We are proud to announce that UCR Political Science graduate student Bea-Sim Ooi has been awarded a Second Century Fund grant through the American Political Science Association’s Summer Centennial Center Research Grants program. This highly competitive award supports graduate students conducting original research that advances the field of political science, and Bea-Sim’s project is a perfect example of the rigorous, innovative work coming out of our department.

Bea-Sim’s research focuses on the formation of redistributive policy attitudes and how empathy for those experiencing financial distress shapes support for redistribution. The grant will fund the third chapter of her dissertation, For Them, Not Me: Empathy for Poor Friends and Family, Dimensions of Financial Distress, and Support for Redistribution, which uses a novel perspective-taking survey experiment to test whether inducing empathy for friends or family members in poverty increases support for redistributive policies.

Her dissertation explores contact at multiple levels—from brief interactions with strangers to close relationships with loved ones—and examines how the source of financial distress (e.g., unemployment, health, or housing shocks) affects policy attitudes. Bea-Sim anticipates that emotional bonds with close friends and relatives in need may foster broad support for both targeted and general redistributive measures, illuminating how personal relationships influence political behavior.

This grant will provide crucial resources for conducting her experiments, helping Bea-Sim collect and analyze data that will deepen our understanding of empathy, policy preferences, and social attitudes toward redistribution. We are thrilled to see her work recognized and supported at this level, and we look forward to the insights it will bring to political science research.