My research interests are at the intersection of political communication and political psychology. Primarily, I study how ordinary people form attitudes about democracy and democratic norms. This includes studies about how people come to see institutions as more or less legitimate (Olson, Huffman, and Gray 2025), evaluate political elites (Huffman, Olson, and Vander Wielen 2025), and perceive others' communication about politics online (Andrews, Olson, and Krupnikov 2026).

I'm a quantitative social scientist by training, and my research primarily draws on experimental methods, including surveys and lab experiments. I also hold an interest in text analysis and natural language processing. My research has received funding from sources including the National Science Foundation and the Dirksen Congressional Center.