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Most recents (15)
🚨New Dataset Alert!🚨
What economic ideologies do political leaders have around the world?
A 🧵 on what we learn from the Global Leader Ideology dataset (GLI) I have built over the last four years, and why it matters.
#polisciresearch #socsciresearch
What economic ideologies do political leaders have around the world?
A 🧵 on what we learn from the Global Leader Ideology dataset (GLI) I have built over the last four years, and why it matters.
#polisciresearch #socsciresearch
Social scientists have long studied — and often found — that leftist governments pursue different policies than rightist governments (read a recent summary here: bit.ly/3yNHzVn). But this research has mainly focused on OECD countries, neglecting other parts of the world.
This focus on OECD countries in part is because researchers often use off-the-shelf datasets which only provide data on the ideologies of leaders and parties in OECD countries. This is where my GLI dataset comes in.
Excited to see our paper with @mapickup out in @Res_Pol today.
A lot of attention (justifiably!) has been focused on the role of partisanship in COVID attitudes and behaviors. We expand the scope by looking at populism, which cuts across the party lines.
#SocSciResearch
A lot of attention (justifiably!) has been focused on the role of partisanship in COVID attitudes and behaviors. We expand the scope by looking at populism, which cuts across the party lines.
#SocSciResearch
We focus on two dimensions of populism: anti-elite dimension and distrust of experts dimension.
They are distributed fairly evenly among Reps and Dems. Republicans tend to score higher on the distrust of experts dimension of populism and Democrats on the anti-elite dimension.
They are distributed fairly evenly among Reps and Dems. Republicans tend to score higher on the distrust of experts dimension of populism and Democrats on the anti-elite dimension.
We find that both dimensions of populist attitudes are independently strong predictors of believing in two COVID related conspiracy theories: believing that COVID is a Chinese bioweapon and that a vaccine already exists (this is based on a survey conducted on March 31, 2020).
Social scientists were no more accurate than lay people in predicting or assessing social consequences of COVID-19; estimates of the magnitude of change were off by more than 20% and <1/2 accurately predicted the direction of changes
#SocSciResearch
psyarxiv.com/g8f9s/
#SocSciResearch
psyarxiv.com/g8f9s/
According to their objective indicators, largest change was an increase in violence. People expected large increases in loneliness & decreases in life satisfaction that didn’t materialize & expected prejudice to increase; it declined. They overestimated increases in polarization
The study focused on aggregate US psychological indicators & mostly surveyed psychologists. But there were no big differences based on subject area or level. Lay people expressed more confidence in predictions. Lay & experts mostly agreed, with both vastly overestimating changes.
Many have expressed skepticism about calls for healing and #depolarization over the past few days. But what does the latest research indicate about the prospects for reconciliation? Let’s look at the #SocSciResearch...1/9
An experiment that asked Democrats and Republicans to discuss politics in person for just 15 minutes improved their attitudes towards each other by *70 percent* compared to a control group. See @m_levendusky ‘s forthcoming book “Our Common Bonds” 2/9
Brief cross-party conversations seem to be effective even if they occur on an online chat platform created to pair partisans to discuss controversial topics (~9 point increase on a 0-100 point “feeling thermometer”. See @erinrossiter’s job market paper (then hire her ;) 3/9
Genetic influences on social life stem from combining many small & conditional factors, but polygenic scores are useful for assessing both genetic & environmental factors & how they change by national & temporal context
#SocSciResearch
annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.114…
#SocSciResearch
annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.114…
Lay estimates of genetic influence mostly match heritability estimates from twin studies, but social scientists & the public still contemplate much more direct influences than GWAS find. More free societies may also increase genetic over social influence
annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.114…
annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.114…
analogies to social variables are instructive. A composite individual-level variable like socio-economic status also likely combines many small influences dependent on context. An aggregate variable like inequality is also a snapshot that compresses many stable & dynamic factors
💥New WP: Hate Trumps Love💥
RQ: study behavioral-, belief- & norm-based mechanisms through which perceptions of closeness, altruism & cooperativeness are affected by political polarization under @realDonaldTrump
Findings: it’s grim
Paper: bit.ly/32TNKrk
Short thread👇
RQ: study behavioral-, belief- & norm-based mechanisms through which perceptions of closeness, altruism & cooperativeness are affected by political polarization under @realDonaldTrump
Findings: it’s grim
Paper: bit.ly/32TNKrk
Short thread👇
1/11
Rising political polarization is often linked to fractured societies rife with racial inequality, factional conflict & partisan animosity.
In the U.S., many issues yield a surprising partisan divide, think mask wearing (see also recent paper by @spbhanot & @dhopkins1776)
Rising political polarization is often linked to fractured societies rife with racial inequality, factional conflict & partisan animosity.
In the U.S., many issues yield a surprising partisan divide, think mask wearing (see also recent paper by @spbhanot & @dhopkins1776)
2/11
In multiple pre-registered *behavioral* experiments, I study the perceptional & behavioral consequences of polarization.
In particular, I examine the behavioral-, belief-, and norm-based mechanisms with which this political intergroup conflict materializes.
In multiple pre-registered *behavioral* experiments, I study the perceptional & behavioral consequences of polarization.
In particular, I examine the behavioral-, belief-, and norm-based mechanisms with which this political intergroup conflict materializes.
I will now start labeling new political science research with the #polisciresearch hashtag in the hopes that it leads to more coordination & research sharing.
#SocSciResearch will still be available for the archive & my tweets of non-polisci papers.
Thanks @dhopkins1776
#SocSciResearch will still be available for the archive & my tweets of non-polisci papers.
Thanks @dhopkins1776
I will try to do a regular #polisciresearch search & boost new papers.
Please tweet your summaries, even if I've already linked.
My advice is to tweet Findings Not Topics, even if they are descriptive or summaries of literatures & even when you expand in a tweet thread below.
Please tweet your summaries, even if I've already linked.
My advice is to tweet Findings Not Topics, even if they are descriptive or summaries of literatures & even when you expand in a tweet thread below.
Most readers visit news sites & articles from mostly centrist or center-left online sources. Republicans are divided between a majority that visits mostly centrist sources & a minority that is more restricted to conservative sites
1/3
#SocSciResearch
dropbox.com/s/3rjsnp8k3im7…
1/3
#SocSciResearch
dropbox.com/s/3rjsnp8k3im7…
Journalists & pundits perceive filter bubbles because that is what they see. Those with extreme media diets are more regular site visitors & voters. Users with far-right media diets repeatedly visit right-wing sites. (similar to Fox News; high ratings come from nightly watchers)
Great stuff in new @andyguess paper, including article-specific measures:
dropbox.com/s/3rjsnp8k3im7…
But still comes down partially to placing news sources (based on sharing). This replicates the common pattern: ~anything not specifically conservative is ~liberal. ? is if it's true
dropbox.com/s/3rjsnp8k3im7…
But still comes down partially to placing news sources (based on sharing). This replicates the common pattern: ~anything not specifically conservative is ~liberal. ? is if it's true
Democrats & Republicans have substantially more positive feelings toward ordinary people belonging to the opposing party than they do toward politicians in the opposing party & the party itself. Personal partisan animosity is overstated
#SocSciResearch
cambridge.org/core/journals/…
#SocSciResearch
cambridge.org/core/journals/…
builds on work showing party feeling thermometers measure attitudes towards politicians not affective polarization toward voters:
But the new article explicitly asks about “ordinary members of the ___ party”, showing that is not what people have in mind https://t.co/Ani1oNzJOg
But the new article explicitly asks about “ordinary members of the ___ party”, showing that is not what people have in mind https://t.co/Ani1oNzJOg
I wrote about our overstatement of political tribalism, including this evidence that our negativity is mostly directed at institutions & officials, rather than partisan electorates, here:
niskanencenter.org/political-trib…
niskanencenter.org/political-trib…
🚨New pre-print 🚨by @PeejLoewen and I out of the @MediaEcosystem project on how prospective economic cost reduces social distancing expectations. We think this is an important one. Bear with me for a long-ish thread 👇1/
#SocSciResearch #Covid_19
osf.io/yht9v/
#SocSciResearch #Covid_19
osf.io/yht9v/
Citizens have been asked to take a variety of costly actions to protect themselves and others (i.e. social/physical distancing). This behaviour is essential in the absence of #TestAndTrace and a mass produced vaccine. How sustainable is this? We need more research 2/
We see public health during a pandemic as a public good to which citizens can make a costly contribution by socially distancing themselves. Participation will influenced, in part, by its marginal cost and benefit, and by expectations of other people's behaviour 3/
🚨New pre-print 🚨by the @MediaEcosystem team on anti-intellectualism and information preferences during the #COVID19 pandemic. Check it out! 👀👇#SocSciResearch #scicomm 1/
osf.io/agm57/
osf.io/agm57/
Building on work by @AlbertsonB2 and @sgadarian, we expect that individuals will have preference for both expert information related to #COVID19 and #COVID19 news in general. But, that these effects will be weaker among those with higher levels of anti-intellectual sentiment 2/
We use two survey experiments on a pair of large, nationally representative samples of Canadians (N~2,500) to show that 1) citizens prefer expert information, and this effect weakens among those with high levels of anti-intellectualism; 3/
.@jarretcrawford & I wrote 3 reviews describing our joint research on ideology & prejudice. Summary follows!
Long (overview): osf.io/t7vpw/
Short (methods ): osf.io/2kcdf/
Short (disagreement?): osf.io/bnga2/
#SocSciResearch
Long (overview): osf.io/t7vpw/
Short (methods ): osf.io/2kcdf/
Short (disagreement?): osf.io/bnga2/
#SocSciResearch
We are interested in when and why people with different belief systems express prejudice and intolerance towards other groups.
The central question that we have examined is whether people with more traditional and conservative worldviews experience more worldview conflict (and so express more prejudice) than people with more progressive and liberal worldviews.
[Thread] New paper by & with @jarretcrawford finds that the personality correlates of generalized prejudice different depending on the operationalization.
Paper: osf.io/zce8v/
#SocSciResearch
Paper: osf.io/zce8v/
#SocSciResearch
The traditional, and narrower operationalization, consistently finds (in our work and previously) that low Agreeableness and low Openness is associated with generalized prejudice.
However a broader operationalization that includes more target groups finds that low Agreeableness is associated with generalized prejudice, but Openness isn't so related anymore.
THREAD: The rise of political tribalism might be overstated, according to political scientist @MattGrossmann. niskanencenter.org/blog/political…
Since the 2016 election, there HAS been a real rise in negative partisanship...and party bias may even have economic consequences. BUT there are a few caveats: soundcloud.com/user-735940457…
1.When answering questions about opposing parties, citizens tend to think more about political leaders than their fellow citizens. And many citizens dislike BOTH parties’ leaders.
white Republicans who are both racially conservative & highly knowledgeable were most likely to believe Obama birther rumors
#SocSciResearch
cambridge.org/core/journals/…
#SocSciResearch
cambridge.org/core/journals/…
In this study, racially conservative = higher scores on racial resentment index (explained below) & highly knowledgeable means answering more factual questions about American politics (eg what is the name of the Vice President?) correctly; interactive relationships figure below:
- “racially conservative” is authors’ term & in common academic usage, not mine or new
- 1 conclusion of near-30-year academic debate about what racial resentment items (in image above) measure is that views of racial group disadvantage are now integrated in conventional ideology
- 1 conclusion of near-30-year academic debate about what racial resentment items (in image above) measure is that views of racial group disadvantage are now integrated in conventional ideology
