Research & Politics

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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.

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Little room for motivated reasoning? How partisans respond to government misconduct with well-substantiated evidence - Wataru Onishi, 2026 How do voters respond to a political scandal? Previous studies emphasize partisan motivated reasoning as a key factor in shaping responses to political scandals...

🚨 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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Audience costs in the eyes of an adversary - Makito Takei, Chanki Moon, Hirotaka Imada, 2026 Audience cost theory suggests that as a country increases its audience costs, it can send a credible threat to an opponent and prevail in an international crisi...

@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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Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

@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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Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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/...

The use of confirmation and refutation frames in fact-checking war-related misinformation - Carolina F. T. Batista, Ernesto Calvo, Shibley Telhami, 2026 We implement a survey experiment to measure the effects of confirmation versus refutation frames in fact-checking wartime corrections. Respondents were presente...

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.

Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

@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.

Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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....

Stereotypes and scandals: Politician gender and public judgments about scandal in Mexico - Fernanda Quintanilla Domínguez, Rebecca Bell-Martin, Brett Ryan Bessen, 2025 This article examines how politician gender shapes voter judgments about political scandal in Mexico. We test the hypothesis that individuals discount or disbel...

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Gauging preference stability under authoritarianism - Jennifer Pan, Yiqing Xu, 2025 Do people living under authoritarianism exhibit stable, constrained preferences? Autocrats have incentives to suppress the formation of stable preferences struc...

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Strict voter identification laws and turnout: Differential effects by election type and adoption timing - Rivka Lipkovitz, 2025 Voter identification (ID) requirements remain a contested policy issue in American elections, with existing research producing mixed findings about their causal...

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....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

From citizen input to a more egalitarian agenda: Public inquiries and the policy agenda - Hen Hana Kersenti Feldman, Ilana Shpaizman, 2025 Public inquiries serve as a path for citizens to convey daily grievances directly to politicians, seeking resolutions. This paper examines their role as an info...

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Revisiting name recognition and candidate support: Experimental tests of the mere exposure hypothesis - Costas Panagopoulos, Donald P. Green, Philip Moniz, 2025 Often lacking adequate information to guide their votes, voters may be susceptible to subtle psychological influences, including name recognition. For decades, ...

New study by @professorcostas.bsky.social, 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: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Toxicity and U.S. Senate candidate Twitter messaging in the 2022 election - Jeffrey A. Stone, 2025 Social media has had a transformative effect on politics and governance. While research into the consequences of social media use on politics and governance is ...

@stonejpsu.bsky.social analyzes X posts from 2022 U.S. Senate candidates to assess alignment with prevailing toxicity perceptions. Findings indicate generally low toxicity, with notable temporal and group-level variation.

Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

@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.

Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

@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.

Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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....

Stereotypes and scandals: Politician gender and public judgments about scandal in Mexico - Fernanda Quintanilla Domínguez, Rebecca Bell-Martin, Brett Ryan Bessen, 2025 This article examines how politician gender shapes voter judgments about political scandal in Mexico. We test the hypothesis that individuals discount or disbel...

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Gauging preference stability under authoritarianism - Jennifer Pan, Yiqing Xu, 2025 Do people living under authoritarianism exhibit stable, constrained preferences? Autocrats have incentives to suppress the formation of stable preferences struc...

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Strict voter identification laws and turnout: Differential effects by election type and adoption timing - Rivka Lipkovitz, 2025 Voter identification (ID) requirements remain a contested policy issue in American elections, with existing research producing mixed findings about their causal...

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....

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Nils-Christian Bormann and Simon Hug ask:

Do proportional representation rules induce power-sharing coalition and thereby decrease conflict risk? No! But formally mandated executive power-sharing institutions do.

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Seeing is believing: Voluntary gender quotas change female leadership stereotypes - Vladimir Chlouba, 2025 Can gender quotas voluntarily adopted by political parties alter stereotypical views about women in politics? This article examines Namibia’s SWAPO, an electora...

Can voluntary gender quotas shift views on women in politics? Vladimir Chlouba’s study of Namibia’s SWAPO finds that a 50/50 quota increased women’s belief in equal political access—without backlash from men, reshaping perceptions of leadership.

Read more here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

From citizen input to a more egalitarian agenda: Public inquiries and the policy agenda - Hen Hana Kersenti Feldman, Ilana Shpaizman, 2025 Public inquiries serve as a path for citizens to convey daily grievances directly to politicians, seeking resolutions. This paper examines their role as an info...

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.

Read more: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Revisiting name recognition and candidate support: Experimental tests of the mere exposure hypothesis - Costas Panagopoulos, Donald P. Green, Philip Moniz, 2025 Often lacking adequate information to guide their votes, voters may be susceptible to subtle psychological influences, including name recognition. For decades, ...

New study by @professorcostas.bsky.social, 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: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...