Research

Citation: Hull, K. (2026). Disability Benefits? The Impact of Physical Disability in Electoral Decisions. Political Behavior, 1-30. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-026-10151-w 

Key Findings:

• Candidates with physical disabilities received more support from voters than able-bodied candidates — the opposite of what most people would expect.

• That support depended on context: whether the candidate was born with the disability or acquired it through military service, combined with the voter's own political leanings, shaped how much of a boost they got.

• Across two separate studies and samples, the pattern held: there's essentially no electoral penalty for a candidate disclosing a physical disability.

Citation: Hull, K., Warren, C., & Smith, K. (2024). Politics makes bastards of us all: Why moral judgment is politically situational. Political Psychology, 45(6), 1013-1029. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12954 

Key Findings:

• People consistently judge politicians more leniently than they'd judge a friend or coworker for doing the exact same thing.

• The more someone genuinely dislikes the opposing political side, the more willing they are to excuse bad behavior from their own side — and the more punitive they become toward the other side.

• This pattern held up across four independent studies, suggesting it isn't about any one issue or election — political competition itself seems to loosen people's moral standards.

*Note: APSA Conference 2026 Paper Preprint - Not Peer Reviewed

Citation: Hull, K. (2026). Beyond Double Disability: Dehumanization and the Cognitive Burden of Physical Disability . APSA Preprints. doi:10.33774/apsa-2026-0plfl  This content is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed.

Key Findings:

• Prior theory predicted disability would "stack" with race or gender to create a bigger penalty for candidates who are disabled and a woman or person of color. This study tested that directly and found no such stacking effect.

• When disability was shown alongside race and gender together, the earlier "disability benefit" disappeared — disabled candidates weren't punished, but they also stopped getting a boost, while Black candidates and veterans still did.

• The more voters dehumanized a candidate, the less support that candidate got — but this only happened for disabled candidates, not for women or Black candidates, suggesting voters process disability differently than other identities.

Hull, K.J. (2022). Nebraska: The Fight to Swing District Two Blue. In D. Schultz and R. Jacob (Eds.), Presidential Swing States (3rd edition). Lexington Books.