It seems like researchers' inboxes across the EU and North America are exploding with replies to an survey invitation. At least, mine is. I feel the urge to share this New York Times classic but I'll do it here rather than in the email chain...

#dkmedier #magtudredningen2 #dkpol

Four (!) three-year postdoc positions available at @au.dk: international.au.dk/about/profil... Join an incredible team & help understand the psychological & political implications of the clash between high-speed society & slow-speed democracy. Please share! @tboeggild.bsky.social can help with Qs

🆕 What kind of personalities are drawn to politics? 🗳️ This cross-national study across 🇨🇦🇩🇰🇮🇱🇳🇱🇨🇭 explores #Representation and how honesty-humility and other HEXACO personality traits shape people’s ambition to run for office 🧵1/2 buff.ly/xk4qMa3

Uddannelsesdebatten i Nørre Nissum sætter fokus på unge og trivsel med Rasmus Meyer på scenen. “Ansvar er bedst til indvortes brug” Hal Koch 1947 gælder iflg. Meyer fortsat i dag Torsdag gæstede bl.a. @m-b-petersen.bsky.social debatten. #Dkudd @au.dk @majahorst.bsky.social

To underscore @brendannyhan.bsky.social's point, this is the verdict (in March) from Lindberg, directing a world-leading research group on democracy: "If it continues like this, the United States will not score as a democracy when we release [next year's] data." And continued it has. 1/2

🌅📙64.3 COVID beyond left and right 🦠 @m-b-petersen.bsky.social & @louisehalberg.bsky.social examine the divide in #COVID19 attitudes using surveys from 🇺🇸🇬🇧🇸🇪🇩🇰🇩🇪🇭🇺🇫🇷 & 🇮🇹 across left and right wing voters to determine how important system trust is in shaping cleavages. 🔗 buff.ly/ckcsLxK

Field and experimental research by @a-marie-sci.bsky.social & @m-b-petersen.bsky.social suggests people tend to share ideologically congruent news on social media more when like-minded ingroup (vs outgroup) members are watching: buff.ly/pAU4cAH

Their paranoid projections were predictions, a common phenomenon described in "The Deadly Ethnic Riot," as explained by @m-b-petersen.bsky.social in this interview re the broader evolutionary phenomena such deception is part of: www.salon.com/2021/08/08/a...

🔥New Open access paper in @pnasnexus.org with @m-b-petersen.bsky.social 🔥 "Motivations to connect with like-minded audiences increase partisan sharing on social media" academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Reminder: Great job opportunities at Aarhus University! Please help spread the word before everyone disappears for summer break! 🏖️

I have completely missed the drama behind this but this report by @catherinedevries.bsky.social @simonhix.bsky.social and @sarahobolt.bsky.social is very instructive: I had no idea EPSA was tied to a for-profit company and membership fees went to its 3 shareholders(!) epssnet.org/wp-content/u...

Som Birthe Larsen skriver i sin bog: “Hvorfor stiger uligheden - og hvad gør vi ved det?“lever vi i et Danmark,der er blevet mere opdelt, og det har en række konsekvenser for vores livsbetingelser.Ulighed er relevant ud fra et magtperspektiv, da det påvirker muligheden for at deltage i demokratiet”

Spændende mulighed for grave dybt i indsigterne fra Magtudredningen 2.0 med lidt AI-assistance

I går var en vild dag! Jeg fik lov at kombinere min passion for metal og politik i samarbejde med @stinuslindgreen.bsky.social og @m-b-petersen.bsky.social. Tak til @sophiehaestorp.bsky.social @astroandreas.bsky.social, Henrik Dahl og Anja C Andersen for at dele passionen🤘❤️ @forperson.ida.dk #fmdk

De første tre bøger fra @magtudredningen2.bsky.social er landet. Det er nærmest pligtlæsning for folk interesseret i status i det danske samfund og demokrati. Denne bog, som kan hentes gratis, af @1864.bsky.social, @mikmeyer.bsky.social og @m-b-petersen.bsky.social 👇 unipress.dk/udgivelser/m...

@m-b-petersen.bsky.social forklarer i et interview til @videnskab.dk om nogle af de bekymringspunkter den nye @magtudredningen2.bsky.social er kommet frem til. Her med fokus på lobbyisme i dansk politik #dkpol #dkmedier #dkøko videnskab.dk/kultur-samfu...

Min bog - Dansk demokrati i perspektiv - skrevet med David Andersen og udarbejdet i forbindelse med Magtudredningen 2.0 er netop udgivet! Gratis E-bog og gratis lydbog er tilgængelige her: unipress.dk/udgiv.../d/d...

Dette er en af de ting vi ikke kommer uden om at tage alvorligt. Politik er mere og mere blevet et ‘erhverv’ med mange ansatte og underleverandører. politiken.dk/danmark/poli... @m-b-petersen.bsky.social

Vores demokrati er forudsætningen for den kevevis, vi kender, og nok det vigtigste vi kan give videre til næste generation. Vi ved nu, at det desværre kan afmonteres relativt let. Magtudredningen 2.0 gransker situationen i Danmark. @m-b-petersen.bsky.social www.berlingske.dk/politik/i-tr...

De tre første bøger fra magtudredningen bør være pligtlæsning. Mange af de ting som @m-b-petersen.bsky.social her peger på, flugter meget godt med det som vi har påpeget gennem flere år. Vi behøver ikke vente til ‘28 for at handle: www.berlingske.dk/politik/i-tr...

🧵 Several people have raised questions about what I meant by "deservedly so" when referring to the decline of institutional trust. It's a fair question, so I want to explain that, because it sits at the heart of my work on how democracies collapse when their epistemic foundations rot.

And a collective failure to address the rising economic inequality occurring across the Western world. In Denmark - known for it’s generous welfare state - the richest have seen an increase in income 16 greater than the average citizen since the turn of the century. Same or worse elsewhere.

There is no bigger story right now than the White House asserting that California residents are in a state "of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States."

This was up there with one of @rafaelbehr.bsky.social's best eps. I learned a lot from @m-b-petersen.bsky.social Next up, Raf should talk to @noamgidron.bsky.social about status and populism - would make for a great follow up. Oh, and it's given me an earworm for one of my favourite ever tracks!

Fredag aften på Folkemødet afholder @m-b-petersen.bsky.social og jeg vores traditionsrige heavy metal DJ-battle. En debat hvor argumenterne kommer som tunge riffs og dobbeltpedal på stortrommerne. I år med gæstestjerner: Andreas Mogensen, Anja C. Andersen @sophiehaestorp.bsky.social og Henrik Dahl.

Folkemødet nærmer sig, og torsdag kl 19:30 er der musikquiz med et heavy tvist i det @radikale.dk telt. Akademikerne med @m-b-petersen.bsky.social i front udfordrer de folkevalgte med @steffenlarsen.bsky.social i spidsen - og jeg styrer løjerne. Det skal nok blive sjovt så kig forbi 🤘 #dkpol

Klart et lyt værd, hvis man er nysgerrig på et velkvalificeret bud på dele af "burn it down"-sentimenter der er for tiden. Og i relativt stærkere grad i USA. Og så vidt jeg forstår Michael er det også fx i USA der har været en kritiske masse af folk der bare gerne vil se verden brænde. I en sådan

Whatever hype you are reading now about powerful people will almost certainly turn out to be bullshit

In 2010, Mark Zuckberberg became Time's "Person of The Year". The article is surreal reading today. Here are just two quotes: "As for money, his indifference to it is almost pathological" "Facebook wants to...tame the howling mob...The Internet, and the whole world, will feel more like a family"

Excellent listen, not least for the emphasis on building trustworthy public institutions to tackle disinformation.

What drives populists to accept expert advice? Cross-country study by A Peresman, @thoruplars.bsky.social, @honoratam.bsky.social & @m-b-petersen.bsky.social compares how populists & non-populists evaluate expertise: buff.ly/sLAQvkY @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

Podcast! A really illuminating conversation with @m-b-petersen.bsky.social about the voters who are drawn to rule-breakers, institutional arsonists and chaos-mongers. shows.acast.com/politicsonth...

I had an interesting conversation with @rafaelbehr.bsky.social on his podcast "Politics on the Couch" about why some voters just want to watch the world burn - and how that explains a lot of what goes on in the US right now and what can be done. Listen here: shows.acast.com/politicsonth...

Today 80 years ago, Denmark was liberated from the Nazi regime. It is a long time ago. But the signs are still here. E.g, this bullet hole in a fence at Aarhus University from bombings that happened on Oct 31 in 1944. Those signs serve as a reminder in a time where autocracy is again rising.

Real headlines about the President of the United States. Happening right in front of us. (via @parkermolloy.com)

New, from me: I am dorky enough to actually read (ok, skim) budgets, and have never seen anything like Trump’s, which has converted a formal and professional document into a propagandistic screed to justify draconian cuts. Lets take a look. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/budgets-as...

Today was my last day with Freedom House after 3 years of working on the Ukraine team. While I knew this was coming the moment that the Trump administration cut our funding, hard not to feel pretty profound sadness. None of it had to be this way.

The Terry Moran interview is really enlightening. I’ve been struck how people who willingly enter into Trump’s orbit seem to inevitably debase and abase themselves. Demanding that Moran accept the photoshopped pic as real shows that debasement/abasement is simply the cost of entry into Trumpworld.

Trump has every single hallmark of a dominance-oriented leader - and this may make him want to take everyone with him if he goes down in flames. I was interviewed for @nytimes.com on the topic of Trump’s personality along a number of other experts. Article here: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/o...

This exchange is so very telling. Trump repeatedly claims the photoshopped MS-13 on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's knuckles is real, Terry Moran keeps telling him it isn't, prompting Trump to say this: "I never heard of you. I picked you. You’re not being very nice. He had MS-13 tattooed... Just say yes!"

Trump has every single hallmark of a dominance-oriented leader - and this may make him want to take everyone with him if he goes down in flames. I was interviewed for @nytimes.com on the topic of Trump’s personality along a number of other experts. Article here: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/29/o...

Come for Anaal Nathrakh, stay for yours truly. On the Saturday line-up at this year's Copenhell festival 🤘

Trump's executive order directing DOJ to investigate ActBlue makes clear we no longer a fully democratic country - my comments to the Associated Press apnews.com/article/wisc...

Public discourse often outlines the issue as “right-wing populists are anti-science, progressives and liberals are pro-science”. It seems to be a bit more complicated here too - though no less threatening.

Anything that stands in the way of the right-wing bullshit/propaganda machine is under attack — from the universities to non-profits to the rare online platform that manages to maintain some semblance of information integrity.

Lab Leak is now the official COVID-19 theory of the US government: www.whitehouse.gov/lab-leak-tru...

What drives populists to accept expert advice? Cross-country study by A Peresman, @thoruplars.bsky.social, @honoratam.bsky.social & @m-b-petersen.bsky.social compares how populists & non-populists evaluate expertise: buff.ly/M0nbJ57 @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social @uoypolitics.bsky.social @sagepub.com

Academic journals are bending too. Academic societies must be ready to resist.

🚨Report your NSF grant terminations! 🚨 We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely! airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...