Loreto Cox, the researcher studying how we understand politics

What does a researcher who studies how Chileans think about politics actually do? She may spend part of her day analyzing surveys and another part teaching at the university. At Centro de Políticas Públicas of Universidad Católica, Loreto Cox studies how people form their opinions and make decisions about public affairs.

Her work focuses on electoral behavior, public opinion, and the functioning of Chilean institutions, using tools such as surveys and experiments. She has also researched how students choose a degree and institution, and how these decisions vary according to socioeconomic background. In her doctoral dissertation, she connected this work with political behavior, studying how unmet expectations after completing higher education can influence political attitudes.

Cox has always been interested in the social sciences, but during her early years she was not sure which discipline best matched her interests. That began to take shape during her time at the Ministry of Education, where she worked as an advisor to then-Minister Harald Beyer. There, she came to understand how crucial politics is to making public programs work. She gradually deepened her interest in Political Science, eventually deciding to pursue graduate studies and specialize in research. At 28, she was accepted into MIT’s PhD program. Her studies were supported by the Luksic Scholarship for graduate studies abroad.

At MIT, Cox found exactly the kind of training she was looking for to turn her questions about public affairs into research. MIT’s PhD program in Political Science allows students to specialize in two areas of the discipline and provides strong training in methods and empirical analysis. Its fields include Comparative Politics, Political Economy, and Models and Methods, among others, with students working with tools such as surveys, experiments, and data analysis.

She says this is where she developed as a researcher: “In particular, I learned and developed data analysis techniques that are fundamental to my work. Beyond academics, MIT is an incredibly diverse place, where talent and merit are what matter most. The value of diversity and merit that I experienced there is something that has had a profound impact on me,” she explains.

For Cox, research also has a role to play in public debate: providing evidence on issues that are often discussed based on perceptions or intuitions. “Research helps provide evidence, distinguish what we know from what we simply believe, and, many times, introduce nuance into discussions that tend to become oversimplified. That does not mean researchers always have the answer, but they do have a responsibility to contribute what they know.”

For those considering a similar path, applications to MIT’s PhD program in Political Science for entry in 2027 are now open and can be submitted until December 15 through this link. The program welcomes applicants from different academic backgrounds and does not require a prior master’s degree in Political Science. In addition, Fundación Luksic offers a scholarship that fully funds the studies and academic experience of selected students, who are chosen directly by partner universities according to their admissions criteria.