Yphtach Lelkes

📣 CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Join us at the 2026 Summer Institute in Computational Social Science at Penn, from June 15–26!

ℹ️ More info: sicss.io/2026/penn
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⏳ Deadline: Friday, March 6, 2026, at 11:59 pm EST.

#SICSS #ComputationalSocialScience

thank you, John!

Issues · recite/retract Github Actions to open an issue when a retracted article is discovered in a .bib file - Issues · recite/retract

a @github.com actions script that consults the retraction watch database and opens a PR if it sees a retracted article in .bib

@ylelkes.bsky.social etc.

github.com/recite/retra...

In our PNAS we don't necessarily find a negative relationship between affpol and antidemocratic norm support, but certainly a non-linear one (appendix fig. below).

Personally, I think FT measures have some pretty major empirical oddities we're still evaluating

🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Screenshot of an email from my university saying: “Today, we write to share two important updates about Penn’s policies and procedures for when, where, and how open expression can take place.”

Can’t believe this isn’t satire

I definitely assumed the weapons the cops "took off the streets" were being destroyed, not returned to the streets for profit. I don't know WHY I assumed harm was actually being reduced, but I know better now!

But Stephen Gillers, an expert in judicial ethics at New York University's law school, disagreed, noting that the test in the recusal statute is based on the perspective of a fair-minded person who has all the facts. "I don't think such an objective observer would question Alito's impartiality based on this incident," Gillers said in an email. "I find it impossible to believe that Alito knew the flag was flying upside down or, if he did know, that he knew the relationship to 'Stop the Steal.' I don't believe he would have allowed this to happen otherwise." Gillers added that while Alito's explanation for how it happened is "hard to believe, it is more credible than the view that he knowingly chose to fly the flag upside down knowing its political message."

this dude is basically the nation’s leading expert on legal ethics, we are so cooked.

This concern is not *why* I adopted quizzes this year, but I can report: I said explicitly that lectures were meant to help students do and understand the reading, not to substitute for it, and that quizzes would be be about the reading, not about the lectures.

On the first quiz of the term...

As we approach the summer of 2024, the economy is growing, migration to the border has declined at least temporarily owing to what appears to be a new crackdown by Mexican authorities, and in many major cities, crime is returning to historic lows, leaving protests as the most suitable target for demagoguery. The Biden administration’s support for Israel divides Democrats and unites Republicans, so the longer the issue remains salient, the better it is for the GOP. More broadly, the politics of “American carnage” do not work as well in the absence of carnage. Far-right politics operate best when there is a public perception of disorder and chaos, an atmosphere in which the only solution such politicians ever offer can sound appealing to desperate voters. Social-media bubbles can suffice to maintain this sense of siege among the extremely online, but cultivating this perception among most voters demands constant reinforcement.

Here’s what the national guard bullshit is really about. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Luskin's "Robert's Rules: Suggestions for Writing" has some excellent, pithy advice for academic writers.

#polisky

PDF: github.com/soodoku/on-w...

NPR Is a Mess. But “Wokeness” Isn’t the Problem. The real story behind the public broadcaster’s woes.

At NPR... "I and a couple of other editorial leaders were encouraged to make sure that any coverage of a Trump lie was matched with a story about a lie from Hillary Clinton. Another colleague asked what to do if one candidate just lied more than the other."

Silence. slate.com/business/202...

You might be in the intersection of this venn diagram (at APSA and into built to spill)

americans (reps+dems) dislike norm violations. but some (reps) still vote for norm-breakers. so we're back at vote choice. again. not public opinion abt norm-violations. vote choice. back-sliding is an elite-constraint problem; cant public opinion way out of it.

paper: tinyurl.com/normviopubop...

Thanks!

academic.oup.com/jcmc/article...

Did not replicate in our paper watermark.silverchair.com/zmab019.pdf?...

assets.cambridge.org/97813165/163...

In an another piece, converse talks about one reason for the invention of pid was so that it couldn’t be benchmarked to Gallups vote choice. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Learned about this history of the ANES W. Miller wrote from @ylelkes.bsky.social yesterday. So many fascinating bits in here, including the ANES existing in part b/c it got the 1948 margin ~right, and due to chance inclusion of a vote choice item.

ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

He put up a draft!

benjaminlauderdale.net/files/papers...

So happy to see this now published at PNAS! This paper, coauthored with Shanto Iyengar, @ylelkes.bsky.social, and Sean Westwood, was my first project for @prl.bsky.social, and there will be many more coming soon! 🥳

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We're looking for candidates who hold or are close to getting a PhD in political science, psychology, communication, cognitive science or similar

Please get in touch if interested!
 
Team @leneaaroe.bsky.social @boralexander.bsky.social @mattlevendusky.bsky.social @ylelkes.bsky.social Vin Arceneaux

Two postdoctoral positions in research project on political polarization at Aarhus University - Vacancy at Aarhus University Vacancy at Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

🚨JOB ALERT🚨 I'm hiring two postdocs (2-3 years) for a research project on political polarization hosted at @aarhusuni.bsky.social

Application deadline August 15, starting date October 1 or later.

Please help share widely!

polisky #AcademicSky #PhDChat

international.au.dk/about/profil...

Thank you!

Cheers to Vin, @bnbakker.bsky.social, Neil, and @ylelkes.bsky.social for this. Much needed.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...