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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 2d

Grateful the Daily Pennsylvanian asked for my views on the administration's proposed Compact.

www.thedp.com/article/2025...

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 21d

Of course, there are lots of ways that social media can influence politics beyond any direct influence on public attitudes.

Rather than shaping what we citizens think, social media could well shape what politicians think we think.

Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 21d

This = from a NORC Feb./March 2024 survey.

Blue line shows the weighted average of affective polarization--the absolute difference in ratings of the Republicans & Democrats on the y-axis--by number of days getting news on social media (x-axis).

Not a strong relationship.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 21d

This = from a NORC Feb./March 2024 survey.

Blue line shows the weighted average of affective polarization--the absolute difference in ratings of the Republicans & Democrats on the y-axis--by number of days getting news on social media (x-axis).

Not a strong relationship.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 28d

"While this trend is serious and dangerous, it is one of individual radicalization, not a coherent mass movement. It is a whisper aimed at the unstable man in his basement — validating his terror of a murderous opposition."

Sean Westwood at Politico: www.politico.com/news/magazin...

10 Political Violence Experts on What Comes Next for America

Can America escape the spiral of political violence after Charlie Kirk’s killing?

www.politico.com

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Reposted by Dan Hopkins

PennLDI @pennldi.bsky.social · 28d

A new study by LDI Fellows Sara Handley and Emily Gregory finds rural parents face more hospitalizations & barriers to postpartum care than urban peers, while babies fare better overall. Integrating parent care into infant visits could help. Read more: https://bit.ly/46cEnDM

ldi.upenn.edu

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 28d

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 29d

I remember the wild rumors--that people were stopped trying to bomb the George Washington Bridge.

But maybe above all, I remember the loss and the lost. The hundreds of "missing person" signs plastered all over the Union Square subway station.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 29d

I remember the naivete. On 9/11, I thought I should rest up because they would need people to dig in the rubble looking for survivors.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 29d

I remember the sense of national unity, of resolve, of coming together. I remember buying a pair of shoes in Lower Manhattan because the President of the US said to go shopping.

I remember the uncertainty. Would people ever want to go up in skyscrapers again?

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 29d

I remember the bravery--the FDNY, NYPD running in. I remember the solidarity--my uncle in Wyoming saying a heartfelt, "it hit us pretty hard here, too." I remember offloading supplies sent from all over in the Shea Stadium parking lot with uniformed Mets and former strangers.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 29d

It's one of the only tastes I can remember in my life, the taste of that dust cloud. The silence of the thousands of people walking silently southbound on Flatbush Avenue. The silence of hundreds on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade staring at where the Towers had been.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · 29d

I remember so much about that morning 24 years ago in NYC--how clear the day was after the storms the day before. How a thin trail of smoke in an otherwise clear sky was the first I knew of the tragedy. How it was followed by an intense cloud once the Towers collapsed. 1/

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Sep 8

Despite their well-documented flaws, I think universities are uniquely positioned to help the US think through the complex economic, social, political, legal, ethical, technological, & military questions raised by contemporary and emerging uses of AI.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Sep 6

RIP, Ken Dryden. And my condolences to Sarah and family.

www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2...

Ken Dryden, Hockey Hall of Famer-turned-cabinet minister, dies at 78

The Montreal Canadiens goaltender won six Stanley Cups in eight NHL seasons and then retired at 31 to work as a lawyer, author and politician.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Sep 2

23% of the sample didn't match, but it's complicated because I have 500-person over-samples of Black and Latino respondents.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Sep 2

Nope, is there anything you'd suggest conditioning on?

Regressions indicate that Latino respondents and non-metro residents are less likely to match; respondents with higher ed. attainment as well as older & female respondents are more likely to match.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Sep 2

In my NORC 2024 panel, respondents who didn't match to the voter file were *18.5 percentage points* more pro-Trump than the sample overall.

My guess: Trump voters were less willing to give the information needed to match to voter records.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Aug 26

www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...

There Is Now Clearer Evidence AI Is Wrecking Young Americans’ Job Prospects

Young workers face rising AI competition in fields like software development, but some also benefit from AI as a helper, new research shows.

www.wsj.com

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Aug 21

1 fundamental problem is the selective perception of the field on social media (I haven't been on this site in weeks).

Another: social media & the discourse demands immediate answers, not peer-review processes that stretch for years.

A 3rd: when do we go public with work?

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Aug 21

There's an irony in Nate Silver's call for academics to police ourselves more--esp. if social media is indeed bad for our reputation.

I *already* spend hours a day policing research--writing journal reviews, tenure letters, serving on award committees, editing a journal, etc.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Aug 21

Believe me, I am well aware of academia's shortcomings.

But it feels like as a group, we're judged negatively based on an unrepresentative sample of the work we do, often before it's peer-reviewed. To wit, this observation from @davidshor.bsky.social:

x.com/davidshor/st...

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David Shor on X: "@Tyler_A_Harper IMO it’s really embarrassing- tons of high profile political scientists were denying things like education polarization and racial depolarization and pushing race centric theories of Trump for years after it became really clear what was happening. Some of them still are!" / X

@Tyler_A_Harper IMO it’s really embarrassing- tons of high profile political scientists were denying things like education polarization and racial depolarization and pushing race centric theories of Trump for years after it became really clear what was happening. Some of them still are!

x.com

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Aug 21

So for those outside a field, if you see something on social media, it's probably because it is generating a lot of interest among people like you--that is, those outside the field.

In some respects, political science has lost its ability to curate internally.

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Aug 21

I'm going to sidestep the substantive ?s & broadsides in this
Nate Silver post. Its coda does pose a dilemma for academics.

I agree social media has been bad for public perceptions of academics. What posts go viral? Those of interest outside academia.

www.natesilver.net/p/real-talk-...

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Reposted by Dan Hopkins

The Upshot @upshot.nytimes.com · Jul 25

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/o...

Opinion | I’m a Former Republican Texas Lawmaker. Don’t Let Trump Mess With Our Congressional Maps.

www.nytimes.com

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Dan Hopkins @dhopkins1776.bsky.social · Jul 12

Grateful to have been quoted in this @perrybaconjr.bsky.social piece in the @postopinions.bsky.social on the politics of Medicaid cuts:

img.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

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