Rating Rankings: Effect of Instant Run-off Voting on participation and civility
Eamon McGinn, University of Technology Sydney, October 2020
"Analysis of the Minneapolis St. Paul Metro Area ... indicates that the introduction of [RCV] caused a 9.6 percentage point increase in turnout for Mayoral elections, on average. The effect on turnout is larger for precincts that have higher poverty rates. Text based sentiment analysis ... indicates the introduction of [RCV] improved the civility of debates with candidates substituting negative or neutral words for positive words."

Ranked Choice Voting Now: A Shift Toward a Better Democracy
Erin Carman and Vanessa Glushefski, Willamette Journal of Social Justice & Equity, June 2020
"The RCV election method contributes to the growth of our local, state, and national democracies by increasing the viability of candidacies, diversity of candidates, voter choice, and number of candidates winning with a true majority. RCV allows voters to vote based on their beliefs as opposed to making a choice based on the fear of 'spoiling' or 'wasting' their vote."

The alternative vote: Do changes in single-member voting systems affect descriptive representation of women and minorities?
Sarah John, Haley Smith, and Elizabeth Zack, Electoral Studies, May 2018
"The adoption of [RCV] increased the percentage of candidates of color from 17.2 percent to 25.6 percent. The adoption of [RCV] was also associated with increased chances of women, particularly women of color, winning local elective office ... the probability of a female candidate winning increased from 40.2 percent to 44.6 percent"

Candidate Civility and Voter Engagement in Seven Cities with Ranked Choice Voting
Sarah John and Andrew Douglas, National Civic Review, April 2017
"The data provides evidence of RCV's positive effect on civility, widespread general support for RCV, and voters' ease with voting on a RCV ballot."

The Impact of Ranked Choice Voting on Representation
FairVote and Representation 2020, August 2016
"In cities that introduced  RCV,  the  percentage  of  candidates  and  winners  among  women,  people of  color,  and  women  of  color  increased  more  (or  declined  less)  than  it  did  in  a comparison group of similar cities that did not adopt RCV." 

Campaign civility under preferential and plurality voting
Todd Donovan, Caroline Tolbert, and Kellen Gracey, Electoral Studies, June 2016
"Our surveys of voters indicate that people in cities using [RCV] were significantly more satisfied with the conduct of local campaigns than people in similar cities with plurality elections. People in cities with preferential voting were also less likely to view campaigns as negative, and less likely to respond that candidates were frequently criticizing each other."

The Impact of Ranked Choice Voting on Election Cooperation and Civility
Martha Kropf, University of North Carolina, May 2014
"Candidates in these RCV cities use more positive language than negative language. Candidates use more inclusive than exclusive words."