Prior's current research focuses on understanding the origins of political interest and the determinants of political knowledge. Prior, who came to Princeton in 2003, earned his master's degree from Ohio State University and his Ph.D. from Stanford University. Prior's 2007 book, "Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections," examined how politics in the United States has been changed by the evolution of media over the past half-century. The book won the 2009 Goldsmith Book Prize, awarded by Harvard University's Joan Shorenstein Center.