States of Distrust: Science and Politics in America James Druckman presented the Center for Political Studies 2026 Miller-Converse Lecture At the University of Michigan’s most distinguished lecture series on American electoral politics, political scien...

Americans are more polarized in their trust in scientists than in virtually any other societal institution. Jamie Druckman shared insights on the state of America's distrust in science at the @umisrcps.bsky.social Miller-Converse Lecture: cps.isr.umich.edu/news-events/...

An absolutely incredible breakthrough!

PaCSS (Politics and Computational Social Science) is back! APSA preconference at BU joint with Political Communication, deadline for submission is May 8. Should be great!

cssi.umass.edu/pacss2026

A Second Sight: How the Wonder and Vision of Black Mediamakers Push America Toward Freedom How the Wonder and Vision of Black Mediamakers Push America Toward Freedom

We’re officially two months out from the publication of my book, A Second Sight: How Black Mediamakers Push America Toward Freedom (June 16, 2026), and I’m feeling incredibly grateful for the early reception its already getting. You can pre-order (on discount) and support local bookstores here:

AI’s New Training Data: Your Old Work Slacks And Emails AI’s New Training Data: Your Old Work Slacks And Emails

"Defunct startups are being liquidated for their Slack archives, Jira tickets, and email threads—operational exhaust that AI labs now treat as premium training data."

ML-NYC Speaker Series and Happy Hour: Matt Salganik Life Trajectories and Life Chances: New Approaches from Population Registries and AI

I'm speaking at ML-NYC on Monday, April 20 4pm at Flatiron Institute. "Life Trajectories and Life Chances: New
Approaches from Population Registries and AI". Registration is free and reception afterwards: www.eventbrite.com/e/ml-nyc-spe...

Overall, 70% of U.S. adults now say Trump is not too or not at all religious, while 24% say he is somewhat religious and 5% say he is very religious. The survey was conducted April 6-12, 2026, just before Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV and posted an image on social media depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure. Trump later deleted the image and said he intended to show himself as a doctor. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are much more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to say Trump is not too or not at all religious (89% vs. 49%).

Say Trump is somewhat or very religious
Republicans 50%
White evangelicals 49%
Catholics 29%
Black Protestants 13%
Atheists 12%
Democrats 10%
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/04/16/a...

+1.

FWIW, here is a report we recently did on public opinion regarding higher ed: edbarometer.org

(Which is in the bibliography, which is pretty extensive! Almost as long at the report. But the cited literature is... quite scarce.)

In that sense, the logic of viewpoint diversity contains its own extinction, if truth really is the goal. Consider that a researcher in 1952, trying to figure out how DNA is structured, would need to survey all the theories and viewpoints on DNA structure up to that point before making an evidence-based opinion. DNA’s structure was still (just barely) a live question. But by 1954, our researcher wouldn’t need to study the theories of the triple-helix model, or the side-by-side model, at all, because by 1953 the double-helix model had been convincingly established. Our researcher could safely reject the triple-helix or side-by-side models—or simply ignore them, not even stopping to sniff at those particular diverse garden flowers—because the local question about DNA’s basic structure had been answered. Academics do this all the time because we are pursuing local truths. If we are even half-decent teachers, we are instructing our students how to do it too. On any particular topic, viewpoint diversity might be useful to initially survey competing theories, and once a consensus of the truth of that matter has been established, viewpoint diversity on that topic is rightly, habitually, dismissed.

Really excellent logical discussion about the practical problem with 'viewpoint diversity' as a governing logic for universities-- if truth is the goal of scientific research. www.aaup.org/academe/issu...

Extension of Polnet deadline to April 22!

To Work for Us, AI Must Not Think for Us Dani Rodrik thinks the technology’s undeniable usefulness presents a new, under-appreciated danger.

The greatest threat from AI is not that it will displace human work but that it will displace human thought. My latest. www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

Where are all the Computing Science undergraduates going?

Adjacent fields such as data science, robotics, cybersecurity, etc

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Lessons that all Americans should contemplate about the road ahead for Hungary and for us

Survey by an AI company, no useful information on the sample, no wording for most of the questions.

That's right, we've got more advertising pretending to be surveys.

While we're celebrating space things, let me direct you to one of my favorite Golden Goose Awards. One of the reasons we have supercomputers now (that run the internet we enjoy) is because scientists needed more powerful computers to study black holes. 1/3

www.goldengooseaward.org/01awardees/b...

Second Term Worse than the First. Consumer sentiment is far worse in 2nd term than in 1st. Economic sentiment was a tremendous advantage in the first Trump term and is a tremendous burden in the second. 1/n

Scientists invented a fake disease. AI told people it was real Bixonimania doesn’t exist except in a clutch of obviously bogus academic papers. So why did AI chatbots warn people about this fictional illness?

This is quite extraordinary- scientists set a kind of trap for AI chat bots by inventing a fake disease. AI told people it was real and… the deliberately bogus preprints started being cited in peer reviewed literature 🫣
🧪 #MedSky

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🚨 NSF is already quietly eliminating the SBE Directorate, despite Congress’ mandate that NSF support the behavioral & social sciences.

Steps to counter this are in motion.

If you
- have an SBE proposal under review
- serve on an SBE grant panel

You can help! Fill out this form: shorturl.at/xuKw2

register for our CSDP Conference on Identity and Inequality, April 17-18 url:spia.princeton.edu/events/csdp-conference-i...

This is a fun read. I posted in the company Slack and the first response was appropriately yeah, 'scientists.' www.sciencealert.com/scientists-d...

"To put it bluntly, an X post today receives less than 3% of the views a single tweet delivered seven years ago."
If you think it is necessary to be on Twitter to communicate your fact-based worldview, the reality is that worldview is being smothered.

Trust in government data practices is rapidly deteriorating Elizabeth Laird, director of equity in civic technology at the non-profit Center for Democracy and Technology, says about three‑fourths of Americans are concerned about how the federal government handles their personal data, according to the organization’s newest survey.

New on NPR’s Marketplace Tech 🎧: CDT’s Elizabeth Laird breaks down why trust in US government data practices is slipping and what it means for everyday people.

Book cover: Partisan Hostility and American Democracy, by James Druckman, Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov, Matthew Levendusky and John Barry Ryan

In "Partisan Hostility and American Democracy," Jamie Druckman and coauthors explore the recent consequences of polarization. Druckman presents the Miller-Converse Lecture today at @umisrcps.bsky.social. More on this work: cpsblog.isr.umich.edu?p=3354

JAMES DRUCKMAN “To improve the world for the better, one needs to know the world. Science offers a primary way to rigorously know the world.”

TODAY: Jamie Druckman gives the Miller-Converse lecture at the @umisr.bsky.social, the university's preeminent lecture on American electoral politics. A foremost expert on polarization, Druckman will speak on American distrust in science. @electionstudies.bsky.social

events.umich.edu/event/139760

(2) if you have insights into the exact execution of the web-bases version of the GSS survey items (it's not well documented on NORC's website),

please reach out to me at d.lazer@northeastern.edu (put GSS in subject line).

Thanks!

CHIP50 will be doing a (roughly) synchronous, nonprob, replication of parts of the GSS. If:

(1) you have a module in the GSS and would potentially like a nonprob sample (no cost), or

We opened a new PhD position in our department focusing on CSS research on and with AI agents. Please share the job ad and contact us if you have questions: gesis.jobs.personio.de/job/2594220?...

Looks super interesting!

I see from this talk www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSgR... that @davidlazer.bsky.social gave that they have app-level data and biweekly mental health data too.

cross-device data (well browser/phone) is also nice for studying behaviour

👇 Cool opportunity for mobile data from @jsradford.bsky.social and Northeastern's National Internet Observatory

nationalinternetobservatory.org/researchers....

Of interest to @icamobile.bsky.social 📱

Thanks to @qinli0.bsky.social for sharing! ❤️

An image summarizing the tutorial's information. On top is a logo for the National Internet Observatory. Below it is the title of the tutorial: "Beyond APIs: Collecting Online Activity Data for Research using the National Internet Observatory." This is followed by a small subheading below "A Tutorial at ICWSM 2026". Below this are details in text: the location, tutorial time, and the conference dates. This screenshot is directly taken from the website of the tutorial that is linked in the post (2nd post in the thread).

How to obtain online activity data for research in the Post-API age? And what if there's already a unique collection of online activity data that you could obtain access to for your research? 👀

Come to our tutorial (organized w/ @davidlazer.bsky.social ) at @icwsm.bsky.social 2026 in LA! (1/7)