Research & Politics

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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....

Do congressional candidates benefit from rejecting PAC contributions? Evidence from a pre-registered candidate evaluation survey experiment - Michelangelo Landgrave, Nicholas R. Jenkins, Aubree J. Har... Do congressional candidates benefit electorally from the public’s disdain of political action committees (PACs)? Despite the large sums of money given by PACs, ...

@landgravephd.bsky.social, Nicholas R. Jenkins & Aubree J. Hardesty show that voters across parties trust, donate to & support candidates who reject PAC money—penalizing those who accept it. Campaign financing choices clearly shape perceptions.

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New research by Baccini, @costinciobanu.bsky.social & Pelc: Offshoring shocks can increase support for leaders with authoritarian traits, while automation does not. A reminder that different economic changes shape politics in very different ways.

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Hansol Kwak’s study finds protest mobilization depends not on absolute repression, but on how it deviates from expectations. Results show a U-shaped pattern: participation rises when repression is higher *or* lower than established baselines.

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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 Ko, Downes, Leung & Ming shows populist governments weaken climate readiness, with left-wing populists driving the sharpest decline. Findings highlight how ideology shapes whether nations advance or regress in climate preparedness.

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.

Andreas Graefe’s Issues and Leaders model shows how voter perceptions of competence and leadership shape elections. Forecasting the 2024 race, it captured a tight contest and highlights the value of dynamic, forward-looking electoral analysis.

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

Taken at face value: Emotion expression and protest dynamics - Ishaan S. Prasad, Zachary C. Steinert-Threlkeld, 2025 Understanding the role of emotions in protest is a growing field of research, but existing research does not address the role of emotions once protests start. B...

In a new study by Ishaan S. Prasad & @zacharyst.bsky.social, they analyze 37k+ faces from protests in 10 countries, showing emotions like anger, fear & happiness co-occur and covary with protest dynamics, rather than directly causing them.

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.

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.

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

Do congressional candidates benefit from rejecting PAC contributions? Evidence from a pre-registered candidate evaluation survey experiment - Michelangelo Landgrave, Nicholas R. Jenkins, Aubree J. Har... Do congressional candidates benefit electorally from the public’s disdain of political action committees (PACs)? Despite the large sums of money given by PACs, ...

@landgravephd.bsky.social, Nicholas R. Jenkins & Aubree J. Hardesty show that voters across parties trust, donate to & support candidates who reject PAC money—penalizing those who accept it. Campaign financing choices clearly shape perceptions.

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 research by Baccini, @costinciobanu.bsky.social & Pelc: Offshoring shocks can increase support for leaders with authoritarian traits, while automation does not. A reminder that different economic changes shape politics in very different ways.

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.

A new study by Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen, Rasmus Tue Pedersen & Mads Thau shows that while info on online abuse doesn’t reduce tolerance, it boosts willingness to support politicians or report abusive comments.

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.

Hansol Kwak’s study finds protest mobilization depends not on absolute repression, but on how it deviates from expectations. Results show a U-shaped pattern: participation rises when repression is higher *or* lower than established baselines.

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 study by Ko, Downes, Leung & Ming shows populist governments weaken climate readiness, with left-wing populists driving the sharpest decline. Findings highlight how ideology shapes whether nations advance or regress in climate preparedness.

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.

Andreas Graefe’s Issues and Leaders model shows how voter perceptions of competence and leadership shape elections. Forecasting the 2024 race, it captured a tight contest and highlights the value of dynamic, forward-looking electoral analysis.

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

Taken at face value: Emotion expression and protest dynamics - Ishaan S. Prasad, Zachary C. Steinert-Threlkeld, 2025 Understanding the role of emotions in protest is a growing field of research, but existing research does not address the role of emotions once protests start. B...

In a new study by Ishaan S. Prasad & @zacharyst.bsky.social, they analyze 37k+ faces from protests in 10 countries, showing emotions like anger, fear & happiness co-occur and covary with protest dynamics, rather than directly causing them.

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.

@sysilviakim.bsky.social finds that in 2020 U.S. races, extreme candidates didn’t ask for smaller donations—supporting the view that small donors aren’t more ideologically extreme than large ones.

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When the party is over: Explaining the rise of the Spanish far-right SALF - Javier Padilla Moreno-Torres, Álvaro Canalejo-Molero, Alberto López Ortega, 2025 Can a second far-right party succeed in a country where the radical right was, until recently, absent? Spain’s 2024 European Parliament elections provided a str...

Can a 2nd far-right party thrive in Spain? SALF shocked in the 2024 EU elections, scoring 4.6% in its debut. New study by Javier Padilla Moreno-Torres, @canalejoalvaro.bsky.social and @bertous.bsky.social analyzes who voted for them—and why.

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@abbymatthews.bsky.social & Rachael Hinkle's analysis of judicial citations demonstrates that diversity in race, gender, *and* partisanship plays a critical role in the evolution of legal doctrine, with judges sharing all 3 salient traits experiencing a 25% increase in citation probability.

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What drives differences between the conflict events datasets UCDP and ACLED? Contrary to previous claims, @magnusoberg.bsky.social and Mert Can Yilmaz find most differences are due to auxiliary coding rules and standards for source evaluation, not sourcing strategies or inclusion thresholds.

Exposure to protests and support for different forms of violence: Evidence from the 2019 social outburst in Chile - Sebastian Rivera, Fernando Severino, Giancarlo Visconti, 2025 People living in communities where protests occur are exposed to various forms of violence, including state-perpetrated violence, such as police brutality, as w...

Sebastian Rivera, Fernando Severino and Giancarlo Visconti find that protest exposure in Chile briefly reduces support for state violence, but doesn’t change views on protester violence. A nuanced look at attitudes in unrest.

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Political science suggests liberals are more tolerant of the Supreme Court when it makes decisions they don't like. Kathryn Haglin, Soren Jordan, Alison Higgins Merrill and @joeura.bsky.social ask: does that still hold up with the new-look Court?

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New research by Laurel Elder, @hankgreene.bsky.social, and Mary-Kate Lizotte shows Americans see 6- and 12-week abortion bans as effectively the same, challenging the idea of "moderate" restrictions. Post-Dobbs, abortion is a binary debate: ban vs. no ban, with framing crucial to public reception.

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

Kirill Zhirkov & Robert H. Brehm find that calling immigrants “illegal” or “undocumented” doesn’t affect perceptions in experiments. However, people’s preferences for these terms do reflect their broader attitudes toward immigration policy.

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