Research & Politics

🧩 Gocer & Miller: In a 2019 U.S. survey experiment, whites who feel like “political losers” oppose redistribution only when explicitly compared to non-whites—a subtle framing cue with big implications for status threat and right-wing populism. Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

🚨 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/10.1177/20…

@Makito_T, @Chanki_Moon & @Hiro_IMADA test if target publics “see” audience costs. In a pre-registered US survey (N=1,404), people infer domestic punishment for backing down—but credibility doesnt differ for democratic vs autocratic challengers. Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

Birkenmaier, Stroppe, Wurthmann & Sältzer use NLP+Wikidata on 50k tweets and 190k FB posts (Bundestag 2017–2021) to map geographic representation. District MPs cite nearer places - and deprived areas in-district - more than list MPs. Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

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: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

Batista, Calvo & @ShibleyTelhami'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. Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

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/10.11…

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. Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Gender stereotypes shape scandal reactions. Fernanda Quintanilla Domínguez, @rbellmartin & Brett Ryan Bessen find that in Mexico, women accused of “out-of-character” misconduct were rated more favorably—especially by benevolent sexists. Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

Using synthetic difference-in-differences, this study by @rivkalipko finds that strict voter ID laws have no 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/10.11…

New article by @algaraca, Byengseon Bae, @EdHeadington, 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. Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

Political agendas ignore the poor's preferences. Hen Hana Kersenti Feldman and @Ilanashp show that Israel's Knesset Public Inquiries Committee (CPI) exposes MPs to citizen grievances, boosting representation of lower- and middle-class issues. Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

New study by @professorcostas, Green & Moniz tests the “mere exposure” effect in real-world elections. Across 3 experiments, simply seeing challengers’ names doesn’t boost support—even with party labels. Name recognition alone ≠ votes. Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20…

@mofferw 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. Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

@adamramey 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. Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…

@jenjpan & @xuyiqing: 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 w/education, knowledge. Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…