Can reflecting on past democratic backsliding episodes “inoculate” citizens into vigilant liberal democrats? Drawing on the Slovak case, @movadek.bsky.social & I will find out: our registered report is in-principle accepted @thejop.bsky.social & survey results forthcoming! See tinyurl.com/uv5wybhs

New publication with @turnbulldugarte.com in @psrm.bsky.social! 🧵 We study whether citizens’ liberal values are selective: do people support policies based on who promotes them? Short answer: Yes, and it's driven by ethnic out-group disidentification. (1/11) 👇 doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

🇪🇺🇩🇪 Published Today in @bjpols.bsky.social 🇮🇹🇫🇷 How a voting advice application affected voting behavior in three large-scale field experiments: shorturl.at/2ekBj TLDR of our study (with @simonhix.bsky.social & @rlachat.bsky.social) below 👇 1/14

If the articles from my PhD were my children this article now published in @bjpols.bsky.social is my favorite. Written together with truly amazing supervisors and mentors, Pieter de Wilde, Oliver Treib, and Lene Aarøe, I had the support I needed in bringing this baby into the world. Summary below 👇

Join us on 23 January in Leuven for Rune Stubager’s keynote on the enduring impact of social class on political behaviour in Western democracies! You can register below 👇

🚨Publication Alert! My first first-author publication with @msaeltzer.bsky.social and @pluggedchris.bsky.social is out in @polbehavior.bsky.social, which began as my bachelor's thesis. We study how party polarization shapes affective polarization—with a particularly important role of the AfD. (1/7)🧵

Excited to share a new preprint with @bnbakker.bsky.social, @ylelkes.bsky.social & @gijsschumacher.bsky.social! doi.org/10.31234/osf... Affective polarization research focuses almost exclusively on valence, despite affect having at least two core dimensions. We show that emotional arousal matters!

Happy that our paper with @bogatyrev.bsky.social, @tabouchadi.bsky.social, @heikekluever.bsky.social, and @lstoetze.bsky.social found a home at @thejop.bsky.social. You can read it here 👇 www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/... Thanks to all the fantastic people giving feedback and supporting us

AI presents a fundamental threat to our ability to use polls to assess public opinion. Bad actors who are able to infiltrate panels can flip close election polls for less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee. Models will also infer and confirm hypotheses in experiments. Current quality checks fail

‼️ Onze onderzoeksgroep @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social verwelkomt dit academiejaar @bramwauters.bsky.social als Francqui leerstoelhouder! 📆 Het openingscollege gaat door op 2 dec om 17u30 Voor meer info en om in te schrijven voor dit *niet te missen* college, zie hier soc.kuleuven.be/afdeling-pol...

Now out in Party Politics 🎉 Our study (@jbpilet.bsky.social)suggests that when a mainstream right-wing party signals willingness to rule with the radical right, support for the radical right rises — while the mainstream gains nothing. 👉 A legitimisation effect. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

💡 Edwin Jans, @rensvliegenthart.bsky.social, @skruikemeier.bsky.social en ik schreven een opiniestuk over polarisatie in Nederland, vandaag in @parool.nl 👇📰

🆕 Deservingness perceptions & candidate support 👥 #GroupAppeals help connect #VoterIdentity 🧩 to voting choices 🗳️ – @rdassonneville.bsky.social, Rune Stubager & Mads Thau want to know if this appeals to other social groups 📣 📖 #OA

Really excited that after several years of working on it, revising, and getting lots of rejections, our paper (w/ Rune Stubager & Mads Thau) on citizens’ responses to group appeals is *finally* out @ejprjournal.bsky.social www.cambridge.org/core/journal... A 🧵 on our findings...

Politicians don’t just care how many people hold an opinion — they care how good that opinion is. In our new (open-access) article in West European Politics, based on survey data from 900+ politicians across 11 countries, we show: quality > quantity. Read more: doi.org/10.1080/0140...

🚨 New publication out @jeppjournal.bsky.social w/ Katrin Praprotnik @luanarusso.bsky.social @markuswagner.bsky.social We show that coalition signals from the mainstream right to the radical right shift, rather than reduce, existing political divisions. Open-access article: doi.org/10.1080/1350...

Happy to see that my paper w\ @jochemvanagt.bsky.social now has issue- and page-numbers. Also check-out our post @ecprtheloop.bsky.social to learn more about why unsuccessful coalitions - like those that we see across the EU right now - do not mitigate polarization! theloop.ecpr.eu/coalition-go...

📘 64.4 ✅ Coalition governments reduce affective #polarization when perceived as successful; ❌ when seen as failing, they increase polarization says @jochemvanagt.bsky.social & @markuskollberg.bsky.social #OA #PoliSky 🔗

🚨 New working paper alert 🚨 Missing summer — and the Tour de France? Don’t worry, we got you covered. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️ In this paper, we show that being on the route of Tour de France reduces far-right voting. osf.io/preprints/so...

What do citizens imagine their political opponents to be like? Polarization is real, but it also lives in our heads, fueled by stereotypes. We asked people in 🇧🇷, 🇬🇧, 🇩🇪 & 🇵🇱 to describe opponents in their own words. With @jnareal.bsky.social, @markuswagner.bsky.social & @piotrmarczynski.bsky.social 👇

Radical right accommodation really does not work. New paper out with this exceptionally talented team @katharinalawall.bsky.social @robjohns75.bsky.social @drjennings.bsky.social @sarahobolt.bsky.social @zachdickson.bsky.social @danjdevine.bsky.social & @jack-bailey.co.uk doi.org/10.31235/osf...

Returning from vacation and looking for a late summer read? @ivobantel.bsky.social and I got you covered! In our new @wepsocial.bsky.social paper, we assess how mainstream parties rhetorically create an affect-based "common front" against the radical right. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We have a new paper out in @jepsjournal.bsky.social, with @laiabalcells.bsky.social, @sergisme.bsky.social and Ethan vanderWilden. We test a number of experimental treatments aimed at strengthening social norms against radical-right support, but find mostly null results. 1/3

Online first: "Defending democracy: investigating the efficacy of elite democratic defence in a competitive information environment" by @jmvanlit.bsky.social & @mauritsmeijers.bsky.social doi.org/10.1080/0140... #Academicsky #Polisky

📢 New publication: we draw on unique data from 16- and 17-year-old Belgian adolescents who were eligible to vote in the 2024 European elections, and show that low trust in order and representative institutions is linked to protest and radical voting. @dieterstiers.bsky.social @annakern.bsky.social

🚨Preprint alert🚨 How does affective polarization change democracy? Lots of pubs study how AP affects trust, democratic norms, inter-partisan attitudes, and participation. We (w/ @polpsychjoe.bsky.social, @lilymasonphd.bsky.social) examine a vital assumption this research seems to rely on: 1/6🧵

🧵 Hiring 2 PhDs in political science! Join my ERC project DEMO-LIES @uantwerpen.be 🇧🇪 We study how politicians accuse each other of lying/disinfo — and how citizens react: Does it erode trust? Polarize? Mobilize? 🧠🗳️ 💥 4-yr fully funded 📅 Start: Oct/Nov 2025 🗓️ Deadline: 21 Aug Details + apply 👇

I'm recruiting 2 PhD researchers to work with me on a project studying how social groups influence vote choices! Info on the position and how to apply 👉 www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... Please share with interested students who would like to move to beautiful Leuven!

📢 The final piece of my dissertation is out in @polbehavior.bsky.social! Does being an ideologue matter for political disagreement—beyond how many issues are involved? It does, shaping both animosity and how people engage. 🧵https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-025-10049-z

What a pleasure to direct this amazing @ecpr.bsky.social Joint sessions workshop on citizens democratic commitment with Hannah Werner - thanks to all participants for the exciting papers and stimulating discussions!

A Tinder Test of Democratic Norms💋 New paper in @thejop.bsky.social with @bertous.bsky.social We rely on a visual conjoint experiment, cross-sectional data, & panel data to show that affective polarization drives the normalisation of the far right among the centre-right 🇬🇧🇪🇸 doi.org/10.1086/736698

🛎️New WP with @morganlcj.bsky.social @timallinger.bsky.social and @danbischof.bsky.social Against the surge of conjoints and other hypothetical experiments in relation to democratic backsliding, we study the consequences of using hypotheticals versus real-world scenarios. osf.io/preprints/os...

Out now and open access at @ispp-pops.bsky.social (with @florianstoeckel.bsky.social)! How deep does animosity between Leavers and Remainers go, and years out from the Brexit referendum, does it remain? 🧵 doi.org/10.1111/pops...

🚨 “We just need to recognize that we’re all citizens of this country.” –– Politicians + citizens often stress a shared national identity when trying to bridge racial, partisan, or other group divides. @stysyropoulos.bsky.social & I show why such “shared” identities are doomed to fail. 🧵1/9

1/7 First paper of my dissertation now out in EJPR with @bnbakker.bsky.social & @gijsschumacher.bsky.social Can we measure affective polarization in systems with 6, 10, or even more parties without overburdening respondents or compromising validity? We show how. Paper: doi.org/10.1111/1475...

New blog piece out in @ecprtheloop.bsky.social with @markuskollberg.bsky.social! We discuss the findings of our recent EJPR publication where we show that coalitions do not automatically result in less affective polarization. You can also read the full article here: doi.org/10.1111/1475...

Partisans often seem unwavering in their support for a politician/policy, even when faced with opposing evidence. But recent studies show that partisans can be persuaded. So how can both be true? My new @bjpols.bsky.social ky.social paper explores this Q: doi.org/10.1017/S000...

"Appraising Measurements of Affective Polarisation in Multiparty Systems" by @jochemvanagt.bsky.social @m2p-antwerp.bsky.social available in #OpenAccess at plc-journal.eu/article/view...

🚨 New open-access publication out in the European Journal of Political Research! @markuskollberg.bsky.social and I examine how coalition government performance shapes affective polarization between coalition partners—and find that it matters. 🧵 1/6 ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Incredibly happy to share that I received funding through the FWO Odysseus program for the SOCIOVOTE project! Over the next five years, I’ll be examining how social groups think politically, and study the processes through which groups and group identities become politicized.

🚨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...

Does Mainstream Populism Work❓ I answer this question in a new paper officially out at @psrm.bsky.social❗ Check out the paper here: doi.org/10.1017/psrm... Key take-aways in the thread below 🧵⬇️:

How do complexity and simplicity in political communication shape citizens' reasoning and attitudes toward politicians? 💭 Read more about it in this new study, out now in Human Communication Research ⬇️🤩 academic.oup.com/hcr/advance-...

Who does Spiderman vote for? Who you vote for. In a new paper w/ @markuswagner.bsky.social we show that people engage in motivated projection of political identities. In the absence of explicit info on politics, individuals rely on valence to infer the politics of others doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

Very happy that our paper (w/ @dziblatt.bsky.social & E Dinas) has been accepted @bjpols.bsky.social . We've seen the center right increasingly adopt far-right rhetoric. Our experiment in 🇩🇪 finds that this erodes anti-prejudice norms *more* than when the far-right employs similar rhetoric. 1/3

Do citizens vary in their support for respect-based norms in political communication (e.g., civility, accessibility)? And if so, does this variation influence how violations of these norms shape democratic outcomes? We address these questions in our new study, accepted in @poqjournal.bsky.social ⬇️

🚨 PUBLICATION ALERT 🚨 Excited to share that my article has just been published at @apsrjournal.bsky.social! It examines voter responses to mainstream party legitimization of (former) pariah parties. A thread 👇1/n... doi.org/10.1017/S000...

New pre-print available now!

We're super excited to welcome @jatucker.bsky.social at our brand new research group on Voting & Democracy at KU Leuven on 23 January for a keynote talk. The talk is co-organized with @cses.bsky.social. Do sign up and join us if you're around then!

Dreigt polarisatie zoals in de VS ook Europa te verlammen? In mijn opinie in De Tijd bespreek ik wat affectieve polarisatie voor onze samenleving betekent en welke lessen we kunnen trekken uit de VS. Zie 👇 www.tijd.be/opinie/algem...