🚨 New WP w/ @leonardocarella.bsky.social on OSF doi.org/10.31235/osf... We usually think that social identities precede preferences We show the reverse is also true: people update their social identities to match their immigration preferences Focus: class identity in 🇬🇧 + Christian identity in 🇮🇹

New working paper! I examine whether exposure to local unemployment during adolescence shapes immigration attitudes in adulthood, focusing on the long-term imprint of early economic insecurity doi.org/10.31235/osf...

When experimentally exposed to narratives that immigration is negative for workers/Christians, people update their class/religious identities We argue that this process of instrumental belief justification serves to validate and legitimize their immigration preferences

People think of themselves as workers/Christians in opposition to immigrants rather than capitalists/non-religious Political conflict on 'old' identities become about 'new' issues This 'divorces' identities from preferences: e.g., one claims to be worker w/out demanding pro-worker policies

Why should we care? 👷‍♂️⛪ - We show that 'old' identities structurally rooted in 'old' societal cleavages still matter However: They mean something different. Under political actors' conducive cues, they can be read through the lenses of 'new' cultural conflicts

🚨 New WP w/ @leonardocarella.bsky.social on OSF doi.org/10.31235/osf... We usually think that social identities precede preferences We show the reverse is also true: people update their social identities to match their immigration preferences Focus: class identity in 🇬🇧 + Christian identity in 🇮🇹

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My beef is with open lists, and more generally with how enamoured we are of "personalisation" of electoral rules, in view of limited evidence that it actually makes a difference, other than making the act of voting more cumbersome to voters (possibly compounding participation inequalities).

🚨Job alert 🚨 I have an opening for a postdoc in my team at @ipz.bsky.social in the area of digital democracy starting Sep 1, 2026. If you are working on the impact of the digital transformation on politics, please apply by 🗓️ Mar 1, 2026. 📤 Please share widely! www.ipz.uzh.ch/de/ueber-uns...

🚨Happy to finally see this out in the @ejprjournal.bsky.social (with @leonardocarella.bsky.social) ⁉️ Does growing up when immigration is salient make people vote for parties they agree with on immigration *for the rest of their lives*? doi.org/10.1017/S147...

🎤 The speaker for the 14th session of the PBC will be @leonardocarella.bsky.social, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Vienna, who will be presenting “Electoral Systems' Effects on Participation beyond Turnout.” 📍 Join us on Zoom! Register here: www.eui.eu/events?id=58...

If you are in Zurich and interested in social identities (and how people strategically update theirs!), you can also see this project being presented at SVPW 2026 🗓️ Friday, Jan. 16 ⏰ 10:30-12:00 📍 UZH, Room SOE-E-1

🎤 The 13th session of the PBC will host @fraraffaelli.bsky.social, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Zurich, who will present: "Immigration Politics and Social Identities" 📍 Join us on Zoom! Please register here: www.eui.eu/events?id=58...

On my way to Florence, where I will be presenting at the EUI's PBC @behaviour-eui.bsky.social a project co-authored w/ @leonardocarella.bsky.social We show that (anti-immigration) 🇬🇧🇮🇹 people 'update' their social identity when primed with narratives pitting immigrants against other social groups

It’s not about drugs. If it was, Trump wouldn’t have pardoned one of the largest narco traffickers in the world last month. It’s about oil and regime change. And they need a trial now to pretend that it isn’t. Especially to distract from his sinking under Epstein and skyrocketing healthcare costs.

"We welcome PhDs to a round table table discussion from assistant professors who were recently on the job market"

Thanks to @johnholbein1.bsky.social I learned about this paper on rent control in Berlin. Because I was marking, I immediately downloaded the replication materials. bsky.app/profile/john...

An early Christmas gift from @demresjournal.bsky.social: new publication with @cantonwiner.bsky.social and Milan Kovačič on sexuality using dating app data. A great example of how social scientists and industry can collaborate to produce global, inclusive research.

New Publication with @lhaffert.bsky.social in @ejprjournal.bsky.social! We study the role of generations in the urban-rural divide, which is increasingly shaping the politics of many democracies. Studying Switzerland, we show: The urban-rural divide is stronger among younger generations. (1/10) 🧵👇

Labour is desperately trying to appeal to Reform supporters. In October, we asked people in the UK if they perceive a party as a "party for someone like them". Only very few people say this for both Labour and Reform. The correlation is negative. Labour is chasing an electorate that does not exist.

New article out in @cpsjournal.bsky.social with Tabea Palmtag and @dpzollinger.bsky.social 📝 We use open-ended survey questions (in Germany) to assess how and among whom social status shifts are perceived. This tests cultural backlash narratives in voters' perceptions. 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0010...

Today’s Politics Department:

This is pretty much in line with what I have found for Western Europe. If anything, the newest generations (both men and women) are more progressive than earlier ones regarding immigration, same-sex marriage and gender equality. See Germany, based on post-election GLES Data (2009-2025):

Still, if you really wanted to focus on the support among youth, the obvious headline (and thus story) would have been: Greens most popular party among young women. 🤬🤬🤬

Clickbait headlines are a major source of misinformation and misrepresentation. Useful headlines would have been: 1. Young men support Reform less than other men. 2. Age is much more important for Reform support than sex. 3. Reform is most popular party among 50+ men and women.

Brief life update: I moved to Zurich, started a postdoc at @ipz.bsky.social, and the city looks gorgeous

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....

✨Very happy to see my paper "Attitudinal ambivalence toward multiculturalism" out on @jeppjournal.bsky.social ! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/8 🧵

✨Very happy to see my paper "Attitudinal ambivalence toward multiculturalism" out on @jeppjournal.bsky.social ! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... 1/8 🧵

📣 Call for Applications 📣 3-year Postdoc position in Berlin 🚀 Join our Comparative Political Behavior Group at @humboldtuni.bsky.social & the @humboldt-govlab.bsky.social Great people, great projects, great city – come work with us! 🗓️ Deadline: 31 July 2025

Not an expert of LLMs or AI, but I can tell you that @antndlcrx.bsky.social is great! (Nuffield’s canteen also deserve a shoutout)

These age trade-offs constitute a dilemma for social democratic parties. In the short run, it is important to appeal to older voters to win elections. However, in doing this they alienate younger voters who build party attachments with more progressive parties.

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE. This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined. It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

Excited to present work on the impact of local unemployment in formative years on anti-immigration attitudes in adulthood tomorrow at #epsa2025 Saturday 11.20am-1pm Room 1A.08

Very excited to present my paper with @heikekluever.bsky.social on the consequences of far-right parties in government at #EPSA2025 on Friday! 🗓️ Friday 4:50-6:30 📍 Room 0A.06 | Panel P10-S253

🇬🇧 data question here: I’m looking for an over-time (survey?) measure of party brand recognition and/or voters’ left-right placement of parties for *Reform UK*. Ideally it would cover *2024* Any ideas?

PhDone! This (long) journey at @politicsoxford.bsky.social wouldn’t have been possible without the supervision and help of @spyroskosmidis.bsky.social @tabouchadi.bsky.social and Jane Gingrich. Thanks to my examiners @benansell.bsky.social & @markuswagner.bsky.social for their feedback

🚨3-Year Postdoc Position in Zurich @ipz.bsky.social ❓Political implications of labor market transformation Plenty of flexibility, no teaching obligations, great research environment in an highly livable city. Deadline: May 18, 2025. tinyurl.com/postdoczurich #polisky #poliscijobs #psjminfo

Looking forward to seeing folks at EPSA 🇪🇸 If you’re worried about conservative backlash & gender do check out our GENBACK panel Papers from @djordjemilosav.bsky.social @katharinalawall.bsky.social @fraraffaelli.bsky.social @bertous.bsky.social @gefjonoff.bsky.social coms.events/epsa2025/dat...

JD Vance did it.

Our 5 Prize Winners are: Xiaoxia Huang (Syracuse), Alejandra López Villegas (Michigan State University), Francesco Raffaelli (University of Oxford), Colette Marcellin (Vanderbilt University), and Alyssa Heinze (University of California, Berkeley).

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 🧵⬇️:

Very interesting to look at the age distribution in the exit poll. The SPD which already did very poorly with young voters last time continues to loose further there - a party of pensioners. Interestingly, also huge losses for the Greens among young voters and massive gains for the Linke.

In an earlier thread about “The rural-urban divide in external political efficacy”, I cited a result showing that the gap in efficacy depends on countries’ electoral rules. Why may that be the case? Part of the answer may be in this paper by @leonardocarella.bsky.social and @aeggers.bsky.social 1/8

Exciting workshop on political identities at HU-Berlin organised together with @tabouchadi.bsky.social & @markuskollberg.bsky.social

My paper is out at Legislative Studies Quarterly (open access). I look at whether electoral tiers in a mixed-member systems create different incentives for subnational legislators to try and run for higher office. This is, in fact, the case. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Excited to officially welcome Einstein Research Group Members @tabouchadi.bsky.social, @markuskollberg.bsky.social & @fraraffaelli.bsky.social @dynamics.bsky.social in Berlin 🙌