Merlin Schaeffer

Can banning political ideologies protect democracy? 🛡️🆚🗣️

Our (w. @valentimvicente.bsky.social) paper finds: punishing individuals might backfire. We study a West German policy banning "extreme left" individuals from working for the state.

#Democracy #PoliticalScience

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url: osf.io/usqdb_v2

Vil du boykotte amerikanske varer? Nu sætter dagligvarekæmpe sort stjerne ved europæiske varer Fremover får kunder i Netto, Føtex og Bilka nemmere ved at vælge europæiske varer.

The largest Danish retailer, Salling Group, will mark all products from Europe with a star, helping customers select European rather than American products.

The continents are drifting apart at both the macro and micro level.

Danish news story here: www.dr.dk/nyheder/peng...

Just did the proofs for this short methods paper that I really like!

Not everyday you get to 'solve' a problem identified 30 years ago in some of the most widely used statistical models in #sociology 👀 - and with two super awesome collaborators, what a blast 🥳

We're getting dangerously close to 50% of Trump supporters saying they want a strong leader who does not have to bother with Congress OR ELECTIONS! There is no sugar-coating what to call that.

Yes! And if that would initiate a culture of a more collaborative way of making opposition politics, it would be a big win.

👆 this is so true, unfortunately. A married couple where one is a medical doctor and the other a lawyer is the epitome of German prestige.

That said, German federalism and its two-chamber system may make a minority government a bit more challenging than the unicameral Scandinavian ones.

I have received a request to review from the Israel Science Foundation today. I have declined it. My email reply below.

My position is similar to @philipncohen.com : I do not collaborate with institutions linked to the Israeli government.
But I do collaborate with individual researchers.

Sollte es dereinst noch liberale Historiker geben, dann werden sie ueber das 21. Jahrhundert schreiben: Erneut verfiel das liberale Buergertum einer irrationalen Furcht, dieses Mal nicht vor Kommunisten, dieses Mal vor den Woken (USA) und den Gruenen/Shitbuergern (Deutschland).

Associate Professor in Sociology Offering a high-performing, large and truly interdisciplinary social science environment, the Department of Social Sciences and Business (ISE) at Roskilde Unive

We have an open position for an Associate Professor in Sociology working in the field of quantitative inequality and stratification research at Roskilde University, Denmark. Please share or apply!
tinyurl.com/2u4mx2ve

Wohnungsnot verschärft Integrationsprobleme für Geflüchtete Neue Studie: Geflüchtete ziehen vor allem in Städte mit hoher Arbeitslosigkeit, weil dort Wohnungen billig sind. Etwa nach Ostdeutschland.

Gestern hat die SZ über unserere (mit @mschaeffer.bsky.social ) Forschung zur Sekundärmobilität von Flüchtlingen in Deutschland berichtet:

Wohnungsnot verschärft Integrationsprobleme
www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/gefl...

Die Studie gibt es OA hier:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Flüchtlinge in Deutschland ziehen oft in wirtschaftlich schwache Städte mit hoher Arbeitslosigkeit, um günstigen Wohnraum finden/ Refugees in Germany often move to economically weak cities with high unemployment to find affordable housing. Research by @jwied.bsky.social & @mschaeffer.bsky.social

PhD scholarship at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen (UCPH)

🚨 We're hiring! 🚨

Open call for a fully funded PhD scholarship starting September 1st.
Deadline for applications is March 2nd.
Do not miss this rare opportunity to pursue your own research idea and earn a PhD degree.
Read more in link below 👇

jobportal.ku.dk/phd/?show=16...

Putting the focus on causal inference in Stats2 for bachelor students went fine.

But crafting exam questions that truly test application is tricky!

Want to assess their ability to apply causal inference, not just identify limitations of observational data. But how in take home exams? Any ideas?

General Instructions Submission of Papers The European Sociological Review publishes original research articles in all fields of Sociology. Submissions should usually be around 8,0

Reminder: From 1st Jan. 2025, the deposit of replication packages will be condition for publication in ESR!

Find out more at:

academic.oup.com/esr/pages/General_Instructions

Refugees in 🇩🇪 are not allowed to relocate for some time after arrival. We know this is bad for integration. So, once they are allowed to, refugees move to places with opportunity, right?
On average: no, as @mschaeffer.bsky.social and I show in a new publication @scmrjems.bsky.social
. Thread👇

In 2024 work in @pnas.org, @amir-ghasemian.bsky.social and I explore “The Structure and Function of Antagonistic Ties in Village Social Networks.”

At the population level, the existence of antagonism has important implications for the overall structure and function of human groups. #HNL 1/

🚨New publication alert🚨
What happens to female labor market supply when their male partner starts to earn payroll tax exempt income? Joint work w/ @andreashaupt.bsky.social, now open access at JMF: doi.org/10.1111/jomf...
#sociology #gendersky #polisky #econsky

Just published on APSR First View: "Gendered Perceptions and the Costs of Political Toxicity: Experimental Evidence from Politicians and Citizens in Four Democracies" by Gregory Eady and Anne Rasmussen. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Likely AI generated responses to a german news article.

Bsky is being flooded with German speaking AI powered bots.
A thread on why this is important, ultimately making all social media is unusable. #deutschland #trolls #AI #election

1/ What happened? All these responses to a @zeit.de post have something in common (spoiler: they are not real):

European Sociological Review is on Bluesky!

@europeansocreview.bsky.social

Follow it for alerts and new initiatives

Gut microbiome strain-sharing within isolated village social networks - Nature An investigation into the relationship between network structure and gut microbiome composition among people living in 18 isolated Honduras villages reveals that strain-sharing can be mediated by...

This work has implications for a radical idea: diseases formerly thought to be biologically non-communicable (e.g., obesity, depression, hypertension, arthritis, etc.) may actually be (somewhat!) communicable, via the spread of the microbiome. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 13/

We can actually predict who your friends are based on whether you have similar bacteria in your poop! And that metric outperforms other more usual social features, such as how you resemble your friends on a host of traits like age, sex, wealth, etc. 7/

https://shorturl.at/zQ8bJ

New paper published @ajpseditor.bsky.social

Showing that reduced access to public services fuelled far right support in 🇮🇹

Existing work on far right highlights globalization & migration grievances, what about people’s experiences with the state?

We use 🇮🇹 reform to find out

shorturl.at/zQ8bJ

Cover image of Experimental Sociology by Barrera, Gërxhani, Kittel, Miller and Wolbring.

'Experimental Sociology' by Davide Barrera, Klarita Gërxhani, Bernhard Kittel, @luismmiller.bsky.social & @tobiaswolbring.bsky.social.

Gives a comprehensive overview of the state of the art, different designs, and methodological controversies in experimental sociology.

📚 cup.org/3Cld4M6 📚

American Journal of Political Science | MPSA Journal | Wiley Online Library The disadvantages experienced by minorities and lack of societal remedies are partly attributable to native-majority citizens’ limited awareness of minority hardships. We investigate whether informin...

But increased awareness didn’t lead to more support for anti-discrimination policies!

This echoes my study with @kkrakows.bsky.social and @asmusletholsen.bsky.social on Danish majority citizens’ misperceptions of discrimination against Muslims:

doi.org/10.1111/ajps...

The integration paradox: Does awareness of the extent of ethno‐racial discrimination increase reports of discrimination? The “integration paradox” posits that seemingly well-established immigrants and their descendants tend to report more discrimination compared to their more marginalized peers. This study investigates...

Why does integration sometimes lead to more #discrimination?

In our survey experiment on the “integration paradox“, immigrants & descendants who learned about research on discrimination against immigrants were (20% of SD) more likely to disclose personal experiences.

doi.org/10.1111/pops...

Thx Dave ☺️

In most places in the world, power from new renewables is now cheaper than power from new fossil fuels.

Why did renewables become so cheap so fast?

The answer: learning curves.

Why are civilians abused and killed in during conventional war?

Using data from Ukraine, Julius Koch and I put forward a new explanation: The threat to combatants posed by long-range weapon technology.
 
The paper is here: osf.io/z38sq/
, and we would be grateful for comments!

Thanks to @carlsbergfondet.dk for funding this research!