025
Causal Beliefs about AI among Politicians and the Public — Working paper coming soon

Future Projects:

SSHRC Project (2025–2028): As collaborator on a SSHRC-funded project (PI: Sophie Borwein), I am examining how political elites frame technological change through legislative speech analysis, elite surveys, and public responsiveness experiments.
Russell Sage Foundation (invited proposal): I am the principal investigator on a project to field four waves of surveys tracking Americans' causal beliefs about AI over 18 months—the first US longitudinal tracker of AI workplace attitudes.

Populism & Political Economy

My work lies at the intersection of political economy and political behavior. I focus on how individuals' political and policy preferences change in response to socioeconomic shocks, and why voters sometimes support policies that undermine social welfare.

Who Thinks Like an Economist? — Cambridge University Press, Forthcoming
How Populism Harms Prosperity — Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2025
Economic Crisis and Trust in the European Parliament — EJPR, 2016
Anti-Immigration Parties in Italy — South European Society and Politics, 2021
Party Cues, Policy Information, and Economic Literacy — Journal of Public Policy, 2022
Economic Literacy and Policy Preferences in Italy — Economics & Politics, 2021

Climate & Environment

I examine how to bridge ideological divides on climate policy, including the effects of economic framing on carbon tax support and public attitudes toward solar geoengineering.

Negative Externalities and Carbon Tax Support — Environmental Politics, 2024
Partisanship, Framing, and Solar Geoengineering — npj Climate Action, 2025
Political Ideology and Solar Geoengineering — PLOS Climate, 2025
Climate Change Free Riders — Scientific Reports, 2024

Sports & Society

I use my passion for soccer to study discrimination and human rights.

Racial Bias in Italian Football — Sociology, 2023 (covered by The Guardian)
Sportswashing and Online Fan Behavior — Social Science Quarterly, 2025

COVID-19

From April 2020 to June 2021 I worked as a research assistant on the UW COVID-19 State Policy Project, the nation-leading effort in collecting daily data on social distancing policies in response to COVID-19 in the US.

The Pandemic Policy U-Turn — Perspectives on Politics, 2021
Governor Partisanship and Mask Mandates — State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 2021
Multiple publications in The Lancet and Nature Medicine

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Borwein, S., Magistro, B., Alvarez, R.M., Bonikowski, B. & Loewen, P. (2025). "Causal Beliefs and the Potential for Political Backlash Against AI." Public Opinion Quarterly, Accepted. Link
Borwein, S., Magistro, B., Alvarez, R.M., Bonikowski, B. & Loewen, P. (2025). "Explaining Women's Skepticism toward Artificial Intelligence: The Role of Risk Orientation and Risk Exposure." PNAS Nexus, Accepted. Link
Magistro, B., Debnath, R., Ebanks, D., Wennberg, P. & Alvarez, R.M. (2025). "Political ideology and views towards solar geoengineering." PLOS Climate. Link
Magistro, B. & Menaldo, V. (2025). "How Populism Harms Prosperity: Unified Populist Rule Reduces Investment, Innovation, and Productivity." Journal of Evolutionary Economics. Link
Magistro, B., Borwein, S., Alvarez, R.M., Bonikowski, B. & Loewen, P. (2025). "Attitudes Toward Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Globalization: Common Microfoundations and Political Implications." American Journal of Political Science. Link
Magistro, B., Debnath, R., Wennberg, P. & Alvarez, R.M. (2025). "Partisanship overcomes framing in shaping solar geoengineering perceptions: Evidence from a conjoint experiment." npj Climate Action. Link
Wack, M., Magistro, B. & Aslett, K. (2025). "Silence in the Stands: Assessing the Impact of Russian State-Linked 'Sportswashing' on Online Fan Behavior Following the Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine." Social Science Quarterly. Link
Magistro, B. & Alvarez, R.M. (2024). "Appealing to Independents: Information on Negative Externalities Increases Support for Environmental Corrective Taxes." Environmental Politics. Link
Sidhu, D., Magistro, B., Stevens, B.A. & Loewen, P. (2024). "Why do citizens support algorithmic government." Journal of Public Policy. Link
Magistro, B., Abramson, C., Ebanks, D., Debnath, R. & Alvarez, R.M. (2024). "Identifying American Climate Change Free Riders and Motivating Sustainable Behavior." Scientific Reports. Link
Borwein, S., Magistro, B., Loewen, P., Bonikowski, B. & Lee-Whiting, B. (2024). "The Gender Gap in Attitudes Toward Workplace Technological Change." Socio-Economic Review. Link
Magistro, B., Loewen, P., Bonikowski, B., Borwein, S. & Lee-Whiting, B. (2024). "Attitudes toward automation and the demand for policies addressing job loss: the effects of information about trade-offs." Political Science Research and Methods. Link
Borwein, S., Bonikowski, B., Loewen, P., Magistro, B. & Lee-Whiting, B. (2024). "Who Can Assert Ownership Over Automation?: Workplace Technological Change, Populist and Nationalist Rhetoric, and Candidate Support." Political Behavior. Link
Borwein, S., Bonikowski, B., Loewen, P., Lee-Whiting, B. & Magistro, B. (2024). "Perceived automation threat and vote choice: evidence from 15 European democracies." West European Politics. Link
Magistro, B. & Wack, M. (2023). "Racial Bias in Fans and Officials: Evidence from the Italian Serie A." Sociology. Link
Aslett, K. & Magistro, B. (2022). "Principal Agent Problems Within EU Funds: A Case Study of Patronage in Hungary." Europe-Asia Studies. Link
Magistro, B. (2022). "Party cues or policy information? The differential influence of financial and economic literacy on economic policy preferences." Journal of Public Policy. Link
Magistro, B. & Wittstock, N. (2021). "Changing preferences versus issue salience: The political success of anti-immigration parties in Italy." South European Society and Politics. Link
Magistro, B., Owen, L. & Wittstock, N. (2021). "Populist support, institutional trust, and gender: the impact of foreign-imposed austerity during the European Debt Crisis." Journal of Political Institutions and Political Economy. Link
Magistro, B. (2021). "The Influence of Financial and Economic Literacy on Policy Preferences in Italy." Economics & Politics. Link
Adolph, C., Amano, K., Bang-Jensen, B., Fullman, N., Magistro, B., Reinke, G., Wilkerson, J., Castellano, R. & Erickson, M. (2021). "The Pandemic Policy U-Turn: The role of partisanship, public health, and race in decisions to ease social distancing in the U.S." Perspectives on Politics. Link
Adolph, C., Amano, K., Bang-Jensen, B., Fullman, N., Magistro, B., Reinke, G. & Wilkerson, J. (2021). "Governor partisanship explains the adoption of statewide mandates to wear face coverings." State Politics & Policy Quarterly. Link
Magistro, B. (2020). "Financial Literacy and Support for Free Trade in the U.K." The World Economy. Link
Dotti Sani, G.M. & Magistro, B. (2016). "Increasingly unequal? The economic crisis, social inequalities and trust in the European Parliament in 20 European countries." European Journal of Political Research. Link

Other Publications

Magistro, B., Borwein, S., Alvarez, R.M., Bonikowski, B. & Loewen, P. (2025). "The Coming AI Backlash: How the Anger Economy Will Supercharge Populism." Foreign Affairs. Link

Public Health Publications

COVID-19 Collaborators [including Magistro, B.] (2023). "Assessing COVID-19 pandemic policies and behaviours and their economic and educational trade-offs across US states from Jan 1, 2020, to July 31, 2022: an observational analysis." The Lancet. Link
COVID-19 Cumulative Infection Collaborators [including Magistro, B.] (2022). "Estimating global, regional, and national daily and cumulative infections with SARS-CoV-2 through Nov 14, 2021: a statistical analysis." The Lancet. Link
COVID-19 Excess Mortality Collaborators [including Magistro, B.] (2022). "Estimating excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis of COVID-19-related mortality, 2020–21." The Lancet. Link
COVID-19 National Preparedness Collaborators [including Magistro, B.] (2022). "Pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: an exploratory analysis of infection and fatality rates, and contextual factors associated with preparedness in 177 countries." The Lancet. Link
COVID-19 Mental Disorders Collaborators [including Magistro, B.] (2021). "Global prevalence and burden of depressive and anxiety disorders in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic." The Lancet. Link
IHME COVID-19 Forecasting Team [including Magistro, B.] (2020). "Modeling COVID-19 Scenarios for the United States." Nature Medicine. Link

Beatrice Magistro

Research

Technology & Politics

Populism & Political Economy

Climate & Environment

Sports & Society

COVID-19

Publications

Teaching

Current Courses at Northeastern

Prepared to Teach

Contact