Natan Skigin

Many Americans hold contradictory opinions on the same policies Our new poll finds question wording can swing opinion by 20+ points on immigration, the budget, and transgender rights. That's a problem for people who use polls to tell politicians what voters want.

Finally got to @gelliottmorris.com's piece this week on how poll question wording dramatically affects responses. It's excellent. This is classic stuff in the political behavior subfield of poli sci, but we don't hear enough about it in punditry.

www.gelliottmorris.com/p/many-ameri...

Many Americans hold contradictory opinions on the same policies Our new poll finds question wording can swing opinion by 20+ points on immigration, the budget, and transgender rights. That's a problem for people who use polls to tell politicians what voters want.

Great blog post by @gelliottmorris.com which is backed by decades of academic research. How you ask a question impacts how people answer the question!

This has important consequences for how to think about puic opinion and how to treat opinion polls. Short 🧵

New article by Ayelén Vanegas. It explores how redistributive attitudes react to citizens' evaluations of policy results. It is a fascinating analysis of the conditions under which beneficiaries of social policies cease to support them. Fantastic work.

www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cuny...

The summer undergraduate internship is a paid opportunity during the summer of 2026. Interns are expected to work a minimum of 30 hours/week and are paid $18.50/hour. This internship is available to undergraduate students with an interest in public opinion, survey research, and data science. Pew Research Center is an office-based workplace, with all staff working in the Center’s Washington, D.C., office three core days weekly (Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday).  Staff have the flexibility to work remotely up to two days per week. A modest relocation stipend is available for candidates who need it. Internship dates: June 1-Aug. 14, 2026 (with alternative dates of June 15-Aug. 28, 2026 also available) Education/Training/Experience College students who are pursuing a bachelor’s or associate degree and have completed a minimum of two years (in other words, rising juniors and seniors).

Please share - multiple summer 2026 in-person undergrad internship opportunities at @pewresearch.org!
- religion
- digital
- social trends
- data journalism
- global
- news
- internet
- AI
- admin
- race
- science
- methods
- politics

Apply soon!
pewtrusts.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/Center...

What does everyday peacebuilding look like? Rincón-Unigarro et al. examine a Colombian city's annual mixed-race festival as a large-scale collective action to build trust and social cohesion through shared cultural expression and communion. Read the full piece online: doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Our new paper!

Logo of Political Science Research and Methods featuring the initials "PSRM" in a stylized white font on a black background.

#OpenAccess from @psrm.bsky.social -

Preemptive multipartism and democratic transitions - https://cup.org/4qhmLPo

- @natanski.bsky.social & @aperezli.bsky.social

#FirstView

Sometimes a divided opposition is not a good sign for dictators. We explain this with @natanski.bsky.social

I'm re-upping our new open access article on why armies shoot their own soldiers in light of recent reports that more than 100 Russian officers have been confirmed as ordering the execution of their own soldiers in more than 12,000 reported incidents

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Measuring the Ideology of Political Parties Worldwide
vrollet.github.io/files/Ideolo...

Experimental participants to us

We’re accepting submissions for Fall 2025 until August 14.

If you’re on the market, it’s a great chance to practice your job talk with an audience!

We also welcome paper presentations.

Apply here: iu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Thanks Christina!!

ND grad students killing it this year! A 2nd discipline-wide diss prize: The @apsa.bsky.social political psychology award goes to the amazing @natanski.bsky.social Natan Skigin for “Challenging Stigma from Below: How Human Rights Movements Contest Repressive States and Shape Democratic Citizenship.”

The Experimental Research section of the American Political Science Association (@experimentsapsa.bsky.social) invites research proposals from post-prospectus PhD students for its Experimental Research Early-Career Fellowship program. Share this post! @apsa.bsky.social, @poscresearch.bsky.social

position_jitter()

position_jitter_ellipse()

position_sunflower()

position_circlepack()

New visualization tool alert!

The vayr package version 1.0.0 is now on CRAN.

It contains position adjustments for ggplot2 that help with overplotting in pleasing ways. My favorite is position_sunflower().

- install.packages("vayr")
- alexandercoppock.com/vayr

#rstats #ggplot2 #dataviz

1/ I just published a new article titled “Criminal Violence, the State, & Society” in the Annual Review of Political Science, which examines the growing political science research on criminal violence over the past 15 years.

Link 👉https://go.shr.lc/3GnoH7f

Here is a summary of some key insights...

Having published a book recently, I found it sometimes hard to understand how the process worked (and luckily, had very kind mentors who helped).

I have uploaded a short document detailing how my experience went, in case others find it helpful: www.vicentevalentim.com/_files/ugd/a...

Graph showing the rise in number of journalists killed in the wake of the War on Drugs.

New research by @natanski.bsky.social & Guillermo Trejo reveals a stark increase in violence against journalists in militarized regions of Mexico amid the War on Drugs, driven by local government and cartel interests in criminal governance. loom.ly/K5LVzgI

New important research by Guillermo Trejo & @natanski.bsky.social on violence against local journalists in Mexico's drug war.

"Silencing the Press in Criminal Wars: Why the War on Drugs Turned Mexico into the World’s Most Dangerous Country for Journalists"

Link here: bit.ly/4h1R74j

Abstract of article titled "The partisanship of mayors has no detectable effect on police spending, police employment, crime, or arrests"

Are Democratic leaders making cities more dangerous than Republicans? Trump + others have repeatedly made claims like this. New paper in Science Advances w/ @chriswarshaw.bsky.social, Dan Jones & Matt Harvey shows that, in short, the answer is no.

¿Quién democratiza a quién? La sociedad organizada y la lucha silenciosa por el cambio en Venezuela La falta de coordinación sostenida en la estrategia de la oposición ha contribuido a apuntalar al chavismo en el poder

elpais.com/america/2025...
De @maryhenjimenez.bsky.social y Veronica Zubillaga. Muy buena lectura

Happy to share a new working paper "Calculation and Conscience: Motivations for the Substantive Representation of Ethnic Minorities" (with Stepahnie Zonszein, Apurav Bhatia and Will Dinneen). See osf.io/preprints/os...

Program Evaluation for Public Service – Program Evaluation Combine research design, causal inference, and econometric tools to measure the effects of social programs

The course websites for my Spring 2025 causal inference and data visualization classes (both with #rstats) are live!

evalsp25.classes.andrewheiss.com

datavizsp25.classes.andrewheiss.com

In a democracy, when and where should majorities rule? And when should their powers be limited? Steve Levitsky and I propose a framework to think through these questions in a new piece in the January 2025 issue of 'Journal of Democracy'
muse.jhu.edu/article/947880

Silencing the Press in Criminal Wars: Why the War on Drugs Turned Mexico into the World’s Most Dangerous Country for Journalists @poppublicsphere.bsky.social Guillermo Trejo
@natanski.bsky.social

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Just published on APSR First View: "The Vietnam Draft Lottery and Whites’ Racial Attitudes: Evidence from the General Social Survey" by Donald Green and Oliver Hyman-Metzger. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

25 años después, fue el Estado: la Corte Interamericana condena a México por la desaparición del zapatista Antonio González El tribunal internacional sanciona al país por el caso de un miembro del EZLN y del PRD que fue desaparecido por grupos paramilitares en Chiapas en 1999

25 años después, fue el Estado: la Corte Interamericana condena a México por la desaparición del zapatista Antonio González - elpais.com/mexico/2024-...

Massacre in Haiti Ordered by Gang Leader Leaves Over 100 Dead, Rights Group Says The killings in a Port-au-Prince slum, which appeared to target practitioners of voodoo, were ordered by a gang leader, a human rights organization said.

Breaking News: A massacre ordered by a gang leader left more than 100 people dead in Haiti’s capital, a rights group said.

Congratulations to Weatherhead Scholars Program Postdoctoral Fellow @natanski.bsky.social on receiving the 2024 Kellogg Dissertation Award! loom.ly/Oik-ECI