Törnberg, Lundstedt, Vallström & Wahlström introduce a geocoded, nationwide dataset of Sweden’s police-reported xenophobic violence (2009–2022; N=2,522), enabling consistent longitudinal analysis beyond media or surveys.
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Posts by Research & Politics
🧩 Gocer & @polipsyprof.bsky.social: In a 2019 survey experiment, whites who feel like “political losers” oppose redistribution only when compared to non-whites—a subtle framing cue with big implications for status threat and right-wing populism.
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🚨 When does motivated reasoning break? Onishi shows that in Britain’s Partygate, clear misconduct + clear blame made even copartisans punish the governing party - lower ratings and vote intent.
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@makitotakei.bsky.social, Chanki Moon & @hirotakaimada.bsky.social test if target publics see audience costs. US survey (N=1,404): people infer domestic punishment for backing down; credibility is similar for democracies and autocracies.
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@lukasbirkenmai1.bsky.social, @astroppe.bsky.social @wurthmann.bsky.social & @msaeltzer.bsky.social use NLP+Wikidata: 50k tweets + 190k FB posts (Bundestag 2017–21). District MPs cite nearer places and deprived in-district areas more than list MPs.
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Lisa Basil shows that not all conspiracy theory agreement reflects deep belief. She introduces a salience-based measure that separates fleeting endorsement from consequential belief—and suggests standard surveys may overstate it.
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Yixuan Zhang shows that corruption scandals in nearby regions can boost trust in China. When nearby areas face investigations, people report more trust in local government—showing institutions are judged by comparison, not just performance.
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Do alliance treaties sway public support for war everywhere?
@smetanamichal.bsky.social, @mvranka.bsky.social @ondrejrosendorf.bsky.social find they do—but much less in non-Western, non-NATO countries. Alliance politics travels, but not evenly.
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Gender shapes candidate choice in both directions. @atiradocastro.bsky.social & Susan Banducci find that women tend to prefer women candidates and men tend to prefer men—especially when gender identity is more strongly felt.
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Why introduce bills that rarely pass? Eunseong Oh & @indridi.bsky.social show MPs use them less to win than to play party roles: government MPs stay cautious, opposition MPs signal credibility.
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How do you study political trust across countries and over time? Yuehong Tai introduces TrustGov, a new dataset covering 115 countries from 1973–2020—giving scholars a major new tool to track what shapes trust in government, and why it matters.
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Populist rhetoric may not win many votes—but it can get people to the polls. Alexander Kustov & Yaoyao Dai find that populist messaging has limited persuasive power, yet can slightly boost turnout, especially among already populist voters.
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Do younger voters turn against older people when politics feels unfair? @alonsoroman.bsky.social & @scottrw630.bsky.social show that perceived age-based political exclusion is strongly linked to explicit ageism across Italy, South Korea, and the US.
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Moniz, Endres & @professorcostas.bsky.social show a key weakness in political microtargeting: the most persuadable voters may be the hardest to predict. Cross pressured voters don’t fit neat party profiles—and campaign data often misses that.
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🧩 Gocer & @polipsyprof.bsky.social: In a 2019 survey experiment, whites who feel like “political losers” oppose redistribution only when compared to non-whites—a subtle framing cue with big implications for status threat and right-wing populism.
Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
🚨 When does motivated reasoning break? Onishi shows that in Britain’s Partygate, clear misconduct + clear blame made even copartisans punish the governing party - lower ratings and vote intent.
Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
@makitotakei.bsky.social, Chanki Moon & @hirotakaimada.bsky.social test if target publics see audience costs. US survey (N=1,404): people infer domestic punishment for backing down; credibility is similar for democracies and autocracies.
Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
@lukasbirkenmai1.bsky.social, @astroppe.bsky.social @wurthmann.bsky.social & @msaeltzer.bsky.social use NLP+Wikidata: 50k tweets + 190k FB posts (Bundestag 2017–21). District MPs cite nearer places and deprived in-district areas more than list MPs.
Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
New study by Molly Offer-Westort et al. tests an AI social media agent for deep canvassing on anti-transgender prejudice. Personalized NLP messaging shows positive effects, pointing to scalable—but limited—alternatives to in-person outreach.
Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Batista, @ecalvo68.bsky.social & @stelhami.bsky.social's study on fact-checking shows confirmation frames drive higher engagement than refutations. Even without added effort, refutations spark anger/disgust, while confirmations evoke happiness.
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@mollyow.bsky.social et al. test climate-policy framing in a 2,300+ U.S. RCT: scientific, religious, moral, and economic (efficiency vs equity). Policy-learning shows efficiency most boosts support, across parties.
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Anderson, Byles, Calianos, Francis, Kot, Mosk, Seo, Vizbaras & Nyhan: boosting warmth toward the other party didn’t change intent to share true/false news or discernment. But accuracy reminders modestly improved discernment among political news sharers.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
@adamramey.bsky.social warns Big Five–politics findings may be distorted by who completes surveys. New data show Agreeable & Neurotic respondents finish at different rates, shifting estimated trait–behavior links—watch for selection bias.
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Darren Hawkins, Joshua R. Gubler, Celeste Beesley, Tayla Ingles & Julia Chatterley: Spain 2022 experiment (~2,000) priming corruption/unemployment lowered support for democracy in general, but not civil liberties or checks on executives.
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Gender stereotypes shape scandal reactions. Fernanda Quintanilla Domínguez, @rbellmartin.bsky.social & Brett Ryan Bessen find that in Mexico, women accused of “out-of-character” misconduct were rated more favorably—especially by benevolent sexists.
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Jennifer Pan & Yiqing Xu: Do people in autocracies hold stable prefs? 3 China surveys show views: institutions, econ policy, nationalism, social values & ethnic policy stay stable for months—like democracies. Stability rises with education/knowledge.
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Using synthetic difference-in-differences, this study by Rivka Lipkovitz finds that strict voter ID laws have no net effect on turnout, with modest heterogeneous effects by election type and adoption timing that may explain prior conflicting results.
Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
New study by Molly Offer-Westort et al. tests an AI social media agent for deep canvassing on anti-transgender prejudice. Personalized NLP messaging shows positive effects, pointing to scalable—but limited—alternatives to in-person outreach.
Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
New article by @algaraca.bsky.social, Byengseon Bae, @edwardheadington.bsky.social, Hengjiang Liu, Bianca Nigri and Lisette Gomez uses presidential approval, party brands and polling gaps to forecast 2024 U.S. elections, improving on standard models.
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Political agendas ignore the poor's preferences. Hen Hana Kersenti Feldman and Ilana Shpaizman show that Israel's Knesset Public Inquiries Committee (CPI) exposes MPs to citizen grievances, boosting representation of lower- and middle-class issues.
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