Beatrice Magistro

It’s been two years since I’ve seen @beamagistro.bsky.social in person but tomorrow we are changing that and I couldn’t be more excited. This is news the internet needs.

YouTube video by Linde Center for Science, Society, and Policy A Conversation with Beatrice Magistro: AI, Climate Change, & her book, Who Thinks Like an Economist

Listen to our latest LCSSP video as Co-Director @rmichaelalvarez.bsky.social visits with @caltech.edu post-doc scholar @beamagistro.bsky.social, Research Associate in Computational Social Science, about their joint work, her research in AI and Climate change & her new book!
youtu.be/6kkSNTesvXM?...

Political ideology and views toward solar geoengineering in the United States Political polarization remains a significant barrier to effective climate action in the United States. Conservatives often express skepticism toward climate change policies emphasizing government inte...

New research by @beamagistro.bsky.social and colleagues suggests that increasing public awareness of solar geoengineering could foster bipartisan engagement with climate policy in the US

journals.plos.org/climate/arti...

@rd545.bsky.social @paulowennberg.bsky.social @rmichaelalvarez.bsky.social

Book Project Who Thinks Like an Economist? How the Economist Mental Model Shapes Political DecisionsForthcoming at Cambridge University Press Introduction Available HereRecent populist waves—from Donald Trump’s…

13/ Full introduction and ToC available here 👉 beatricemagistro.com/research/boo... stay tuned for the book and happy to share any chapters 🙂

12/ You can't beat zero-sum populism with fact-checks alone. Where the EMM is scarce, zero-sum narratives and economic populist appeals find more fertile ground.

11/ Individuals who think like economists are 1) more likely to favor welfare-enhancing policies (like trade and immigration), 2) far less zero-sum, and 3) responsive to economic information: they update when cost-benefit data change, while AMM voters stick to partisan cues.

10/ I build new indices of economic knowledge that identify who's using the EMM (it's more than just education). Then I test them with surveys, conjoint experiments, and a classroom study across Italy, the UK, and the US, spanning trade, immigration, price controls, and AI. 🌍

9/ This divergence in mental models—how we think, not what we value—drives wildly different readings of political events and policy choices.

8/ The EMM toolkit helps people look past zero-sum assumptions, stretch the time horizon, and ask how "losers" can be compensated. They systematically evaluate trade-offs, weigh long-run gains over quick relief, and support policies that maximize aggregate welfare.

7/ Some citizens use the Economist Mental Model (EMM): weighing costs and benefits, opportunity costs, thinking at the margin. Others rely on Alternative Mental Models (AMMs), defaulting to heuristics, partisan cues, or zero-sum thinking.

6/ The answer, I argue, lies not merely in differences in material or non-material values but in the underlying mental models (the cognitive frameworks) that people use to evaluate trade-offs and predict policy outcomes.

5/ Puzzle: why do so many people support policies that reduce aggregate welfare?

4/ These episodes are classic economic populism: zero-sum framings of economic interactions, oversimplication or neglect of trade-offs, shortsighted fixes that reliably backfire.

3/ 2016. Economists warn "Brexit will hurt". Voters shrug. Same year in the US: experts decry tariffs; "America First" wins.

2/ Italy, November 2011. Markets panic, pensions at risk. Politics is paralyzed. Economist-turned-minister Elsa Fornero pushes a quick, tough pension reform. Voters revolt.

🧵 Who Thinks Like an Economist?
Thrilled to announce I've signed my first book contract with Cambridge University Press!
My book "Who Thinks Like an Economist? How the Economist Mental Model Shapes Political Decisions" is forthcoming. Here's a sneak peek 👇

thanks Rachel 💜

I am beyond excited for what's next at Northeastern, hit me up if you’re in Boston!

Finally, to my family in Italy and my host family in Seattle, especially to Edo and Winston, this moment is as much yours as mine. And to my niece, Rania: I hope you’ll achieve all this and much more one day.

Leaving LA will be bittersweet. A huge shoutout to my Juventus Official Fan Club Hollywood friends: you’ve my been family here, especially during the fires, and made LA unforgettable. I’ll miss you deeply.

Special thanks to the many colleagues, students, postdocs, and friends I’ve had the privilege to work with at Bocconi, Edinburgh, Collegio Carlo Alberto, UW, the PEARL lab at UofT, and the Alvarez lab at Caltech. You’ve each made a difference in my journey and I promise to pay it forward.

And to the amazing women who inspire and support me every day, you’re truly making academia a better place: Caitlin Ainsley, @breebangjensen.bsky.social , @melissabaker.bsky.social , @sborwein.bsky.social, Megan Erickson, @melinamuch.bsky.social , and Clareta Treger.

I’m incredibly grateful to my mentors: @rmichaelalvarez.bsky.social, Peter Loewen and Victor Menaldo, who supported, guided, and believed in me every step of the way, especially when I didn’t.

Joining Northeastern genuinely feels like coming home. The warmth, enthusiasm, and kindness I experienced during my visit confirmed immediately that this was exactly where I was meant to be. I can’t wait to start this next chapter in Boston!

From one Husky family to another 🐾! I’m thrilled to announce that in the fall I’ll be joining @northeasternu.bsky.social as Assistant Professor in AI Governance. After five long and challenging job markets, this moment feels incredibly special.

While partisanship drives trust and support, policy preferences remain rooted in ideological baselines. These findings highlight the challenges of depolarizing climate discourse and underscore the critical role of partisanship in shaping perceptions even of emerging climate technologies like SG.

Using a conjoint experiment with 2123 American voters, we find that trust in SG is heavily influenced by partisan alignment—both Democrats and Republicans are more likely to trust and support SG when information comes from their own political camp.

We analyze public perceptions of solar geoengineering (SG) as a climate solution, exploring how partisan information sources and narrative framing shape attitudes.

Partisanship overcomes framing in shaping solar geoengineering perceptions: Evidence from a conjoint experiment - npj Climate Action npj Climate Action - Partisanship overcomes framing in shaping solar geoengineering perceptions: Evidence from a conjoint experiment

🌍 Excited to share our latest paper published in npj Climate Action with @rd545.bsky.social, @rmichaelalvarez.bsky.social and Paul Wennberg. Here's the Open Access link: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI) and globalization: Common microfoundations and political implications

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Fascinating look at the political implications of AI and partisan differences by @beamagistro.bsky.social @sborwein.bsky.social @rmichaelalvarez.bsky.social @bartbonikowski.bsky.social & Loewen in @ajpseditor.bsky.social doi.org/10.1111/ajps...