Peter Luca Versteegen
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versteegenluca.bsky.social
Peter Luca Versteegen
@versteegenluca.bsky.social
Postdoc at the University of Vienna. Researching polarization & democracy from a political psych perspective.

I do research and I run.

https://lucaversteegen.com
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Excited to share that I’ve been awarded a PI-Grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for my project "What Citizens Think They Should and Can Do in Democracies”. The project comes with 1 PhD (co-supervised w/ a proper academic adult) and 2 RA positions + funding for interviews and surveys.

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Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
we have 5 positions open at @goetheuni.bsky.social in Frankfurt
- a 4,5 year postdoc in my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage
- 2 postdoc & 2 PhD positions, 4 years, in a research group on Reconfiguration & Internalization of Social Structure

www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794784/FB0...
Goethe-Universität — FB03 - Gesellschaftswissenschaften
Die Goethe-Universität ist eine forschungsstarke Hochschule in der europäischen Finanzmetropole Frankfurt. Lebendig, urban und weltoffen besitzt sie als Stiftungsuniversität ein einzigartiges Maß an E...
www.uni-frankfurt.de
December 17, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
Over the moon 😍. My paper "Renewing Democracy:
How Exposure to Electoral Turnovers Reinforces Citizens’ Democratic Support" is accepted in World Politics. LINK: osf.io/preprints/os....

First paper fully conceived since my second child was born 4 years ago. For those who know, big milestone.

🧵
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December 10, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Did my PhD in this department and warmly recommend you should do the same. Incredibly smart, supportive, and kind community. And obviously, this project and its PI are awesome!

Reach out if you have questions.
🌟 PHD FELLOWSHIP ALERT! 🌟

I’m hiring 1 PhD fellow for my ERC project ECONENGAGE (@ Gothenburg 🇸🇪)! Starting 09/26! Great PhD community + int'l & supportive environment + FUN city. 💰for conferences + workshops! Lots of mentoring & career development opportunities! Deadline Jan 29th. Please apply!
Doctoral student in Political Science, specialization in political economy and political behavior
Doctoral position in Political Science, specialization in political economy and political behavior The Department of Political Science
web103.reachmee.com
December 10, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Patriotism means loyalty to a country. Nationalism means to consider one country superior to others.

Hence, it’s clear that European nationalist parties won’t benefit from American nationalism. Today’s NYT "The World” newsletter suggests these parties start recognizing this only now:
December 10, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
Happy to announce that I have received an @erc.europa.eu Consolidator grant for the project "Authoritarian Threats to Scientific Knowledge". AutoKnow will study how authoritarian regimes and politics affect scientific progress, contents and topics in different fields.

www.sv.uio.no/isv/english/...
Large EU-grant to Tore Wig to study the state of science in autocracies - Department of Political Science
Will scientific progress slow down if more countries in the world become autocratic? That is one of the questions political science professor Tore Wig will seek to answer with two million euros from t...
www.sv.uio.no
December 9, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
I’m thrilled to share that I’ve been awarded an @erc.europa.eu Consolidator Grant! I’m extremely grateful to my colleagues and collaborators for their support and help, and very excited to start this new adventure. Looking forward to all the collaborations ahead! #ERCCoG 1/2
December 9, 2025 at 11:13 AM
My reading for Christmas break just made it to Vienna.
Thanks, @debbiejsr.bsky.social, I’m excited to read this!
December 5, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
Political communication research overwhelmingly relies on text. But parliamentary speech is multimodal! In our new @psrm.bsky.social article, Mathias Rask and I show that legislators also signal partisan conflict nonverbally— through changes in vocal pitch during floor speeches. 🧵 1/11 #polisky
December 4, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
🚀 How do citizens imagine their future democracy – on Mars and on Earth?

Using large survey experiments in the US and Germany, we explore how people envision democratic governance with and without path dependencies 🪐

Read the preprint here ➡️ osf.io/preprints/so...
December 4, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
Friday brought good news and bad news. Today I am now allowed to share the good.

Via the generous donation of the Wallenberg Foundation and the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, I now have a few million euros to help understand more about the selective inclusion of LGBTQ+ citizens
December 3, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Excited to share that I’ve been awarded a PI-Grant from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for my project "What Citizens Think They Should and Can Do in Democracies”. The project comes with 1 PhD (co-supervised w/ a proper academic adult) and 2 RA positions + funding for interviews and surveys.

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December 4, 2025 at 11:46 AM
A cool paper, both theory and empirics ⬇️⬇️
🚨What are the political consequences of memory policy?

In a new paper @francescocolombo.bsky.social and I show that a public initiative to rename antisemitic streets in Berlin mobilized left voters, induced no backlash, and benefited left parties in the subsequent election.

osf.io/preprints/so...
OSF
osf.io
December 3, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
New paper! @william-dinneen.bsky.social @guygrossman.bsky.social Yiqing Xu and I use GPT to code 91k articles from 174 polisci journals (2003–2023)and track research designs, transparency practices, and citations. How has the credibility revolution reshaped the discipline? doi.org/10.31235/osf...
🧵
December 2, 2025 at 11:46 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
🚨New publication alert! 🚨

Our article “The Ethnic Politics of Nature Protection in Africa” is now out in @thejop.bsky.social 🎉-- fantastic collaboration with Stephen Dawson, @carlmc.bsky.social & Aksel Sundström

Article: doi.org/10.1086/739777

Short summary thread below 👇
December 2, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
What issues matter most to #Voters? 😬

@gefjonoff.bsky.social & @fedetrastulli.bsky.social study 6 European countries to find that different groups care about different issues--and that what people care about isn’t the same as what they think about those issues. 🧭🗳️
Who prioritises what? Determinants and measurement of voters’ issue prioritisation | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core
Who prioritises what? Determinants and measurement of voters’ issue prioritisation
buff.ly
December 2, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
Our paper on how cross-cutting group memberships predict warmer out-party affect and analyses suggesting this is why Latinos in the US have warmer feelings toward the out-party is now fully published in the most recent @polbehavior.bsky.social issue.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...
December 1, 2025 at 4:24 PM
PSA: If you want to get to bed early, invite an opponent (applies beyond Thanksgiving, eg Christmas or any family dinner)
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
November 27, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
New publication w/ my friend & amazing coauthor @fedetrastulli.bsky.social in @ejprjournal.bsky.social! 🎉

doi.org/10.1017/S147...

We explore: Who considers which political issues as important & how is this related to sociodemographic/socioeconomic variables?
Who prioritises what? Determinants and measurement of voters’ issue prioritisation | European Journal of Political Research | Cambridge Core
Who prioritises what? Determinants and measurement of voters’ issue prioritisation
doi.org
November 21, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
🌟 JOB ALERT! 🌟

I’m hiring 1 postdoc for my ERC project ECONENGAGE (@ Gothenburg 🇸🇪)! Starting ca. Aug '26! Congenial colleagues + int'l & supportive environment. 💸 for conferences + workshops! Lots of professional networking opportunities with scholars! Deadline Jan 7th. Apply! (see more below 🧵)
Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science PAR 2025/838
The Department of Political Science is an international academic environment that welcomes students, researchers and
web103.reachmee.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
New article with @draege.bsky.social out in Scandinavian Political Studies: “Asymmetric Influence: Politicians Can Fuel but Not Dampen Conflict.” We test whether politicians in one of the world’s least polarized democracies, Norway, can calm conflict as effectively as they can inflame it. #polisky
Asymmetric Influence: Politicians Can Fuel but Not Dampen Conflict
Research from the deeply polarized United States suggests that the impact of elite communication is asymmetrical: antagonistic messages often heighten divisions, while positive appeals fail to dampen...
dx.doi.org
November 24, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
Do policy preferences of voters and non-voters differ in European democracies?

My new article in @ejprjournal.bsky.social finds: Yes, sometimes, but this is not the norm.

Let's break it down. 🧵 1/10
November 19, 2025 at 1:39 PM
The only positive news about this paper is that this development may incentive social scientist to go out and talk to people again
new paper by Sean Westwood:

With current technology, it is impossible to tell whether survey respondents are real or bots. Among other things, makes it easy for bad actors to manipulate outcomes. No good news here for the future of online-based survey research
November 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
I’m amazed by the quality of the feedback we’ve received from the reviewers of our book with @bertous.bsky.social. I don’t think we talk about this enough in academia, but we should recognize and celebrate those who genuinely engage with the work (it takes time, energy and ability). 💜
November 17, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
On Wednesday, the brilliant @krausewe.bsky.social will join us in Münster to present work w @christinagahn.bsky.social on opinion polls and elections! We are so thrilled!

You can join via Zoom: uni-ms.zoom-x.de/j/62265873291

co-organized @danbischof.bsky.social + @mwegemann.bsky.social y.social
November 13, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Peter Luca Versteegen
The race to churn out papers is a systemic problem.

Early career scholars are desperate to get more papers to compete in the academic job market. This can make it hard for faculty mentors hard to reduce their output unless they shrink their lab (which removes opportunities from next generation).
November 11, 2025 at 7:26 PM