In 2024, we surveyed US scholars about how, when, why they do (or don’t!) personally participate. We find a few patterns, some differences by subfield and variation in our attitudes toward the place of personal politics in our work, especially the impacts on our credibility with the public.

Just *published* our paper with @westernupolisci.bsky.social PhD student, Hunter Driggers, on LLM bias from party cues in annotation tasks. We extend a previous study showing annotation bias from human coders in the presence of party cues… LLM show similar bias 🧵:

rdcu.be/eIKCj

This is not entirely surprising: you train a model with huge amounts of human-created biased data, it will probably replicate this behaviour. The main takeaway here is that LLMs are biased in a very LLM way. They cling to these cues and do not self-correct (like human coders).

So we find the same direction of the effect, but greater magnitude. In any case, keep this in mind when using LLM as annotators, and check the paper for some additional ‘best practices’ when using LLM. Topes!

This is not entirely surprising: you train a model with huge amounts of human-created biased data, it will probably replicate this behaviour. The main takeaway here is that LLMs are biased in a very LLM way. They cling to these cues and do not self-correct (like human coders).

We tested how LLM annotate text on immigration by only changing the party names on the text. LLM were more likely to label statements as negative when applying a right-leaning party cues, and positive when applying a left -leaning party cues.

Just *published* our paper with @westernupolisci.bsky.social PhD student, Hunter Driggers, on LLM bias from party cues in annotation tasks. We extend a previous study showing annotation bias from human coders in the presence of party cues… LLM show similar bias 🧵:

rdcu.be/eIKCj

If we set aside ad-hoc explanations, two forces stand out in shaping global development: colonial institutions and war—even if the former fails to explain Europe itself. Latin America has long tilted the debate away from the latter, but what if the real driver was war here as well?👇

Labels can impact politics. My paper @apsrjournal.bsky.social "What Happens When You Can't Check the Box?" shows when Middle Eastern & North African (MENA) Americans are excluded from identity categories, they assert MENA identity when answering relevant political questions.
doi.org/10.1017/S000...

The New York Times
What to know about the North American summit taking place without the U.S.
As leaders of Canada and Mexico met this week to discuss trade, Professor @svallejovera.bsky.social Vallejo Vera explains what the meeting aims to accomplish.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/w...

🎉Now online (open access): "Hidden Majoritarianism and Women’s Career Progression in Proportional Representation Systems" at @apsrjournal.bsky.social. @alicirone.bsky.social, @teele.bsky.social, Gary Cox, @fiva.no. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🚨New Publication🚨

Using the entire #Canadian Election Study (1965–2021), I examine voter turnout by class, education, & income over time & test whether the offerings of political parties impact these relationships.

Available #OpenAccess in @cjps-rcsp.bsky.social
#polisky

doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Comparative Politics Folks, we have a position at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. If y'all have any questions, send word. Great collegial department in an affordable urban location, plus there's the Smokies and outdoors.

jobs.chronicle.com/job/37867857...

Stony Brook is hiring in political psychology (assistant professor). Please Share! Feel free to reach out if you have question. For more information: apply.interfolio.com/170193

Excited to cap off the summer with a new publication coauthored with @leahellmueller.bsky.social!
We debunk the myth about the universal demand for #horserace news, offering evidence on fascinating cultural nuances on social news sharing #NewsEngagement #ElectionCoverage
ijoc.org/index.php/ij...

We are very excited to have the brilliant @blairwelsh.bsky.social joining the Dept of Political Science @westernu.ca! Look for big things and important work in empirical IR; great for us and great for Canada!

politicalscience.uwo.ca/about_us/new...

Come work with me/us!!! Happy to answer questions about our dept, Western, and Canadian academia. I absolutely love it here and highly recommend. Several of us will be at APSA and happy to meet. 🇨🇦

Come work with us at Western U!! Located at one of the Top 5 Londons in the world.

Political Science at Western University, Canada is searching for three tenure track assistant professors. There are two ads, one in International Politics (IR or comparative) and one in Comparative or Canadian. Ads are here: www.uwo.ca/facultyrelat...

🚨 Paper now as "just accepted" at @The_JOP. We ran the first WhatsApp deactivation experiment focused on multimedia content ahead of the 2022 election in Brazil. We find a reduction in users' recall of false rumors -- and, to a smaller degree, of true news. Null effects on attitudes. Full thread ⬇️

The running joke in our family is just asking back “ok, but where are you REALLY from?”.

"Place Types." Excited that this paper with @sborwein.bsky.social is now available. We develop a new typology of place types in Canada at a fairly fine-grained level of geography, and then show how these place types relate to Canadian politics. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Happy to report that this article is now available: doi.org/10.1017/S000.... See Tyler's thread below for more detail on the associated R package and interactive online app.

Check out my new publication "Party Considerations for Renomination in Pre-Electoral Coalitions" at LSQ! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...