Nicole Wu

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About

Nicole Wu is a political scientist whose research sits at the intersection of political economy, public opinion, and technological change. She is best known for her work examining how ordinary citizens—particularly low-skilled workers—perceive and respond to the economic disruptions caused by globalization and automation. Her most influential paper, "Misattributed Blame? Attitudes toward Globalization in the Age of Automation" (2021), has garnered 59 citations and makes a compelling case that workers systematically misdirect economic frustration toward foreign trade and immigration rather than toward the robots and machines that more directly threaten their livelihoods. This finding has significant implications for understanding the political backlash against globalization seen across Western democracies. Building on this foundation, her 2022 study "'Restrict Foreigners, Not Robots': Partisan Responses to Automation Threat" (19 citations) explores how political identity shapes these attitudes, revealing that Americans maintain strikingly favorable views of technology even amid displacement anxieties. Together, Wu's scholarship sheds critical light on why automation-driven inequality often fuels anti-immigrant sentiment rather than demands for technology regulation—a timely and politically consequential contribution to contemporary debates about the future of work.