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Matthew P. Hitt

@matthewhitt.bsky.social

Political scientist at Colorado State University. American politics, judicial politics, political communication. My books and other stuff: www.Matthewphitt.com.

880 Followers  |  1,873 Following  |  16 Posts  |  Joined: 19.09.2023  |  2.3161

Latest posts by matthewhitt.bsky.social on Bluesky

Mindset to gain? Framing effects, Need for Chaos, and the limits of ‘Burning It All Down’ | Behavioural Public Policy | Cambridge Core Mindset to gain? Framing effects, Need for Chaos, and the limits of ‘Burning It All Down’

in case you missed it when I posted the preprint on acceptance, here's the more aesthetically pleasing, actually formatted (and unfortunately timely) article for your reading pleasure! (cc: Fitz, @stecula.bsky.social, @matthewhitt.bsky.social):

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

17.10.2025 14:03 — 👍 4    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

Pairs nicely with: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/.... Open Acess right now, to boot.

06.10.2025 13:44 — 👍 7    🔁 3    💬 1    📌 0
OSF

New (very timely!) paper with Erin Fitz, @stecula.bsky.social,
@matthewhitt.bsky.social & myself, accepted at Behavioural Public Policy entitled "Mindset to Gain? Framing Effects, Need for Chaos, and the Limits of 'Burning It All Down'"--a thread and a link:

osf.io/preprints/ps...

25.09.2025 16:12 — 👍 6    🔁 6    💬 1    📌 1
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Newspaper Closures Polarize Voting Behavior Abstract. Changes to the media environment have increased polarized voting in America through both addition and subtraction. We argue that the decline of l

Does the loss of local newspapers affect the political divide in America? You bet it does! How? Researchers found that when a local newspaper closed before an election, people switched to national news, meaning less exposure to local races and increased partisan voting. Source: zurl.co/kxxSU

15.07.2025 13:01 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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Home Style Opinion: How Local Newspapers Can Slow Polarization - Political Science | Colorado State University Author: Matthew Hitt, Joshua Darr, Johanna Dunaway Summary: Local newspapers can hold back the rising tide of political division in America by turning away from the partisan battles in Washington and ...

Thanks for sharing our work! Our follow-up book showed that when a local paper emphasized local/state politics over national on its opinion page, that slowed the growth of polarization among residents of the community. polisci.colostate.edu/2022/04/home...

16.07.2025 13:45 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Logo of the Journal of Policy History, featuring the acronym 'JPH' in large, stylized letters on a pale yellow background.

Logo of the Journal of Policy History, featuring the acronym 'JPH' in large, stylized letters on a pale yellow background.

#OpenAccess from the new issue of the Journal of Policy History -

“The Future of the US Supreme Court: Ethics, Polarization, and Reform” - cup.org/43ZF3fK

- @jboxsteff.bsky.social, Nicholas T. Davis &‪ @matthewhitt.bsky.social

04.06.2025 10:45 — 👍 5    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1
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Is the Supreme Court losing its legitimacy? - College of Liberal Arts New CSU research examines how the American people view the U.S. Supreme Court and what that could mean for democracy.

Appreciated the nice writeup about my work with @ntd.bsky.social by CSU's communications team. Thinking a lot about this project today as the Court debates birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment. libarts.source.colostate.edu/is-the-supre...

13.05.2025 15:31 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
08.05.2025 16:15 — 👍 3530    🔁 723    💬 29    📌 13

This will sound weird but love yourself enough to write your own term papers.

05.05.2025 16:12 — 👍 7249    🔁 1131    💬 98    📌 84

Driscoll, Krehbiel, and I have been polling with @today.yougov.com about Americans' support for defying the judiciary since the start of covid. Overall story has been stasis. But, since July, a 12% increase among Democrats in support for presidents obeying courts and a 17% drop among Republicans.

02.05.2025 11:45 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

Thanks Erin!

30.04.2025 16:23 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Partisan sorting, fatalism, and Supreme Court legitimacy by Nicholas T. Davis and Matthew P. Hitt is now available in Early View. @matthewhitt.bsky.social ajps.org/2025/04/28/p...

29.04.2025 21:44 — 👍 29    🔁 11    💬 0    📌 0

Thanks for the shoutout! I'd be very curious to know how these kinds of dynamics replicate or not at the local levels of government. Good luck with the project!

28.04.2025 20:58 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

This is how 60-70% of American adults think about housing markets.

27.04.2025 18:09 — 👍 531    🔁 70    💬 14    📌 13

Happy Independent Bookstore Day! Read Maris's piece, then go show your local indie bookstore some love. They're so much more than places to get books--they are places to engage with ideas and others in your community. Staffed by actual humans to help you find the books you didn't know you needed!

26.04.2025 14:38 — 👍 1368    🔁 457    💬 30    📌 30

Thanks Nick, and I couldn't have said it any better myself. And thanks to everyone for the kind words and for sharing this!

25.04.2025 15:05 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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its officially alive 😭

online-first: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

background: @matthewhitt.bsky.social and I struck out on an NSF in 2022, but later won a RAPID grant. the project doesnt happen w/o Reggie Sheehan at the NSF. winding journey but working w one of your best mates is a joy.

24.04.2025 15:26 — 👍 77    🔁 21    💬 5    📌 2

we have now posted the 2024 Cooperative Election Study common content dataset to the @harvarddataverse.bsky.social! data from 60,000 American adults interviewed before & after the election. thanks to @today.yougov.com & Caroline Soler for getting this data produced & posted doi.org/10.7910/DVN/...

02.04.2025 17:37 — 👍 94    🔁 36    💬 3    📌 3
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curious to see whether SCOTUS permits Trump's abuse of constitution across lots of issues but rn it looks like trump take legitimacy. @matthewhitt.bsky.social and i are finally...finally forthcoming in AJPS talking at length abt a new era of judicial public opinion.

preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...

17.03.2025 19:12 — 👍 47    🔁 17    💬 3    📌 1
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Several red state AGs including mine are suing to dismantle 504s in schools.

Please, call your reps and AGs to demand they let all children learn in public schools. The end goal is to delete all special education services. All accommodations.

13.02.2025 14:35 — 👍 1122    🔁 556    💬 87    📌 47
Promotional image for "Journal of Law and Courts" featuring the text "New Issue Online" on a blue background

Promotional image for "Journal of Law and Courts" featuring the text "New Issue Online" on a blue background

NEW ISSUE -

Journal of Law and Courts - Volume 12 - Issue 2 - cup.org/3WylRBE

With papers by @zoerobinson.bsky.social, @matthewhitt.bsky.social, @lisanhager.bsky.social‬, @annamccaghren.bsky.social, @mdm.bsky.social & more

24.01.2025 14:04 — 👍 7    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 2

@matthewhitt.bsky.social and I argue that this catastrophic loss of specific support - mostly among Ds - is the death knell of SCOTUS’ legitimacy.

Final pre-print vers while awaiting replication approval: osf.io/preprints/ps...

17.12.2024 14:22 — 👍 10    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0

Provocative (and interesting and worth your consideration to my eye) new paper, indeed...

04.12.2024 19:45 — 👍 8    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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in @matthewhitt.bsky.social and my book project "Supremely Polarizing," we argue that support for rule of law is a euphemism for pro-status-quo-authority; such beliefs cease to function as "democratic values" - republicans score high, democrats lower but law is now used to harm rather than defend...

21.11.2024 14:56 — 👍 7    🔁 4    💬 1    📌 1
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Just published on APSR First View: "Interpersonal Relationships, Bipartisanship, and January 6th" by James M. Curry and Jason Roberts. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

21.11.2024 14:33 — 👍 53    🔁 19    💬 1    📌 5

Took a crack at the Political Communication starter pack. Sorry for all the great folks I undoubtedly missed

go.bsky.app/J1U6jVe

20.11.2024 22:45 — 👍 82    🔁 42    💬 19    📌 3

@matthewhitt is following 19 prominent accounts