Dr. Eric Merkley is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, St. George, and is Director of the Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab (PEARL). His work specializes in public opinion, political communication, and political psychology. He is interested understanding the causes and consequences of mass polarization and in how elite behaviour and the news media together shape public attitudes, especially on areas of scientific or expert consensus, like climate change and vaccines. Dr. Merkley is the Principal Investigator on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded Canadian Polarization Project, a 5 year longitudinal study of mass polarization in Canada and is author of Polarization Eh? The Causes and Consequences of Affective Polarization in Canada, forthcoming at the University of Toronto Press. He has over 30 peer reviewed articles in outlets like the American Political Science Review, Nature Human Behaviour, the Journal of Politics, the British Journal of Political Science, Political Communication, Political Behavior, Public Opinion Quarterly, and the Canadian Journal of Political Science.