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Thomas Wood

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H-index: 19
Political science 38%
Sociology 26%
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
Something undergrads after often surprised to find out--there's curiously little money in American politics.
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
Nope! Survey research was expensive in the 1940s!
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by Thomas Wood — Reposted by: Ben H. Ansell, Will Jennings, Brendan Nyhan , and 7 more

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood — Reposted by: Joanna Bryson

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
With initial data, it appears that Trump's 2nd term approval is weakly related to consumer confidence.
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by Thomas Wood

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

data from the @pewresearch.org 's NPORS study.
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
Presidential vote has only been correlated with life expectancy since 2008, and even then the effect is strongest among whites.
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

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

Data from @norc.org
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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.
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
The newly released GSS shows Whites continue to liberalize in their perceived cause of racial economic inequality.
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
Stark class income * partisan effect also apparent in 119th Congress's congressional districts:
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by Thomas Wood

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

But sure Dems becoming marginally less expansionary in abortion attitudes

by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
Abortion attidudes depolarized (on the margins!) in the newly released 2024 General Social Survey from @norc.org.
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
Ha fair enough.

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

thomasjwood.bsky.social
Is the Catholic Theological Union affiliated with the UofC?
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
If the Papal pick leaked, no one made it to the bookmakers...
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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

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

by Thomas Wood

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

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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by Thomas Wood

thomasjwood.bsky.social
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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