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Philip N Cohen

@philipncohen.com

10K followers 710 following 7K posts

Sociologist and demographer, University of Maryland; director of SocArXiv. New book out! Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists https://cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen-scholar/9780231555418 philipncohen.com .. more

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Philip N. Cohen is an American sociologist. He is a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, College Park, and director of SocArXiv, an open archive of the social sciences. .. more

Political science 34%

Sociology 29%

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · Nov 14

Hello new followers! I waste a lot of time on here, but when I'm not doing that I sometimes write books. My new one is called Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists (out in January, orderable now), and it has all you need to prevent ... oh no
cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen...

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 1h

Since it's not being compared to anything, and it's not a well-known measure (the inflation or unemployment), there's no reason to be so precise. The story would be the same if it was 16% or 18%

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 1h

Note: I can't accept, "nearly 17%." You can only use nearly, or almost, or more than, around significant numbers. E.g., you can say, "nearly 25%" But if it's really nearly 17%, just round it to 17%. (But this better not be 16.49% so it could almost round to 17%; the link doesn't go to the report).

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1h

The number of New York City households with three or more children has dropped by nearly 17% over the past decade as families struggle with the cost of child care and rent.

Who Can Afford Three Kids in New York City?

The number of city households with three or more children has dropped by nearly 17 percent over the past decade as families struggle with the cost of child care and rent.

nyti.ms

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 1h

"We expected it would have the integrity of the president of the United States."

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 2h

Reposted by Philip N. Cohen

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 1h

The number of New York City households with three or more children has dropped by nearly 17% over the past decade as families struggle with the cost of child care and rent.

Who Can Afford Three Kids in New York City?

The number of city households with three or more children has dropped by nearly 17 percent over the past decade as families struggle with the cost of child care and rent.

nyti.ms

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 3h

It would be less idiotic to suggest it was caused by circumcision itself, which is at least a nasty experience (take it from me, mine was before they gave Tylenol to newborns)

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 3h

I'm not that kind of doctor but the idea that a single dose of Tylenol delivered immediately after birth "causes" autism is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 9h

Besides linking Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, RFK Jr. now says circumcision is part of the reason why kids are autistic.

"Children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism, and it's highly likely because they're given Tylenol. None of this is positive..."

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 6h

Anyways, I forgot I wrote about her when she died in 2012, quoting myself praising her in 2019, and remembering taking her Gender, Work, and Family seminar. What a life. familyinequality.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/h...

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 6h

She definitely thought mass sterilization reflected the preference among Puerto Rican women, and that mattered to her, but the evidence was mostly its prevalence. She mentioned a survey showing 69% of women were happier after sterilization - and thought that was great - but I think that's not great?

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 6h

I liked Harriet in the 1990s, and she taught me a lot. Also a good mentor to women. But as a Kingsley Davis student in 1973 she did show a tendency to neglect women's point of view (see attached)....

Having previously noted the technical advantages of male sterilization (Chapter II), its preference relative to female sterilization on the part of the government can be readily understood.
Not only is a vasectomy a less complicated operation than a tubal sterilization, but it can be performed more efficiently and quickly for large numbers of men by establishing camps and mobile mits for this purpose. Tubal sterilization on the other hand, generally requires hospitalization and is much more demanding of medical facilities.

Reposted by Joe R. Feagin, Scott L. Greer, Philip N. Cohen , and 11 more Joe R. Feagin, Scott L. Greer, Philip N. Cohen, Eric Goldman, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, David R. Miller, Jacob T. Levy, Samantha Brennan, James Goodwin, David Bartram, Jens Siegert, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Justin Baragona @justinbaragona.bsky.social · 9h

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Reposted by Philip N. Cohen

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 9h

Two points:
1) for all the talk of restoring merit, in many cases we are seeing highly qualified people replaced by less qualified White people.
2) Trump and allies have made it harder and harder to explain to students why this is happening.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 9h

In Harriet Presser's study of 1973 study of women's sterilization in Puerto Rico, they asked women for one reason they were sterilized (health 58%, economic 20%, convenience 10%, not stated 12%). I'm staring at this sentence about subjective versus objective reasons:

The question "What was the reason for becoming sterilized?" was the only attitudinal question included in the fertility section of the 1965 Master Samply Survey. The question was open-ended in form and asked for a single reason. Since more than one reason may have been relevant, the validity of the coded responses may be questioned. Because this is our only source of information on the reason for sterilization and we would like to explore the relationship between this variable and education, we shall analyze the responses to this question assuming that the reason indicated is the prime, if not sole reason for undergoing the operation. It should be emphasized, how-ever, that these are subjective reasons given by the women and may be quite different from the objective reasons of physicians for approving the operation.

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Reposted by Philip N. Cohen

Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · 10h

Any university that agrees to this outrageous “compact” is a full participant in Trump’s assault on democracy. www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 11h

Trump apparently asking for "more rigorous codes for student conduct." wtf

Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 12h

1: we need separate shots
2: why do we need so many shots?

Reposted by Mel Bartley, Philip N. Cohen

Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 17h

"Harmonised data on the fertility histories of four British cohorts are now available for the scientific community to download from the UK Data Service"
cls.ucl.ac.uk/research-on-...

Research on fertility and families enhanced with new harmonised cohort data | CLS

Harmonised data on the fertility histories of four British cohorts are now available for the scientific community to download from the UK Data Service.

cls.ucl.ac.uk

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Reposted by Richard Hall, Philip N. Cohen

David Wearing @davidwearing.bsky.social · 18h

Palestinians will feel understandable relief. The West should feel nothing but shame. Gaza has been obliterated. The territory rendered uninhabitable. Tens of thousands murdered in cold blood. The entire population subjected to starvation tactics. And now, colonial subjugation under Trump and Blair

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 23h

After the president blocked me on Twitter and I sued him in federal court and won I got to talk to press on the courthouse steps thanks to @knightcolumbia.org

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 23h

Portland is a war zone

Renee (paix120) @paix120.bsky.social · 23h

Masked ICE agents threatened an American citizen, put him into an unmarked van, held him for several hours, and dropped him back off at his workplace, without ever explaining why they abducted him

VIDEO: ICE detains, threatens Oregon man despite U.S. citizenship
www.koin.com/news/portlan...

www.koin.com

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Reposted by Philip N. Cohen, Michael D. McDonald

Renee (paix120) @paix120.bsky.social · 23h

www.koin.com

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 1d

To their credit, they could have just deleted the evidence and claimed the original discovery. And credit to the editor who decided it was ok to leave that in

Reposted by Meredith Broussard, Lisa W. Fazio, James Q. Wilson , and 38 more Meredith Broussard, Lisa W. Fazio, James Q. Wilson, Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Dorothy Bishop, Anna Nagurney, Brigitte Nerlich, Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Gavin A. Schmidt, Jesse H. Kroll, Julie L. Lockwood, Patrick A. Jansen, Joshua S. Weitz, Nicole Dubilier, Jason Stajich, Simon J. Greenhill, Michael A. Clemens, Hugo Mercier, Megan L. Ranney, Rosemary A. Joyce, Philip N. Cohen, Michael J. Allen, Andrew Curry, Jacob Montgomery, Juan Cole, Kris Inwood, Smith, Robert C. Richards, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Victor Galaz, Scott A. Imberman, Sebastian Karcher, Brian Keegan, Ann Bartow, Jack Stilgoe, Ted Temzelides, Christina Pagel, Annalee Newitz, David Darmofal

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 1d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 1d

(and if you don't want to click on the click-baity headline, that one weird thing they found was that the downwind parts of cities are more often the poor areas. Which is neat.)

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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 1d

"When we ambled through academic research in search of hints [to explain what they already found in the data], we found something truly inspiring: Someone else had already done the work for us!" Nothing wrong with exploratory data analysis, but that is a little too on the nose for "data journalism"

Column | Why this one area of cities is usually the poorest

The Department of Data went looking for geographic patterns in poverty, and stumbled upon a surprising culprit.

www.washingtonpost.com

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