Christopher Lucas

😒Do elections stir emotions?

➡Using Facebook data from 26 democracies, @dahjinkim.bsky.social T Muraoka, @christopher-lucas.bsky.social @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social & M Tavits find that ideological polarization intensifies emotional reactions www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

Watching @lastweektonight.com this morning (episode dedicated to AI slop 🫠) and had a "Wait, I know that guy!" moment!

WTG @christopher-lucas.bsky.social poli sci represent!

From the changemyview community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the changemyview community

The mods of r/ChangeMyView shared the sub was the subject of a study to test the persuasiveness of LLMs & that they didn't consent. There’s a lot that went wrong, so here’s a 🧵 unpacking it, along with some ideas for how to do research with online communities ethically. tinyurl.com/59tpt988

Speaking their language?: Multilingualism in party communication across democracies by Taishi Muraoka, Dahjin Kim, Christopher Lucas, Jacob Montgomery, and Margit Tavits is now available in Early View. @jacobmontgomery.bsky.social ajps.org/2025/04/23/s...

✨Sharing our new publication in @polanalysis.bsky.social @cambridgeup.bsky.social "Constructing Vec-tionaries to Extract Message Features from Texts: A Case Study of Moral Content" #OpenAccess

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

Wrapped up #MPSA2025! Presented exciting new work with my coauthor Dihan Shi - grateful for insightful feedback and engaging discussions. Already looking forward to next year!

Video platform interface and recommendations. The left panel shows the video-watching interface for an example video, and the right panel shows an example of recommendations that were presented to respondents after the video.

Researchers intentionally sent study participants down algorithmic rabbit holes, serving them ever-more politically polarized videos on a YouTube-like platform, but found limited effects on attitudes from this short exposure. In PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Important new paper in PNAS by an all-star team. Experimental evidence that "the algorithms" may not be responsible for ideological social media bubbles.
www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10...

With soubhikbarari.bsky.social and Kevin Munger, our article "Political Deepfakes Are as Credible as Other Fake Media and (Sometimes) Real Media" is available ahead of print at thejop.bsky.social.

www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

Pentagon abruptly ends all funding for social science research More than 90 studies on threats such as climate change, extremism, and disinformation are halted

Pentagon abruptly ends all funding for social science research: 91 studies on threats such as climate change, extremism, and disinformation are halted (with thoughts by me)

New paper, of the "your toys are probably fine, just make sure they don't have any serrated edges" variety

Yes. This is how universities must respond.

And there was a ☕️ category? @keithschnak.bsky.social should we have a Seigle Hall Coffee Off?

This is awesome. How is the winner determined?

When the case reached the Supreme Court, the Court held that systems of political patronage like the one established by Thompson violate the First Amendment. Quoting one of its first patronage decisions, the Court reaffirmed that “conditioning public employment on the provision of support for the favored political party ‘unquestionably inhibits protected belief and association.’” Doing so “pressures employees to pledge political allegiance to a party with which they prefer not to associate, to work for the election of political candidates they do not support, and to contribute money to be used to further policies with which they do not agree.” It is “tantamount to coerced belief,” something the First Amendment plainly forbids. Nor did it matter that Thompson had not issued a direct order specifying that only Republicans would be hired, because “what the First Amendment precludes the government from commanding directly, it also precludes the government from accomplishing indirectly.”

Right now, DOGE is saying that any new hires have to be approved by their office.
In 1980, when IL Governor Thompson said any new hires had to be approved by his office, the Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional politicization of hiring.
What about now?
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

This is the content I need. More Bailey!

Imagine if
-prosecutors who brought cases against Hunter Biden were purged
-Soros employees took control of govt. payment and personnel systems
-Executive order redefined 2nd Amendment by fiat
-Every violent crime during a BLM protest was pardoned
-People paid Biden millions for favorable treatment

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