You might expect a biochemistry student to spend their summer in a laboratory, but sophomore Winnie Zhao found herself immersed in political science instead.
Through the Letters & Science Summer of Excellence in Research (LASER) Program, she challenged herself in an entirely different discipline. The eight-week summer experience grants undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research alongside the guidance of an experienced professor, faculty member or graduate student. More than 30 students participated in the program, now in its sixth year. This summer marks the first time LASER has included political science research.
Zhao’s research explores how populist rhetoric is employed through social media to attack democratic institutions. Democracies rarely fall in one moment; they tend to weaken gradually, as people lose trust in the institutions that keep power in check, such as courts and congresses. Zhao investigated how lawmakers use populist rhetoric when addressing those institutions, and whether it contributes to their decline.
Her work is supported by Tatiana Paula da Cruz (MIPA’24), a PhD student in the Department of Political Science. Throughout the summer, Cruz encouraged Zhao to ask questions and think through problems on her own, helping her build confidence in the field.
“She was completely fearless about diving into something new,” Cruz says about Zhao. “I believe that is exactly the mindset that makes someone a good researcher.”
For Zhao, the chance to pursue her first research in a field unfamiliar to her was what made LASER especially appealing. Coming from a science background, she was eager to broaden her academic scope. It’s the kind of shift for which an L&S education creates space.
“I’m very drawn to this research, because there’s no correct answer,” says Zhao. “You’re finding something out and expanding your critical thinking, and that’s something I want to do.”
This outlook was shaped by her belief that social science and humanities research is overlooked compared to work in STEM. The project gave her a closer look at what this type of research involves, from understanding complex theoretical texts to interpreting large datasets. She argues this work deserves just as much attention and investment as STEM does.
Zhao’s work began with background reading to deepen her knowledge of populism. Using Brazil as a case study, she categorized tweets from more than 500 members of Brazil’s Congress around the 2022 election, searching for patterns of populist rhetoric. She hand-coded a sample of 900 tweets, narrowing down to 96, and flagging anti-elitist or anti-pluralist language to track how such rhetoric appeared across timing, parties and institutions. That hand-coded sample then helped train a large language model capable of analyzing tens of thousands more posts.
Her research tested two hypotheses, both of which were supported by the data. The first was that institutions designed to check on majority rule, such as supreme courts, would be attacked at a higher rate. She attributed this to their role in limiting majority opinion rather than reflecting it. The second hypothesis asserted that legislators from far-right parties would attack institutions at a higher rate than those on the left or in the center.
These results led Zhao to conclude that attacks from the far-right peak when democratic institutions are most contested, such as during an election year.
Throughout this process, Zhao found herself making real-world connections to what she was learning about. Reading about populism allowed her to notice parallels between Brazilian politics and dynamics she recognized elsewhere, such as in the United States. She gained a broader sense of how similar patterns exist across different political contexts.
“It is about learning to recognize the warning signs of democratic backsliding anywhere, in any democracy,” Cruz explains about why this research matters.
In today’s world of instant information and artificial intelligence, Zhao worries that her generation is losing their ability to think critically and independently. For this reason, she found the LASER experience to be valuable in forcing her to draw her own conclusions rather than accepting the answers given to her.
“You have to find the answers for yourself, and I’m a big fan of that,” Zhao says about conducting research.
Although her academic path points towards dental school and a career as an orthodontist, Zhao still sees her experience this summer as beneficial for her long-term goals. She points out that in any discipline there are always new questions to ask and discoveries to make.
“Research is everywhere,” says Zhao. “I think if there’s a foundation, you can always explore further.”