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Anne Rasmussen

@annerasmussen.bsky.social

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · Dec 11

Delighted that @gregoryeady.bsky.social and my paper "Gendered Perceptions and the Costs of Political Toxicity: Experimental Evidence from Politicians and Citizens in Four Democracies" is now online @apsrjournal.bsky.social (Open access)

More in this [1/14]

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Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville, Anne Rasmussen, Klaus H. Goetz

Bart Maes @bart-maes.bsky.social · 7d

Politicians don’t just care how many people hold an opinion — they care how good that opinion is. In our new (open-access) article in West European Politics, based on survey data from 900+ politicians across 11 countries, we show: quality > quantity. Read more: doi.org/10.1080/0140...

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 8d

Already congratulated you but many (!) congrats here too. Really happy this happened 👏 🕺well-deserved!

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 10d

@fgenovese.bsky.social ...especially because we know that media salience is associated with improvements in policy representation more generally (judged based on opinion-policy congruence) and it's likely it could also affect perceptions of public opinion ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 10d

@fgenovese.bsky.social We have issues that vary in perceived salience according to the representatives but do not have data on their media consumption patterns. This probably would not offset the effect of self-projection but media consumption would be very relevant to examine in future research

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

@kingsqpe.bsky.social @kcl-spe.bsky.social @polscileiden.bsky.social @ecprinterestgroups.bsky.social

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

Bottom line:

Politicians’ perceptions of public opinion appear more closely linked to who they are than to who they talk to

Full paper here: 🔗 doi.org/10.1086/734528

10/10

Sources of Elected Representatives’ (Mis)Perceptions of Public Opinion: The Role of Self-Projection and Interest Groups | The Journal of Politics

Scholars question the effectiveness of representation, suggesting politicians often misperceive public opinion. We explore the magnitude and potential drivers of misperceptions by comparing actual pub...

doi.org

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

For democracy, this is both worrying and reassuring:
⚠️Worrying, because many politicians soften simply see the public as a mirror of themselves.
✅Reassuring, because centrist politicians—often in government—should be more likely to get majority opinion right.

9/10

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

Taken together:
-Misperceptions are widespread
-They are most strongly associated with self-projection - Interest groups play a more modest, indirect role

This suggests that getting representation “right” depends more on curbing projection than on changing group contacts

8/10

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

A mediation analysis suggests why:

If interest groups matter, their influence is mostly indirect—by shaping politicians’ own views, which in turn are associated with their (biased) perceptions of citizens.

7/10

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

What about interest groups?

Links to business groups are associated with less accurate perceptions—but not with systematic bias

Interactions with citizen groups show little connection to either accuracy or bias of perceptions

So, interest groups likely matter less than often feared.

6/10

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

Self-projection matters a lot:

Politicians’ estimates move systematically toward their own views:
(1)Right-wing politicians think the public is more right-wing.
(2) Left-wing politicians think the public is more left-wing.

“False consensus” in action.

5/10

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

We consider a comprehensive set of indicators capturing
- information from
- contact with, and
- (various forms of) engagement in interest groups.

And we measure at both the accuracy of and ideological bias in perceptions of public opinion

4/10

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

We then test two main factors which could be linked to these misperceptions:

(1) Self-projection – politicians assume the public thinks like they do.
(2) Interest groups – ties to business or citizen groups correlate with perceptions.

3/10

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

We compare what citizens actually think on 5 salient policy issues (immigration, safety, healthcare, culture, environment) with politicians’ estimates

On average, politicians misestimate support by 22 percentage points (!).

BUT biases vary a lot (!) by issue & country.

2/10

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Reposted by Ruth Dassonneville, Hugo Mercier, Simon Otjes , and 5 more Ruth Dassonneville, Hugo Mercier, Simon Otjes, Robert Huber, Damien Bol, Robert C. Richards, David R. Miller, Alessandro Nai

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11d

🚨 New paper in @thejop.bsky.social

Why do politicians often misperceive what citizens' policy positions are?

@simonotjes.bsky.social and I study ~10,000 estimates of public opinion by politicians in Denmark & the Netherlands to uncover the sources of these (mis)perceptions

Thread 🧵1/10

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Reposted by Anne Rasmussen, Christian Breunig

Tinette Schnatterer @tinesch.bsky.social · 18d

How do governments mobilise public opinion in times of uncertainty? Do they gauche public opinion systematically across policy domains or unevenly depending on the issue ?🧵

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

Government polling in times of crises: when capacity meets incentives

How do governments mobilise public opinion in times of crises? While recent research examines the factors that determine the intensity of government polling at different points in the electoral cyc...

www.tandfonline.com

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 20d

Many congrats @alexanderfurnas.com et al. :-)

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Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Karen R. Lips, Scott L. Greer , and 5 more Brendan Nyhan, Karen R. Lips, Scott L. Greer, Anne Rasmussen, Jon Green, Sarah E. Gollust, Mirya R. Holman, Roman Senninger

Zander Furnas @alexanderfurnas.com · 21d

Thrilled that my paper "Partisan disparities in the funding of science in the United States" with Nic Fishman, @leahrosenstiel.bsky.social, and @dashunwang.bsky.social was published in @science.org today!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Partisan disparities in the funding of science in the United States

Republican lawmakers consistently provided robust federal funding, often exceeding Democrats

www.science.org

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Many congrats to you & not least IE (!) Catherine

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Many (!) congrats! Very happy to read this

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Stort(!) tillykke Jacob! Glad på dine vegne 🕺🙌

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Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · Sep 4

Stort tillykke!!

Reposted by Anne Rasmussen

European Consortium for Political Research @ecpr.bsky.social · Aug 29

Yesterday at #ecprgc25 👇

💡 Keynote speech by Margaritis Schinas, Vice President of the European Commission

📚 Publishing session @annerasmussen.bsky.social, @irobo.bsky.social, @mlorimer.bsky.social, @alessandronai.bsky.social, @steven-vanhauwaert.bsky.social

⭐ Thanks to everyone who participated!

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Reposted by Anne Rasmussen

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · Aug 28

In January 2026, Cambridge University Press joins forces with ECPR to publish the European Journal of Political Research, European Political Science, the European Political Science Review and the Political Data Yearbook.

Find out more - cup.org/3UG4RIB

#ecprgc25

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Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Anne Rasmussen, Miranda J. Lubbers

Mads Andreas Elkjær @madselk.bsky.social · Aug 26

Did you ever wonder why governments don’t do more to counteract wealth inequality? In our new @worldpolitics.bsky.social article, we seek to answer this question, studying the electoral politics of inheritance taxation muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl... 1/n

Project MUSE - Why is it so Hard to Counteract Wealth Inequality? Evidence from the United Kingdom

muse.jhu.edu

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Reposted by Alessandro Nai

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · Aug 24

Headed to #ecprgc25? 🇬🇷☀️📝💻

Please join us for this roundtable on open science featuring editors from @prxjournal.bsky.social @mlorimer.bsky.social @stevenhauwert & from @ejprjournal.bsky.social @alessandronai.bsky.social @isabelleborucki

The roundtable doesn’t overlap with any research panels 👏

European Journal of Political Research @ejprjournal.bsky.social · Aug 21

📢 One week to go #ecprgc25

📊 Open Science in Political Research with @prxjournal.bsky.social & EJPR
📆 Thursday 28th August
⏰ 13:30 – 15:15 EEST
📌 Law Building, Floor: Ground Floor, Room: Amphitheatre B

➡️ buff.ly/xSvXWbU

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Reposted by Anne Rasmussen, Robert Huber, Alessandro Nai

Political Research Exchange @prxjournal.bsky.social · Aug 24

🧡 And don't forget you can meet this wonderful bunch at the Meet The Editors session

📆 Thursday 28 August
⏰ 15:45 - 16:45
🫶 Come and say hello!

👉 buff.ly/wUlT2Ys

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Reposted by Anne Rasmussen, Robert Huber, Alessandro Nai

European Journal of Political Research @ejprjournal.bsky.social · Aug 21

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Reposted by Sara B. Hobolt, Anne Rasmussen, Mirya R. Holman , and 4 more Sara B. Hobolt, Anne Rasmussen, Mirya R. Holman, Robert Klemmensen, Federica Genovese, Jen Nelles, Tarik Abou‐Chadi

Florian Foos @florianfoos.bsky.social · Aug 20

📢 Call for Papers – London Experimental Seminar Series (LESS) in Political Science @lsegovernment.bsky.social.
We are launching a new forum for experimental political science research: First seminar: 19/11/2025. Deadline: 31/08/2025. Submit here: forms.gle/ZUJcBbZoDoaY...

London Experimental Seminar Series in Political Science

We are inviting submissions for the London Experimental Seminar Series in Political Science (LESS), a new forum for discussing experimental political science research among researchers at London unive...

forms.gle

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Reposted by Anne Rasmussen

Defacto Expert @defactoexpert.bsky.social · Aug 19

Wahlkampf in den sozialen Medien: Lokale Posts wirken nicht - @ohuwyler.bsky.social, @nathaliegiger.bsky.social, @stefaniebailer.bsky.social

Parlamentsmitglieder sprechen ihren Wahlkreis mittels lokalen Posts direkt an, obwohl diese Strategie nicht belohnt wird.

www.defacto.expert/2025/08/19/w...

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