Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Jul 24

Over a year ago (!) Roee Levy and I wrote this op-ed (that you can auto-translate) on Israel's responsibility for the horrifying famine in Gaza. The starvation persists. The immoral war in Gaza must end. If you can, protest with us today: 7pm, Habima Square, Tel Aviv
www.ynet.co.il/news/article...

להסתכל במראה: הרעב בעזה הוא כתם מוסרי עלינו

כמעט 700 אלף עזתים סובלים ממחסור קטסטרופלי במזון. ההערכות הן שתושבים בצפון עזה צורכים בממוצע רק 245 קלוריות ביום, ולפי ארגון המזון העולמי ארבעה מכל חמישה אנשים בעולם שסובלים היום מרעב חמור נמצאים בעזה...

www.ynet.co.il

2 7

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Jun 5

Paper is available via open access: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

What personality traits do citizens want politicians to have? Observational and experimental evidence of citizens' preferences in three countries

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Jun 5

Our findings shed light on the personality selection funnel into higher-office politics, and help explain resulting leader behaviour patterns. Proud to be part of the team working on this paper, led by Thomas Bergeron, and including Eran Amsalem, Jeroen Joly, and Peter Loewen.

1 3

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Jun 5

High levels of openness to experience, which characterize most politicians exhibit, are only weakly appealing, especially among right-leaning voters. In a conjoint experiment, we find that these effects on leader preference outweigh factors such as age, education, gender, and experience. /3

Figure summarizing AMCEs of different factors used in the Study 3 conjoint experiment reported in the paper

1 1

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Jun 5

We find remarkable consistency across countries and ideologies when citizens choose their party leaders: they are extremely averse to displays of neuroticism, and strongly reward candidates who are conscientious, agreeable, and to a lesser degree extrovert /2

Table describing the Big Five personality traits used in the study

Figure describing overall results from Study 1 described in the paper

1 1

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Jun 5

Now in @ispp-pops.bsky.social: what type of personality do citizens want their leaders to have? In a series of studies conducted in Belgium, Canada, and Israel, we present citizens with profiles of potential leaders with different personality configurations drawn using the Big Five traits /1

Screen shot of the title, author list, and abstract of the Political Psychology paper "What Personality Traits do Citizens Want Politicians to Have?"

1 14 29

Reposted by Lior Sheffer

British Journal of Political Science @bjpols.bsky.social · Apr 25

From February 2025 -

Do Political Leaders Understand Public Opinion Better than Backbenchers? - cup.org/3CNR4dt

- Stefaan Walgrave, Julie Sevenans, Frédéric Varone,
@liorsheffer.bsky.social & @breunig.bsky.social

#OpenAccess

BJPolS abstract discussing politicians' perceptions of public opinion accuracy regarding leadership performance, featured on a green background with white text.

3 5

Reposted by Lior Sheffer

Jack Lucas @jacklucas.bsky.social · Mar 25

Really enjoyed this conversation with @jerusalem.bsky.social about our new paper on politicians' theories of voting behaviour. Such a thrill to be a guest on one of my favourite podcasts! www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/arc...

Politicians Think Voters Are Dumb. Are They Right?

A striking new study reveals that elected officials have a far more pessimistic view of voter behavior than do citizens themselves.

www.theatlantic.com

4 5 22

Reposted by Lior Sheffer

Dylan Connor @dyligent.bsky.social · Mar 25

The most important paper on democratic backsliding I've read this year

Noam Gidron @noamgidron.bsky.social · Mar 24

🚨Why do masses support democratic backsliding?🚨
A new @AJPS_Editor paper with Yotam Margalit, @liorsheffer.bsky.social and Itamar Yakir explores this question in the Israeli context. Our findings emphasize the role of leader attachment and affective polarization.
doi.org/10.1111/ajps...

5 10

Reposted by Lior Sheffer

Noam Gidron @noamgidron.bsky.social · Mar 24

🚨Why do masses support democratic backsliding?🚨
A new @AJPS_Editor paper with Yotam Margalit, @liorsheffer.bsky.social and Itamar Yakir explores this question in the Israeli context. Our findings emphasize the role of leader attachment and affective polarization.
doi.org/10.1111/ajps...

9 120 330

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Feb 17

Thanks Lucy! We love the Fastenrath and Marx paper, and figuring out which politicians even benchmark themselves against opinion polling is a priority for us, along with better understanding the inherent tension politicians face between responding to public opinion and working to change it.

1

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Feb 13

Our findings undermine the idea that leaders possess some unique capacity to 'get' the public. And because they have the most power to shape agendas and policies, their perceptual errors are especially concerning for the kind of representation citizens get in democratic systems. More in the paper!

7

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Feb 13

This result holds when we ask politicians to think about the general public and their own party voters; under different definitions of seniority; and even when we specifically look at those politicians who are (incorrectly) singled out by colleagues for being good at understanding public opinion. /3

1 4

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Feb 13

We find that while politicians themselves strongly believe that top politicians - such as party leaders and cabinet ministers - excel at understanding what people want, in reality these senior figures - who were included in our sample of >800 politicians - are just as inaccurate as the rest! /2

1 1 3

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Feb 13

Now in @bjpols.bsky.social: Are leaders really better at reading public opinion? In a large-scale study led by Stefaan Walgrave and Julie Sevenans, we test the assumption that politicians in leadership positions have more accurate knowledge of public opinion than others. /1
doi.org/10.1017/S000...

1 12 39

Reposted by Lior Sheffer

Kevin Elliott @kjephd.bsky.social · Nov 4

This paper joins a couple of others demonstrating that politicians have a conservative bias in their expectations of public opinion. This work is hugely illuminative of elite attitudes and so is of vital interest to activists pursuing progressive change

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

Now in APSR: What do politicians think about their voters? Fielding face-to-face surveys to 982 sitting politicians in 11 countries, and accompanying surveys of 12,000 citizens, we find that politicians have remarkably consistent - and cynical - theories of voters: /1
doi.org/10.1017/S000...

2 19 43

Reposted by Lior Sheffer

Brad LeVeck @bradleveck.bsky.social · Nov 4

Very cool paper! Well worth your time if you study elite decision-making or elections and accountability.

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

Now in APSR: What do politicians think about their voters? Fielding face-to-face surveys to 982 sitting politicians in 11 countries, and accompanying surveys of 12,000 citizens, we find that politicians have remarkably consistent - and cynical - theories of voters: /1
doi.org/10.1017/S000...

1 5

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

@annerasmussen.bsky.social, and Maj-Britt Sterba!

4

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

Stefaan Walgrave, Karolin Soontjens, Eran Amsalem, Pirmin Bundi, Frédéric Varone, @stefaniebailer.bsky.social, @nathaliebrack.bsky.social, @breunig.bsky.social, Linda Coufalová, Patrick Dumont, @nathaliegiger.bsky.social, @miguelpereira.bsky.social, Mikael Persson, @jbpilet.bsky.social /6

1 5

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

@jacklucas.bsky.social, Peter Loewen and I are indebted to our wonderful team of co-authors: /5

1 6

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

In the paper, we argue that politicians' theories of voters are very likely consequential for how they campaign, communicate, think about public policy, and represent constituents. We also outline a new research agenda stemming from our findings. Lots more in the paper! /4

1 1 14

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

Only 16% of politicians are "democratic optimists", who see voters as knowledgeable, fair assessors of blame and credit, who care about the long term and society as a whole when voting. Citizens, on the other hand, are equally split between optimism and realism in their views. /3

1 4 21

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

Nearly 75% of all politicians adhere to what we call "democratic realism" - they think that voters are ignorant, short-term focused, egocentric, and vote based on deeply held identities rather than policy positions. This happens in every country we study. /2

3 8 37

Lior Sheffer @liorsheffer.bsky.social · Nov 4

Now in APSR: What do politicians think about their voters? Fielding face-to-face surveys to 982 sitting politicians in 11 countries, and accompanying surveys of 12,000 citizens, we find that politicians have remarkably consistent - and cynical - theories of voters: /1
doi.org/10.1017/S000...

8 85 160

Reposted by Lior Sheffer

Jack Lucas @jacklucas.bsky.social · Oct 28

New paper with @liorsheffer.bsky.social and Peter Loewen in Political Behavior about politicians’ congruence with citizens, their knowledge of citizens, and – especially – the relationship between the two pathways to representation. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Pathways to Substantive Representation: Policy Congruence and Policy Knowledge Among Canadian Local Politicians - Political Behavior

In recent years, new data and methods have reinvigorated research on two central elements of elite political behavior: politicians’ congruence with and knowledge of citizens’ opinions. Here, we survey...

link.springer.com

1 2 8