iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

A mediation analysis suggests why: If interest groups matter, their influence is mostly indirect—by shaping politicians’ own views, which in turn are associated with their (biased) perceptions of citizens. 7/10

1101 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

We compare what citizens actually think on 5 salient policy issues (immigration, safety, healthcare, culture, environment) with politicians’ estimates On average, politicians misestimate support by 22 percentage points (!). BUT biases vary a lot (!) by issue & country. 2/10

182 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 29/09/2025

🚨 New paper in @thejop.bsky.social Why do politicians often misperceive what citizens' policy positions are? @simonotjes.bsky.social and I study ~10,000 estimates of public opinion by politicians in Denmark & the Netherlands to uncover the sources of these (mis)perceptions Thread 🧵1/10

216765 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Crucially, high-quality argumentation improves perceptions of the interlocutor: they are seen as more open-minded, informed, respectful, and reasonable—traits that in turn predict higher-quality replies. 10/n

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Second, another basic finding. For each feature of an argument: (1) Respect begets respect (2) Evidence elicits evidence (3) Openness invites openness (4) Disrespect provokes partisan attacks When arguing about politics, you get what you give. 9/n

110 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

First, put simply, how people argue matters a lot. Evidence-based, respectful, compromise-seeking, and non-partisan counter-arguments substantially increase the probability of High Quality replies... (HQ = justification/compromise+respectful+no partisan attacks) 6/n

111 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

Survey respondents write their opinion on a political issue they care about. An LLM then generates a counter-argument, randomizing the four features, 2×2×3×2 = 24 possibilities: evidence/emotion x open/closed to compromise x in-/out-/non-partisan x respectful/disrespectful 3/n

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 28/07/2025

🚨 New paper in Science Advances @science.org Can changing how we argue about politics online improve the quality of replies we get? T HeideJorgensen, @gregoryeady.bsky.social & I use an LLM to manipulate counter-arguments to see how people respond to different approaches to arguments Thread 🧵1/n

13511 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Results 4: The perceived motives behind toxic behavior toward women and men differ: - Toxic behavior toward women politicians is connected with prejudice and desires to push them out of politics - And LESS likely to seen as motivated by opinion differences [10/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Results 3: These judgments hold across all relevant sub-groups of politician and citizen respondents [9/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Results 2: Stronger effects when toxic behavior is gendered or the perpetrator is a man [8/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Results 1: Strong evidence that perceptions of toxic behavior depend on context. Equivalent messages to women are judged as more toxic [7/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Empirical strategy: Visual conjoint survey experiments that mimic toxic conversations on social media in the US, Belgium, Chile, and Denmark Respondents: Politicians (~350-1000 per country) & citizens (~1,200 per country) [5/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Delighted that @gregoryeady.bsky.social and my paper "Gendered Perceptions and the Costs of Political Toxicity: Experimental Evidence from Politicians and Citizens in Four Democracies" is now online @apsrjournal.bsky.social (Open access) More in this [1/14]

35716 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Results 3: These judgments hold across all relevant sub-groups of politician and citizen respondents [8/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Results 2: Stronger effects when toxic behavior is gendered or the perpetrator is a man [7/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

Results 1: Strong evidence that perceptions of toxic behavior depend on context. Equivalent messages to women are judged as more toxic [6/14]

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 11/12/2024

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Happy to share that research by @gregoryeady.bsky.social & me on "Gendered Perceptions of Toxicity Online" forthcoming @apsrjournal.bsky.social, has contributed to two news stories that made it to the front page of Danish @politiken.dk politiken.dk/danmark/art1... politiken.dk/danmark/art1...

1216 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Delighted to share the fantastic lineup of upcoming speakers for our @kcl-spe.bsky.social Comparative Politics Speaker Series @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social! Thanks to Raluca Pahontu for co-organizing many of the speakers Feel free to reach out to @ninaobermeier.com or me if you'd like to attend

14313 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Our school made it here in case you’d like to keep track of work from and news about all my cool @kcl-spe.bsky.social @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social colleagues ;-)

060 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 10/09/2024

By contrast, citizens with behavioural or attitudinal ties to business groups consider unequal group representation in either direction as similarly legitimate Only an emotional tie (trust) leads to a stronger preference for the representation of business groups [8/11]

120 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 10/09/2024

Ties to cause groups representing society are more consequential than ties to business interests. Citizens with any type of ties to cause groups consider processes that under-represent these groups as less legitimate than processes that under-represent business groups [7/11]

120 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 10/09/2024

We find that citizens have a preference for consulting groups to which they have emotional ties (i.e., trust), behavioural ties (i.e. actual engagement in groups), or attitudinal ties, where citizens and interest groups share ideological views [5/11]

120 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 10/09/2024

Research shows that while consulting groups boosts perceived legitimacy, unequal involvement dampens this effect. Yet, these aggregate patterns conceal important differences between individual citizens [2/11]

110 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 19/02/2024

We show that responsiveness to interest groups is likely to be selective and ideologically conditioned: Left-wing politicians in particular adapt their behaviour to positions of civil society groups (5/10)

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 19/02/2024

We show that politicians are highly sensitive to public support for a given policy proposal and that interest groups can also affect politicians’ intended votes (3/10)

100 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 22/10/2023

Here’s one from London from the area near my swimming pond

150 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 30/09/2023

Our beloved ECPR standing group on interest groups is now available in this "new online world" as well Please follow if interested in news on interest groups and lobbying and we'll follow you back: @ecprinterestgroups.bsky.social polisky commsky cssky

0156 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

Flashback to what feels like many years in academia ;-) Thanks to @morinryan.bsky.social for the shiny app

060 0

Anne Rasmussen @annerasmussen.bsky.social · 25/09/2023

The skies were grey but our spirits were high My ERC 'Advocacy in Digital Democracy project' now officially begun @kcl.ac.uk Super proud to have Marta Antonetti & Elise Antoine involved + @allisonwkoh.bsky.social joining us soon. More post doc and RA hires coming up. Feel free to reach out

3333 0