@poalab.bsky.social
An academic collaboration between University of Reading, London School of Economics, and University of Southampton, designed to advance the research, teaching, and practice of public opinion and political behaviour measurement and analysis poal.co.uk
🚨 New POAL brief from @victoraraujo.bsky.social & @miriamsorace.bsky.social out now: how to properly evaluate the causal impact of shocks, debates, and political crises on public opinion.
Diagnostics, pitfalls, examples … all in three pages!
Read here: www.poal.co.uk/POAL_brief_U...
May be of interest: @opiniumresearch.bsky.social @veriangroup.com @deltapoll.bsky.social @anthonyjwells.bsky.social @adamdrummond.bsky.social @joetwyman.bsky.social
New POAL methods brief out from @miriamsorace.bsky.social 🚨
Outdated policy‑insight frameworks = bad strategy, as exemplified by the government's current woes.
Here’s how to fix how we track what voters think about policy: www.poal.co.uk/miriam_brief...
"The strategic use of negative campaigning in political fundraising is likely to continue through this next election cycle"
Check out @politicallyinsane.bsky.social's write-up on Substack about recent research from POAL members on negative campaigning
politicsinsane.substack.com/p/defeat-the...
📣 Call to all passionate political Behaviour scholars !
Are you an academic in Political Behaviour ?
Do you know people who you think would be great to discuss political behavior on our podcast?
Then reply to this by (i)tagging them here and (ii)repost !
Looking forward to your suggestions!
The latest episode, hosted by Sarina Sharma-Welsh in conversation with @miguelpereira.bsky.social, is about how politicians learn what voters want, why elite blind spots persist, and how representation can get distorted.
Listen here: pod.link/1851725697/e...
The third episode features @sarahobolt.bsky.social in a discussion of political entrepreneurs such as Farage and Trump and how they are disrupting traditional party system.
Listen here: pod.link/1851725697/e...
The second episode is with Dr Elisa Wirsching, discussing power struggles between politicians and public servants and explore how everyday decisions — and even elections — can be shaped by the clash between them.
Listen here: pod.link/1851725697/e...
The first episode is a discussion on the effect of campaigns with @florianfoos.bsky.social. They discuss how the relationship between political elites and citizens is evolving, whether persuasion still happens, and how it might happen.
Listen here: pod.link/1851725697/e...
We’re delighted to announce that the Politically In/Sane podcast is now part of POAL!
Hosted by Marc Bokobza, the podcast dives into Political Behaviour, exploring how people think, feel, and act politically with insights from prominent experts.
Find it here: www.poal.co.uk/events/
Delighted that our @jwfurlong.bsky.social @academic.oup.com book The Changing Electoral Map of England and Wales has been shortlisted for the @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social Mackenzie Book Prize (along with five other excellent books!). www.psa.ac.uk/news/mackenz...
Read the full report here -> www.southampton.ac.uk/publicpolicy...
📢 JOB ALERT! Postdoc opportunity in Political Behaviour & Political Economy (UKRI‑funded) - Please do share with anyone who might be a great fit. If you’re interested or would like to know more, please feel free to get in touch!! jobs.reading.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
For the historical polling nerds out there, an article about our project with @ropercenter.bsky.social that digitised ~800 surveys by Gallup poll in Britain between 1955 and 1991 has been published in JEPOP. The merged dataset contains over three-quarters of a million respondents.
"Safeguarding data quality is no longer a single checkpoint but an end-to-end pipeline - one that reallocates substantial resources from sampling to continuous fraud monitoring"
Read our new POAL Methods Brief by @laurenleek.eu on dealing with AI bots in surveys!
Link: www.poal.co.uk/briefai.pdf
"While testing one dimension at a time can yield simple results, those effects may not generalise to richer, real-world contexts."
Read our new POAL Methods Briefs on Conjoint Experiments from Thomas Robinson!
Link: www.poal.co.uk/research/met...
Tariffs might be the word of 2025.
Given the state of *looks around* we asked: is there demand for tariffs in Europe?
@grahn.bsky.social @katharinalawall.bsky.social @sophiemainz.bsky.social Maria Nordbrandt & I show the answer is a resolute no
@jeppjournal.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1080/1350...
Nano-targeting is not a persuasive weapon: it is a dissuasion and polarization weapon. New paper out osf.io/preprints/so... with the brilliant Thomas Robinson, @simonhix.bsky.social and @fresejoris.bsky.social – the first to quantify the perverse incentives/inherent democratic dangers of this tech.
A major step forward for large-scale survey research from our own Thomas Robinson & @patricksturg.bsky.social: SOCbot is a powerful AI tool for open-ended survey items—fast, cheap, reduces burden, and tackles longstanding measurement error in social science & labour stats
Paper: tinyurl.com/2yxcbshs
ESRC-funded PhD @lsegovernment.bsky.social × Campaign Lab: New Ways to Think Political Persuasion (start Sep 2026, 3.5 yrs)
Methods-heavy (experiments/computation)
Topics: multi-stage persuasion, interpersonal mechanisms, AI–voter interactions
📅Apply by 10 Dec 2025: www.lse.ac.uk/study-at-lse...
Are you, or do you know, someone who wants to do a PhD?
Applications are open for full funding (scholarship + maintenance) @sotonpolitics.bsky.social through the @scdtp.bsky.social
Get in touch if you're interested
southcoastdtp.ac.uk/apply/
Radical right accommodation really does not work.
New paper out with this exceptionally talented team
@katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk
doi.org/10.31235/osf...
Thrilled to share this 16-country conjoint experiment with @catherinedevries.bsky.social & @simonhix.bsky.social. We find strong support for majoritarian reforms and tougher legal enforcement, even when paired with policies people dislike. Policy-inelastic institutional preferences exist! A 🧵...
The full report from our launch event is now available on our website!
It includes key takeaways from our three roundtable discussions on various aspects of public opinion research.
Read it here: publicopinionanalyticslab.github.io/event1_repor...
Delighted to see the 2nd edition of Foundations of European Politics 🇪🇺 in print! @catherinedevries.bsky.social @sopro.bsky.social @jbslapin.bsky.social
If you teach EU or European politics, you can order an inspection copy here: global.oup.com/ushe/product...
Out now🎉 - Evidence (from distribution analyses and machine learning models on EES 2014-2024 data) of strong similarities and growing convergence in EU public opinion, particularly on economic issues. Common right-ward shifts on immigration, yes - but underlying drivers still vary. shorturl.at/KCx0S
"Yes, there is ‘enshittification’ of surveys. But let me be the typical academic and point out that there are also many nuances and solutions"
@laurenleek.eu followed up her previous substack with more insights and ideas on survey quality!
laurenleek.substack.com/p/the-quiet-...
Kick-off Meeting and Workshop on AI for Survey Data Collection Methods and Data Analysis — connect and learn from other researchers in this field
📅 Wed 9th July, 10am-4pm
📍UCL IOE, London
Submit your proposal by: Thursday 29th May, 5pm
Link for info and sign up: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Some sharp insights from our very own @laurenleek.eu on the challenges AI poses to survey quality!
Re-upping this -- deadline Wednesday. Please reach out if you you're interested but unsure whether or not your work fits the theme. We can't guarantee a spot for every proposal, but we also really don't want people to self-select out!