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Thomas J Wood

@thomasjwood.bsky.social

760 followers 230 following 80 posts

Political scientist, Ohio State

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Political science 38%

Sociology 26%

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 3d

Something undergrads after often surprised to find out--there's curiously little money in American politics.

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 8d

Nope! Survey research was expensive in the 1940s!

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan , and 7 more Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan, Hugo Mercier, Efrén O. Pérez, Melissa R. Michelson, Jacob Montgomery, Markus Appel, Matt Grossmann, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 9d

The last time I posted the income relationship to presidential vote among White respondents to the @electionstudies.bsky.social ANES, people asked for additional estimates among all voters.

Updated estimates here:

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Reposted by Joanna Bryson

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 11d

Rapid secularization of Democratic politics continues -- in the 2024 ANES, only 54% of Democrats reported religion an important part of their life.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 13d

Trump's presidency has coincided with a rapid decline in GOP partisan advantage -- a 5 percentage point decline since the end of Biden's presidency.

Data from Gallup social series.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 16d

Might be of interest to those teaching American politics -- motivated reasoning in retrospective economic/personal/geostrategic evaluation has been a stable part of presidential elections for 40 years.

Data from the @electionstudies.bsky.social CDF and 2024 timeseries.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Aug 21

As expected, the change in government sharply reduced Democrats’ trust in the CDC and FDA. But surprisingly, by 2025 Democrats now express higher trust in federal health authorities than Republicans do.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Aug 15

With initial data, it appears that Trump's 2nd term approval is weakly related to consumer confidence.

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Jul 25

The rightward shift in young men's partisanship is recent -- since 2024.

data from the @pewresearch.org 's NPORS study.

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Jul 7

Even Republicans have not recovered their pre-pandemic levels of economic confidence.

Data from the University of Michigan ISR's (bsky-less?) consumer sentiment survey

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Jun 20

Presidential vote has only been correlated with life expectancy since 2008, and even then the effect is strongest among whites.

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Jun 18

While liberals have moved almost a full scale point more supportive of free trade since the election (on a 7pt scale) conservatives are unmoved.

A super interesting case for the role of elites in shaping mass attitudes.
Data from the incredible @prl.bsky.social 's 'America's Political Pulse.'

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Jun 13

Outside of a tiny number of super polarized issues (in this case, immigration and climate change), the American public basically agrees on the topics deserving of national attention.

Data from AP-NORC.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Jun 11

Gun control attitudes continue to depolarize (on the margins!) in the 2024 General Social Survey.

Data from @norc.org

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Jun 3

It's only on questions of race where younger generations are less tolerant -- for the other speakers on the GSS, Gen Z/Millenials basically indistinguishable from other Americans.

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 30

National political spending preferences by partisanship, 1972-2024.

Fascinating that numerous policy areas have seen negligble polarization over this period. Data from @norc.org's GSS

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 29

Confidence in national institutions, by partisanship, 1974-2024.

The collapse in Democrats' Supreme Court confidence in 2022-2024 is the largest single year change seen in 50 years. Data from the GSS @norc.org

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 27

The newly released GSS shows Whites continue to liberalize in their perceived cause of racial economic inequality.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 27

Stark class income * partisan effect also apparent in 119th Congress's congressional districts:

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 24

Whoa nice to think of a mere in bsky w/ a lede!

But sure Dems becoming marginally less expansionary in abortion attitudes

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 24

Abortion attidudes depolarized (on the margins!) in the newly released 2024 General Social Survey from @norc.org.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 10

Ha fair enough.

I'm always down for new ways to burnish Chicago's credentials!

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 10

Is the Catholic Theological Union affiliated with the UofC?

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 8

If the Papal pick leaked, no one made it to the bookmakers...

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 5

With the release of the 2024 ANES, further evidence that Trump's invovlement in US politics had the effect of *reducing* authoritarianism in the public (in a thermostatic style--of course!--with larger changes among Democratic voters)

Data from @electionstudies.bsky.social CDF and 2024ts

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 4

The Australian Federal election swing in historical context (1943-2025).

The shift in two-party preference is more modest than I expected, given the swing in seats. #auspol

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 3

In April, Republicans in the UofM Consumer Sentiment adjudged national business conditions the best they'd been since the pandemic.

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 2

The 2024 election saw a modest *depolarization* in whites' answers to the racial resentment battery among @electionstudies.bsky.social respondents.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · May 1

In the newly released 2024 ANES (@electionstudies.bsky.social), racial groups see modest partisan differences in affect.

Other groups (Big Business, Labor Unions, the FBI) less polarized than recent cycles.

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Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · Apr 30

Partisanship swamps other factors in determining support for recent policies, even when they seemingly implicate traditional support for free expression.

Data from @thefireorg.bsky.social's April 2025 National Speech Index, part of @prl.bsky.social's fantastic national panel.

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