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Rasmus T Pedersen

@rtpedersen.bsky.social

450 followers 300 following 18 posts

Political Scientist, Senior Researcher at VIVE - The Danish Center for Social Science Research. Interested in political behavior, online abuse of politicians and all things democracy

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Political science 34%

Communication & Media Studies 24%

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Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Aug 22

People are more likely to act against online abuse of politicians if you tell them that such comments 1) hurt individual politicians, (2) violate social norms, and (3) undermine democracy.
New article in R&P by Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen, Mads Thau and Myself:

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Countering online abuse of politicians through information about consequences and norms - Niels Bjørn Grund Petersen, Rasmus Tue Pedersen, Mads Thau, 2025

In recent years, a growing body of research has documented how both local and national politicians experience insults, sexism, and even threats on social media ...

journals.sagepub.com

Reposted by Rasmus T. Pedersen

Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · Mar 13

"Are review teams getting too involved in the revision of manuscripts?"

dx.doi.org/10.1177/1548...

When I began my academic career in the 1970s as a graduate student the journal review process was focused on determining whether submitted research made a contribution to
knowledge and was presented clearly. Rejection rates
were very high at the top tier journals, just as today. But
as both an author and reviewer, I have noticed some
rather dramatic changes over time, especially for empirical
articles. Different from today, well-designed research
testing important issues could be published even if it was
not especially novel or presented counterintuitive hypotheses. Even well-designed replication studies were published
(McKinley, 2010). In fact, the Academy of Management
Journal’s Research Notes and the Journal of Applied
Psychology’s Short Notes were explicitly for replication
studies and those for which the hypotheses were not supported. Also, back then, papers granted revise and resubmit
opportunities were typically accepted after one, and in some
cases two revisions. It was not until the 1990s that I started
noticing that manuscripts along with editor and reviewer
comments were getting longer and the number of revisions
requested increasing while at the same time becoming more
common for revise and resubmit papers to be rejected.1

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Reposted by Rasmus T. Pedersen

Political Behavior @polbehavior.bsky.social · Jun 4

Check out @rtpedersen.bsky.social, Petersen, and Thau’s open access paper, “Online Abuse of Politicians: Experimental Evidence on Politicians’ Own Perceptions.” link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Online Abuse of Politicians: Experimental Evidence on Politicians’ Own Perceptions - Political Behavior

Criticism from dissatisfied citizens is an inevitable part of being an elected politician in a democracy. However, when negative feedback from citizens turns into outright abuse, this can have pernici...

link.springer.com

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Reposted by Andreas Ortmann, Hugo Mercier, Jörg Peters , and 7 more Andreas Ortmann, Hugo Mercier, Jörg Peters, Alexander Wuttke, Janne Tukiainen, David Bartram, Marta Kołczyńska, Rasmus T. Pedersen, Samuel Coavoux, Johanna Rickne

Olle Folke @ollefolke.bsky.social · May 15

Update: We submitted the comment to the Journal of Population Economics, and today we got a desk reject with this motivation. However, we do not know their conclusion about the main results and why the paper was not retracted. Clearly, they do not hold. 1/4

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Reposted by Rasmus T. Pedersen

Andreas Lindqvist @andreaslindqvist.bsky.social · Apr 11

Former commander of Pituffik Susan Meyers must have known that she would be fired for this.

But apparently she found there are bigger considerations at stake than keeping her command.

Question is if we'll see more of this sort in coming months?

Berlingske has obtained her leaked email

#Defence

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Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Apr 10

Well, our paper is part of a growing collection of great zombie papers on my computer 😊 (and definitely also my fault/responsibilty 😁)

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Apr 8

Congrats, Eunji! Looking forward to reading it

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Reposted by Lene Holm Pedersen, Rasmus T. Pedersen

British Journal of Political Science @bjpols.bsky.social · Apr 4

NEW -

The Gendered Cost of Politics - cup.org/42favop

- Frederik Klaaborg Kjøller & @leneholmp.bsky.social

"the conjoint experiment reveals that women candidates state stronger preferences for equal working environments in politics than men..."

#OpenAccess

BJPolS abstract discussing the impact of sexism and harassment on political candidates in the 2021 Danish local elections. The study evaluates candidates' perceptions and the corresponding risk of victimization, with findings suggesting stronger repercussions for women candidates, preferences for double job size, and implications for advised oversights in politics.

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Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Mar 13

Yes

Mark Rubin @markrubin.bsky.social · Mar 13

"Are review teams getting too involved in the revision of manuscripts?"

dx.doi.org/10.1177/1548...

Reposted by Nathan Nunn, Jon H. Fiva, Henning Finseraas , and 2 more Nathan Nunn, Jon H. Fiva, Henning Finseraas, Janne Tukiainen, Rasmus T. Pedersen

Jaakko Meriläinen @jmerilainen.bsky.social · Feb 25

🧵 Who enters politics? Are politicians different from the general population? In our @jeeanews.bsky.social paper (M. Jokela, @jannetukiainen.bsky.social, Å. von Schoultz), we study Finnish politicians’ cognitive and personality traits using military conscription test data. 📊

Personality Traits and Cognitive Ability in Political Selection

Abstract. A vast scholarship questions whether voters are sufficiently informed to act in their best interest at the polling booth, which may also have imp

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Rasmus T. Pedersen

𝙅𝙖𝙘🍩𝙗 𝙉𝙮𝙧𝙪𝙥 @jacobnyrup.bsky.social · Jan 9

Denmarks Radio reports that many of the Greenlanders who participated in Donald Trump Jr.’s PR stunt are homeless people, who got “bribed” with a nice dinner in return for being a part of it

Kilder til DR: Trumps folk 'bestak' hjemløse og socialt udsatte med hotelmiddag for at lege Trump-støtter

Flere kilder genkender flere af deltagerne ved Trump-frokosten i Nuuk som hjemløse og socialt udsatte borgere.

www.dr.dk

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Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Jan 8

New article in @jepsjournal.bsky.social. We show (to our own surprise) that exposure to online abuse of politicians does not decrease citizens’ prospective political participation. If anything, it may in some cases mobilize citizens politically!
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Exposure to Online Abuse of Politicians Does Not Scare Citizens Away From Politics | Journal of Experimental Political Science | Cambridge Core

Exposure to Online Abuse of Politicians Does Not Scare Citizens Away From Politics

www.cambridge.org

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Dec 29

Next time you enjoy a craft beer, remember to thank President Carter. In 1978 he legalized homebrewing of beer in the US, paving the way for the craft beer revolution
www.homebrewersassociation.org/news/long-jo...

The Long Journey to Homebrew Legalization | AHA

Homebrewing legalization took effect on February 1, 1979, but the fight to make beer at home didn’t stop there.

www.homebrewersassociation.org

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Dec 19

I'm pretty sure that ChatGPT isn't sentient, but I still can't help think that after a day of helping me debugging code, it somehow appreciates the tasks given by my youngest kid more

Here's the image of a cat in outer space! The feline is floating in a galaxy filled with stars, wearing an astronaut suit.

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Nov 21

Thanks for putting together this starter pack! I'd like to be added 😀

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Nov 21

Thanks for putting together this starter pack! I'd like to be added 😀

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Nov 15

Bluesky academics, lets get to know each other! Quote this & tell me: 1) a project you are working on & 2) an odd idea/theory you aren’t working on but keep thinking about

1) Online abuse of politicians
2) Political discontent and populism is, to a large extent, driven by “good-old-days-bias”

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Reposted by Simon Weschle, Yamil Velez, Jens Rydgren , and 1 more Simon Weschle, Yamil Velez, Jens Rydgren, Rasmus T. Pedersen

Olle Folke @ollefolke.bsky.social · Nov 12

My and @johannarickne.bsky.social 's paper on the ”Class Ceiling in Politics” is now out in the APSR with open access! We describe the key findings below. 1/9

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Reposted by Rasmus T. Pedersen

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Oct 8

Women are more averse to abusive comments than men (and people are generally more averse to sexist comments when the comments were directed at women in politics). These results are, we think, important to understand how abuse of politicians may further marginalize women in politics. (4/4)

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Oct 8

Perceptions of abuse varied significantly depending on political ideology. Left-leaning citizens were more likely to view insults, sexism, and threats as abusive. Finally, gender plays an important role... (3/n)

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Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Oct 8

We found no partisan bias in how people respond to criticism and the different types of abuse. However, this does not mean that politics is inconsequential... (2/n)

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Oct 8

What do ordinary people think about online abuse of politicians? In a new paper, we show how citizens perceive criticism, insults, threats and sexist remarks directed at politicians on social media (open access link: ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...). Surprisingly... (1/n)

Abstract
Online abuse is becoming an increasingly pressing issue for democratic societies. Citizens play an important role in curtailing abuse as they often moderate online content through counter speech and by reporting abusive messages. However, we know little about when citizens actually perceive negative comments directed at politicians as being abusive, and the factors shaping these perceptions are also understudied. In this study, we therefore investigate how citizens perceive criticism, insults, threats and sexist remarks directed at politicians on social media. Based on a survey experiment with 2,000 Danish citizens, we show that citizens’ assessments of the abusiveness of such remarks are not only affected by the content of the messages, but also by political ideology, political trust and gender. Surprisingly, partisanship does not seem to substantively affect perceptions of abuse. Our study provides novel insights into what exactly citizens consider to be abusive behaviour on

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Reposted by Rasmus T. Pedersen

Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Oct 16

Not a bad idea, but is almost completely flat across the entire measure

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Rasmus T Pedersen @rtpedersen.bsky.social · Oct 16

Non-correlation of the day. Among Danish voters, willingness to run for political office is correlated with the usual suspects: political interest (duh!), gender and age - But not with political trust. Don't even know if I expected pos or neg, but no correlation somehow seems odd.
Polisky

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