Adam Berinsky

FACT CHECK: Is Worm Meat Used in McDonald's Hamburgers? Does McDonald's use worm meat as filler in their hamburgers?

I talk about worms in fast food hamburgers. Goes back to my elementary school days and keeps coming back.

www.snopes.com/fact-check/w...

The East Wing has learned its lesson.

by Susan Collins

This Is It

Top Gun Trump thought Kenny Loggins would say "I'm alright" having "Danger Zone" playing in a video where he turns a peaceful protest into Pooh Corner. That's what a fool believes, Donald. Kenny may have a footloose, but he doesn't have a screw loose.

by Maureen Dowd

Just taped a great conversation -- it is available at the link below, both next week on October 28th, and as a on-demand recording a few days after if you can't make that time.

Belief, Misinformation, and Democracy url:https://www.92ny.org/event/belief-misinformation-and-democracy

My first job as a grad student in the Summer of 1995 was to write abstracts for all the reports. I learned a lot that summer.

Yesterday in my grad class I mentioned the ANES Pilot Study reports from 1979-mid 2000s. Great in-depth description of how some classic scales were developed and tested.

electionstudies.org/papers-docum...

A defining feature of this admin is attacking as antisemitic everything they don’t like while constantly engaging in rank antisemitism.

Image: A variation on Benjamin Franklin’s “Join, or Die” engraving, originally published in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1754. Each segment of the snake has the name of a university sent Trump’s “compact”: Texas, AZ, Vanderbilt, USC, Dartmouth, UVA, Brown, Penn, MIT.

Shared courtesy of my Penn History colleague, Ben Nathans

MIT becomes first school to reject proposed ‘compact’ with Trump administration - The Boston Globe MIT president Sally Kornbluth said the university’s practices already “meet or exceed” the federal government’s list of demands.

Great news. Proud to be part of the MIT community today.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/10/b...

I can’t believe how depressing it is to watch Trump crush norms, and institutions and to wonder if people are noticing.

Anytime I give a talk I always tell my audience “you are weird because you came to hear me talk about politics.” Most of the people, most of the time, don’t pay attention to politics.

Thanks to @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social for bringing up this paper. Politicians gain power by reputation. Sometimes undeserved reputation

Charlie Kirk’s killing has proved that Bari Weiss was right all along.

by Bari Weiss

Huh an awful lot of rhetoric shifted from Old Testament to New Testament over the past few hours

I'm extremely excited to participate in this (virtual) conversation about my book, with fellow Umich polisci alum Yanna Krupnikov!

Belief, Misinformation, and Democracy url:https://www.92ny.org/event/belief-misinformation-and-democracy

Low hanging fruit

I don't know why I keep reaching in my mind for this analogy but American political culture feels to me right now like what Moses found when he returned from Mt Sinai and everyone had said "screw it" and started worshipping the golden calf.

True. But we hit new lows every day.

Trump‘s sluggish performance at today’s summit raises new questions about Joe Biden’s energy level

Astonishing? I’d say it’s completely predictable.

Apply for funding to work with me and Gord at Cornell!

Changes to AJPS Conflict of Interest Policy From: Dan Reiter and Adam Berinsky, editors-in-chief This post describes a policy change for Conflict of Interest (COI) policies pertaining to potential reviewers of manuscripts submitted to AJPS. …

We've made a change to the @ajpseditor.bsky.social COI policy. Read more here:

Changes to AJPS Conflict of Interest Policy ajps.org/2025/08/08/c... via @ajps_editor

Information about an exciting conference coming this December at MIT!

Excited to announce the program of our December 5-6, 2025 workshop at MIT on polarization, norms & trust (co-organized w/ Eugen Dimant @ylelkes.bsky.social @adamberinsky.bsky.social @katikish.bsky.social)!

Info: sites.google.com/view/polariz...

To attend: buy.stripe.com/dRmdRa7Du1fw...

100%

On Capitol Hill, I joined Sen. Bill Nelson @gretchentg.bsky.social @adamconner.bsky.social @cdelawalla.bsky.social to sound the alarm about the systematic dismantling of the US research infrastructure. The question isn't whether we can afford to invest in research. It's whether we can afford not to.

Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent

"In the letter, the signatories warned that National Science Foundation grants now underwent a 'covert and ideologically driven secondary review process'...”

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/s...

Revising my survey and experiments grad course and looking for examples of papers that do a good job of (really) integrating observational and experimental data. Suggestions? Self-reference welcome.

We're hiring at MIT: details at the link below