Scott Clifford
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scottclifford.bsky.social
Scott Clifford
@scottclifford.bsky.social
1.5K followers 660 following 49 posts

Professor of Political Science.
http://scottaclifford.com/

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Political science 37%
Sociology 20%
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Reposted by Jon Green, Scott Clifford, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls

mattgrossmann.bsky.social
Matt Grossmann @mattgrossmann.bsky.social · 5d
Reframing policy arguments with opponents' moral foundations did not change policy opinions across 5 issue areas:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The Poverty of Moral Foundation Messaging
Prominent scholars have argued that reframing political positions and issues in terms of moral foundations that appeal to conservatives or liberals can attract more individual-level support for tho...
www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Scott Clifford, David Darmofal, Ariel White

cambup-polsci.cambridge.org
Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 6d
CALL FOR EDITOR -

@jepsjournal.bsky.social seeks an editor or editorial team with a commitment to publishing articles that represent the substantive and methodological diversity of experimental work in the discipline.

https://cup.org/4ae3Tul

cc @apsa.bsky.social @experimentsapsa.bsky.social
The image features the large letters "JEPS" and the text "Call for Editor" against a dark background.

Reposted by David Lazer, Jon Green, Justin H. Kirkland , and 4 more

jonadejong.bsky.social
Jona de Jong @jonadejong.bsky.social · 7d
Do ordinary Republicans and Democrats really avoid each other in everyday life? In a new working paper with Delia Baldassarri, we present descriptive and experimental evidence to challenge the view that partisanship drives the formation of social relationships.

osf.io/preprints/so...

1/15

Reposted by Brian A. Nosek, Will Jennings, Alexander Wuttke , and 5 more

tsrauf.bsky.social
Tamkinat Rauf @tsrauf.bsky.social · 26d
This is a belated post about our paper in @poqjournal.bsky.social.

We analyzed 100 survey experiments fielded by TESS (tessexperiments.org), using only information from the proposals to identify intended hypotheses.

Here are some of the things we learned:
An Audit of Social Science Survey Experiments
Abstract. Survey experiments have become a popular methodology for causal inference across the social sciences. We study the efficacy of survey experiment
doi.org

scottclifford.bsky.social
Scott Clifford @scottclifford.bsky.social · Jan 9
Thankfully, no!

scottclifford.bsky.social
Scott Clifford @scottclifford.bsky.social · Jan 9
JEPS has been pretty steady. Arguably much less gain for experiments with relatively clean and simple data. So any change will likely be concentrated in specific types of research.

Reposted by Dorothy Bishop, Alexander Wuttke, Rebecca Sear , and 3 more

statsepi.bsky.social
Darren Dahly @statsepi.bsky.social · Jan 7
A hope for 2026 is that this perspective piece with @wiringthebrain.bsky.social & @deevybee.bsky.social will serve as a template for others who are similarly frustrated with with exaggerated claims and double speak around so much of research. It's ok to point out that the emperor has no clothes!
cellpress.bsky.social Cell Press @cellpress.bsky.social · Nov 13
The link between the gut #microbiome and autism is not backed by science, researchers say.

Read the full opinion piece in @cp-neuron.bsky.social: spkl.io/63322AbxpA

@wiringthebrain.bsky.social, @statsepi.bsky.social, & @deevybee.bsky.social
First page of Opinion piece: "Conceptual and methodological flaws undermine claims of a link between the gut microbiome and autism"

Reposted by Scott Clifford

cambup-polsci.cambridge.org
Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · Jan 6
This book examines how moral rhetoric is a crucial – and potentially unifying – part of how we experience democratic representation.

Shared Morals: The Role of Moral Rhetoric in Party Politics by @jaeheejung.bsky.social, Coming Soon

https://cup.org/4pCplQa

#Politics #PoliSci 🗺️
Shared Morals
Cambridge Core - Comparative Politics - Shared Morals
cup.org

Reposted by David Lazer, Scott Clifford

kwcollins.bsky.social
Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · Dec 22
Perhaps others have seen it already, but I found this pre-print (first posted in September) deeply troubling, raising concerns about how LLMs used for classification tasks in research open new researcher-degrees-of-freedom, which they call "LLM-hacking" (akin to p-hacking)

arxiv.org/pdf/2509.08825
arxiv.org

Reposted by Will Jennings, Linda J. Skitka, Scott L. Greer , and 14 more

johnholbein1.bsky.social
John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · Dec 20
Clear evidence that at universities conservatives don't face higher obstacles than liberals to establish student groups + invite outside speakers.

"These results fail to offer support for the view that conservative students encounter more difficulty in efforts to access campus resources."

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Scott Clifford, Georg Weizsäcker

anthlittle.bsky.social
Andrew Little @anthlittle.bsky.social · Dec 18
New paper with Salvo Nunnari which aims to detect (partisan) motivated reasoning (MR) using experimental designs based on information order. This provides a flexible way to detect deviations from Bayesian updating which can be explained by MR.

osf.io/preprints/so...

scottclifford.bsky.social
Scott Clifford @scottclifford.bsky.social · Dec 15
Yes!! And I'll add some evidence that these agree-disagree type questions seem to be *creating* some conspiracy beliefs.
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Do Survey Questions Spread Conspiracy Beliefs? | Journal of Experimental Political Science | Cambridge Core
Do Survey Questions Spread Conspiracy Beliefs? - Volume 10 Issue 2
www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Scott Clifford

psyarxivbot.bsky.social
PsyArXivBot @psyarxivbot.bsky.social · Dec 14
Central attitudes in political belief systems are more resistant to change than peripheral attitudes, but not necessarily less amenable to persuasive attempts: https://osf.io/6a8ue

Reposted by Efrén O. Pérez, Scott Clifford, David Darmofal

yamilrvelez.bsky.social
Yamil Ricardo Velez @yamilrvelez.bsky.social · Dec 12
This paper was a blast to work on. The challenge: present party positions across many issues, in real time, using language voters actually use. 🧵 on why we went with a more involved retrieval-based approach and where I think these tools are headed.
semrasevi.bsky.social Semra Sevi @semrasevi.bsky.social · Dec 8
🚨Excited to share our new paper published in PNAS (joint with @yamilrvelez.bsky.social and Don Green)! AI can enhance political knowledge and provide balanced information about politics with proper guardrails and vetted sources (e.g., party platforms).

www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Reposted by Scott Clifford

tonirodon.bsky.social
Toni Rodon @tonirodon.bsky.social · Dec 8
Partisan voters can reward candidates who stick to the party line even on unpopular issues. Under uncertainty, voters infer that ideologically rigid candidates are also more likely to back the party's other, more popular positions academic.oup.com/sf/advance-a...
Why moderate voters choose extreme candidates: voter uncertainty as a driver of elite polarization
Abstract. Representative democracy depends on elected officials reflecting voters’ policy preferences. Yet, US elected officials are more ideologically ext
academic.oup.com

Reposted by Will Jennings, Efrén O. Pérez, Scott Clifford , and 1 more

amengel.bsky.social
Drew Engelhardt @amengel.bsky.social · Dec 4
We really need to stop asking items like this using agree-disagree scales or comparable formats. These estimates aren't informative.

academic.oup.com/poq/article/...

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Reposted by Scott Clifford

polanalysis.bsky.social
Political Analysis @polanalysis.bsky.social · Dec 4
They find that survey professionalism is common, but there is limited evidence that survey professionals lower data quality. Professionals do not systematically differ from non-professionals and don’t exhibit more response instability. Read the paper here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
Survey Professionalism: New Evidence from Web Browsing Data | Political Analysis | Cambridge Core
Survey Professionalism: New Evidence from Web Browsing Data
www.cambridge.org

Reposted by Scott Clifford

polanalysis.bsky.social
Political Analysis @polanalysis.bsky.social · Dec 4
Currently in FirstView: In “Survey Professionalism: New Evidence from Web Browsing Data,” Bernhard Clemm von Hohenberg, @tiagoventura.bsky.social, Tiago Ventura, @jonathannagler.bsky.social, @ericka.bric.digital, & Magdalena Wojcieszak provide evidence on survey professionalism across three samples.

Reposted by Cyrus Samii, Jacob Montgomery, Paul E. Johnson , and 4 more

mattgraham.bsky.social
Matt Graham @mattgraham.bsky.social · Dec 4
Survey experiments' popularity in political science is getting attention. What is good and bad about them? How can one maximize their benefits and mitigate their downsides?

Greg Huber and I wrote up our thoughts:
Paywalled: doi.org/10.1016/bs.h...
Free: m-graham.com/papers/Huber...

Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, Scott Clifford, Tom van der Meer , and 4 more

daveamp.bsky.social
Dave @daveamp.bsky.social · Dec 2
Political Scientists: I am the chair of the committee that is picking the next editor of @polbehavior.bsky.social. If you are interested, I'd be happy to chat about it (and I know the current editors would be too).

You can find the call for proposals here:
Political Behavior
NOTE FROM THE EDITORS OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOR: We have recently transitioned from Editorial Manager to SNAPP. The submission process for SNAPP requires ...
link.springer.com

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Scott Clifford, Alessandro Rigolon

dbroockman.bsky.social
David Broockman @dbroockman.bsky.social · Nov 25
NEW PAPER w/ @cselmendorf.bsky.social & @jkalla.bsky.social:

An under-appreciated reason why voters oppose dense new housing, especially in less-dense neighborhoods: they think it looks ugly and want to prevent that, even in other neighborhoods.

Some of what we think is NIMBYism might not be!

Reposted by Hugo Mercier, Scott Clifford, Erika Franklin Fowler , and 2 more

yamilrvelez.bsky.social
Yamil Ricardo Velez @yamilrvelez.bsky.social · Nov 24
As @seanjwestwood.bsky.social's terrifying new PNAS article demonstrates, LLMs can now pass almost every attention check, mirror personas, stay consistent across pages, and systematically bias responses in the aggregate.

So here’s a different angle: verify physical presence, not text.

Reposted by Linda J. Skitka, Efrén O. Pérez, Calvin K. Lai , and 2 more

tagerai.bsky.social
tagerai.bsky.social @tagerai.bsky.social · Nov 19
A thread on our recent paper (w/Raihan Alam @raihanalam) in PNAS on why punishment often fails and what it means for crime, cooperation, democracy, and the rule of law. I’m super excited for it, it’s the lab’s most extensive experimental work to date. Check it out! 1/
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
www.pnas.org

Reposted by Mark J. Brandt, Scott Clifford

amengel.bsky.social
Drew Engelhardt @amengel.bsky.social · Nov 19
Do any meta-analyses or other reflection pieces exist that catalog the sorts of mechanisms specifically, and outcomes generally, studied as consequences of providing white Americans information on their declining population share?

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Will Jennings, Scott Clifford , and 8 more

roderikrekker.bsky.social
Roderik Rekker @roderikrekker.bsky.social · Nov 16
(1/10) 🚨Preprint alert!🚨

In this article, I challenge claims of a generational rise of conservative men. In the media and recent academic publications, the so-called ‘youth gender gap’ has been interpreted as a generational phenomenon.

doi.org/10.31234/osf...
OSF
doi.org

scottclifford.bsky.social
Scott Clifford @scottclifford.bsky.social · Nov 12
I still hear reviewer 2 saying "yes but in this case..."

Reposted by Scott Clifford, Kate Starbird

williambrady.bsky.social
William J. Brady @williambrady.bsky.social · Nov 11
✨New preprint! Why do people express outrage online? In 4 studies we develop a taxonomy of online outrage motives, test what motives people report, what they infer for in- vs. out-partisans, and how motive inferences shape downstream intergroup consequences. Led by @felix-chenwei.bsky.social 🧵👇

Reposted by Scott Clifford, Johanna Rickne

damienbol.bsky.social
Damien Bol @damienbol.bsky.social · Nov 5
New WP on political violence in democracies with the fantastic @dianebolet.bsky.social and @bjarneck.bsky.social. Sadly very topical, but with some positive results

osf.io/preprints/so...

1/
The image shows the paper's title and abstract.

Reposted by Scott Clifford

goodauth.bsky.social
Good Authority @goodauth.bsky.social · Oct 31
Very few Americans support actual political violence.

Many more support intimidation.

Almost no one thinks it’s appropriate to kill your political opponents, but many more would dox them.

Read the latest: goodauthority.org/news/very-fe...
Very few Americans support actual political violence. Many more support intimidation.
Almost no one thinks it’s appropriate to kill your political opponents, but many more would dox them.
goodauthority.org

Reposted by David Lazer, Brendan Nyhan, Jon Green , and 2 more

mattgraham.bsky.social
Matt Graham @mattgraham.bsky.social · Oct 27
After a huge post-election flip in economic perceptions, I thought Democrats and Republicans might be lying to pollsters to send a partisan message — but I was wrong!

New in the Journal of Experimental Political Science (open access): doi.org/10.1017/XPS....