Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Drew Engelhardt @amengel.bsky.social · 6d

Working on a dissertation in American political behavior and need money for survey research? Apply for a grant worth up to $15,000 from the Rapoport Family Foundation. They’re planning on awarding up to 15 grants this cycle.

Deadline Oct. 22.

www.rapoportfamilyfoundation.com/phdgrant

Rapoport Doctoral Dissertation Grants

Supporting projects for PhD students doing political science research, democracy and social justice.

www.rapoportfamilyfoundation.com

26 25

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Tiago Ventura @tiagoventura.bsky.social · 8d

How common are “survey professionals” - people who take dozens of online surveys for pay - across online panels, and do they harm data quality?

Our paper, FirstView at @politicalanalysis.bsky.social, tackles this question using browsing data from three U.S. samples (Facebook, YouGov, and Lucid):

4 55 130

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

turgut keskintürk @tkeskinturk.bsky.social · Sep 1

a new working paper: osf.io/vsr5b

I propose a three-stage model of cohortization where dynamics of cohort learning and political sorting serve as complementary engines of aggregate political change.

I apply this to the case of the killing of George Floyd & the BLM.

it's also my job market paper!

Generational Imprinting: How Political Events Shape Cohorts

Turgut Keskintürk
August, 2025

How, and for whom, do political events translate into enduring political change? This article advances a three-stage model of cohortization, in which salient events produce age differential changes in attitudes, elite cues drive identity-congruent political sorting, and life-course timing regulates whether these attitude changes remain persistent over time. Focusing on the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 as a quasi-natural experiment, I test this model by analyzing attitudes toward U.S. law enforcement among non-Hispanic White Americans using five surveys that collectively span from 2016 to 2024. The findings consistently show that Democrats and Independents became strongly unfavorable toward law enforcement—much more so among younger than older individuals. Moreover, the changes persisted for younger individuals, while fading among older individuals, leading to cohort-led polarization. This article integrates two classic—though largely partial—theories of political learning, offering a model for understanding how salient events can realign generational divides.

2 23 56

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Sep 15

UW-Madison PoliSci is hiring in environmental politics! Posting is linked below. I am not on the committee but am very happy to answer any questions I can about the position, department, Madison, etc.

Barry Burden @bcburden.bsky.social · Sep 13

My department @uwmadison.bsky.social is hiring an assistant professor with expertise in environmental politics. Send us your application. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science - Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...

jobs.wisc.edu

2

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Barry Burden @bcburden.bsky.social · Sep 13

My department @uwmadison.bsky.social is hiring an assistant professor with expertise in environmental politics. Send us your application. jobs.wisc.edu/jobs/assista...

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science - Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through the internal application process.Job Category:FacultyEmployment Type:Regula...

jobs.wisc.edu

6 100 150

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

APSA & ICA Political Communication Divisions @polcomm.bsky.social · Sep 4

📅 Only one week to go until APSA 2025!

We’ve prepared a clear and concise visual program for the #PolComm division.

👉 Download the PDF and highlight the sessions you don’t want to miss:

shorturl.at/LVuuw

5 12

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

APSA Experimental Research Section @experimentsapsa.bsky.social · Aug 26

There's a new issue of the section newsletter out! This one's on sample considerations in experiments: professional survey-takers, LLM usage, rural contexts, and more!

connect.apsanet.org/s42/newslett...

1 9 9

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Aug 22

Sure. Will DM.

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Aug 22

That is, another equilibrium media market could potentially better meet public demand and be profitable, but attaining that equilibrium is difficult because single firms cannot reshape industry-level perceptions by themselves, leaving everyone locked in the same incentive structure.

1 1

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Aug 22

There is some evidence that demand is there (e.g. @emilythorson.bsky.social's experiments on policy-current info, mine on public interest news osf.io/preprints/os...) but to prevailing practice & beliefs of what news *is* create an industry-level equilibrium problem that one firm cannot overcome.

OSF

osf.io

1

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Aug 20

cc @profsorelle.bsky.social

1

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Policy Studies Journal @psjeditor.bsky.social · Aug 19

Voting access reforms in 2020 aimed to protect democracy during a pandemic, but how did they shape political efficacy and trust? This PSJ article explores the answer.

By @atrexler.com, @maraynam.bsky.social & Mallory E. SoRelle

Read more here: doi.org/10.1111/psj....

#PSJ #PolicyStudiesJournal

1 1 4

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Eric Groenendyk @ericpolisci.bsky.social · Aug 12

Stony Brook is hiring in political psychology (assistant professor). Please Share! Feel free to reach out if you have question. For more information: apply.interfolio.com/170193

26 34

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Aug 12

Thanks. Weighing the hassle of hand-entry for ~150 attendance records vs. the risks of group-chattable attendance survey URLs, so this is helpful.

1

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Aug 12

Thanks for sharing, Jon! Have you used the physical copy attendance method previously? Debating something like this or a QR-code survey link somewhere in the slide deck each lecture.

1 1

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Jon Green @jongreen.bsky.social · Aug 4

new working paper: osf.io/7v4zj

tl;dr: taking the "marketplace of ideas" metaphor seriously requires taking the nuances of actually-existing markets seriously, which means thinking about tradeoffs between transaction costs and conformity costs. applied to misinfo and ideological belief systems.

title: Informal (De-)Regulation in the Marketplace of Ideas

abstract: Democratic societies face tradeoffs regarding the production, acquisition, and exchange of information and ideas. On the one hand, they benefit from institutions that reduce the transaction costs citizens must pay to acquire reliable information they can use to pursue their goals; on the other hand, those institutions impose conformity costs on citizens’ belief systems. This has traditionally placed civil institutions such as the media, the scientific community, and political parties in the role of informal regulators, which set norms regarding the (combinations of) beliefs citizens should or should not express in lieu of the government setting rules regarding the beliefs citizens can or cannot express. I argue that the interaction of heightened political sectarianism with changes in the structure of the public sphere have weakened these institutions and altered the informal regulations that govern the proverbial “marketplace of ideas.” This framework illuminates recent phenomena of scholarly concern – namely, the health of the political information environment and the evolution of contemporary political ideologies.

1 13 51

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

American Association for Public Opinion Research @aapor.bsky.social · Aug 2

AAPOR Statement on the Removal of BLS Commissioner McEntarfer aapor.org/statements/a...

AAPOR Statement on the Removal of BLS Commissioner McEntarfer - AAPOR

On behalf of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), we write to express deep concern regarding the removal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Erika McE...

aapor.org

4 37 61

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Alex Garlick @garlicksauce.bsky.social · Jul 22

Here's a treat for state politics and policy researchers: Ethan Dee and I published a dataset in Nature: Scientific Data with the universe of state legislative bills since ~2009 coded by 28 policy areas. We used a machine learning model built off open source components.

Policy agendas of the American state legislatures - Scientific Data

Scientific Data - Policy agendas of the American state legislatures

www.nature.com

2 10 27

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · Jul 18

In my view, the window to *forestall* autocratization of the US political system is basically closed. We're now in the consolidation phase of a new authoritarian constitutional settlement. The question is how far it'll get (will it achieve its apparent goal of fascism?) & at what pace.

Here's why:

32 140 440

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Rachel Porter @rachelporter.bsky.social · Jul 17

Our article introducing CampaignView is now officially online! Check it out here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

4 10

Reposted by Andrew Trexler

Matt Graham @mattgraham.bsky.social · Jul 14

Causal evidence that "the proliferation of surveys may lead to lower response rates" doi.org/10.1093/jssa...

4 23 83

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Jul 7

Nice! Yeah I find that with my current too. Thanks David!

1

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Jul 7

Ooh, this looks great. Thanks EJ!

1

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Jul 7

- Must be 2-strap, not a shoulder/messenger bag
- Suited for safely carrying a laptop
- Small enough to go under the seat in economy
- Ideally lots of pouches/compartments for all my chargers/cables/etc
- Spot for a water bottle
- Durable
- Leather/canvas/water resistant materials preferred

2 2

Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · Jul 7

Academics/adults with backpacks:

I am in the market for a new backpack. Do you have a (work) backpack that you love?

I have a North Face 'Hotshot' backpack that has served me faithfully for 10+ years but is finally wearing out, so I need to replace & want to consider options.

Some parameters:

Image of a black 'Hotshot' backpack from The North Face against a grey background.

2 3