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Brian Boyle

@bpboyle.bsky.social
1.1K followers 1.5K following 22 posts

Political Scientist at Newcastle University. Interested in political behaviour, comparative politics, political communication, & computational social science. brianboyle.phd

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Reposted by Brian Boyle
Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
Universities cannot expect researchers to take risks if they are repeatedly at risk of redundancy while losing professional services support, grappling with the gratuitous vagaries of home and international student number swings and both teaching and assessing in an age of unregulated AI.
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Marta Miori @martamiori.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
New opinion piece with @profjanegreen.bsky.social in @financialtimes.com ⬇️📊 We argue that five parties in the polls doesn't mean five-way races. What's really going on is a scramble within each bloc over who can win, fought out seat by seat.
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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 14/09/2026
Picked up a copy of "Hyperpolitics" on a whim after seeing it promoted all over the place and I can only conclude that Verso have an amazing marketing department because there's not much substance here and the evidence base is weak.
A copy of the book "Hyperpolitics" by Anton Jäger on a pub table next to a pint of lager.
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Marius Sältzer @msaeltzer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Job Alert! We now have another position in computational social science. In the context of an interdisciplinary method center, we offer a 4+1 year 100% postdoc position with no teaching! If you have any questions, send me a PM. uol.de/en/job/postd...
uol.de
Postdoctoral Position in Digital Social Sciences and Humanities // University of Oldenburg
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Brian Boyle @bpboyle.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Congratulations!!
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Stefan Müller @stefanmueller.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
New project and dashboard on football and politics: footballinparliament.com Stefan Couperus, Martijn Schoonvelde, and I (supporters of FC Groningen, AZ Alkmaar, and Borussia Mönchengladbach, guess who’s who) were wondering how and why politicians talk about football clubs. 1/5
Dashboard: https://footballinparliament.com
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Matt Polacko @mattpolacko.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
🚨New Publication for @repjournal.bsky.social Does non-voting incur a partisan bias? #polisky #cdnpoli doi.org/10.1080/0034...
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Brian Boyle @bpboyle.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Newcastle is hiring a Lecturer in Public Policy (T&R permanent), if anyone has any questions about the city or University feel free to get in touch! Closing date is 7th August
jobs.ncl.ac.uk
Lecturer in Public Policy
Lecturer in Public Policy
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 11/07/2026
All I can really do at this point while grading
static.klipy.com
Security Guard Confrontation
Alt: Security guard barely checking people
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👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞 @jacktindale.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
STOP INTERVIEWING RANDOM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHO ARE HANGING AROUND THE TOWN CENTRE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AFTERNOON YOU MAY AS WELL ASK A CAT FOR HOW REFLECTIVE OF PUBLIC OPINION IT IS www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
What do Farage's Clacton constituents think of his resignation?
People living in Clacton share contrasting feelings of frustration and support towards Nigel Farage.
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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 30/06/2026
I have a new paper on the Gallagher index: the most common measure of electoral disproportionality. We often assume it runs from 0 (perfect 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺) to 1 (perfect 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺). But I show that in most party systems, 1 is not a possible value. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
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Liesbeth Corens @onslies.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
#UKHE! You know how we're told that 'students want less choice' against what we know to be reality & against pedagogical & disciplinary needs? Finally found the Nous report that supposedly backs that up, & it's based on a survey that asks about the *choice of major* nousgroup.com/assets/docs/...
FIGURE 12 UNIVERSITY STUDENT PREFERENCES AROUND OPTIONS TO SELECT MAJOR(S)
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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 03/06/2026
Last year, we shared a paper showing that Labour's accommodation of the radical right did not work. We now have a new version of the paper online: osf.io/preprints/so...
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Jocelyn Mawdsley @jocelynmawdsley.eurosky.social · 01/06/2026
To cover a colleague's grant buy-out, we @nclpolitics.bsky.social have a one year post to advertise in Political Philosophy! Newcastle is a great city and we have lovely students, so why not apply? jobs.ncl.ac.uk/job/Newcastl...
jobs.ncl.ac.uk
Lecturer in Political Philosophy (T&S)
Lecturer in Political Philosophy (T&S)
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Laura Jedeed @laurajedeed.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
As a lifelong MMA fan, this shit sucks so much. We should not have a gladiatorial pit on the White House lawn like some kind of Temu Rome For decades, MMA was my mindless escape from personal and political stress. Now it's work. They turned the only sport I like into work
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Louise Luxton @louiseluxton.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
Very excited to have been awarded a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant with @lottehargrave.bsky.social for a project I've been desperate to work on since my PhD. Look out for us presenting this at conferences soon!
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Louise Luxton @louiseluxton.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Very happy that our piece in Scottish Election Analysis 2026 is out bit.ly/49bWmww. Some interesting (& unsettling) insights into how voters are using AI to engage with elections. Thread from @strathplacelab.bsky.social | with @tbalogh.bsky.social @elisefrelin.bsky.social @zdgreene.bsky.social
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Ruth Dassonneville @rdassonneville.bsky.social · 19/05/2026
🚨 I'm recruiting a PhD student for a new project on Parties' social group ownership, based in the @vd-researchgroup.bsky.social research group at KU Leuven! Deadline for applying is 26 June, estimated starting date is 1 Oct 2026. All info is here 👉 www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... Share widely!
kuleuven.be
1 doctoraatspositie in kiesgedrag
1 PhD position to research how parties build connections with social groups
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Louise Luxton @louiseluxton.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
Coming to @ecprgender.bsky.social #ECPG2026 and working with quant methods or curious about using them in gender & politics research? Come along & meet other researchers at the @strathplacelab.bsky.social pre-conference social 🍻 📍 Two by Two Brewery 🕡 18:30, 14 June RSVP here: bit.ly/4dPyr8F
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 07/05/2026
Kind of surprised that this hasn't been bigger news. It's finals week for a whole lot of universities, and yet, Canvas (a learning/grading platform used by ~9,000 schools globally) is currently inaccessible because of a pay-or-have-your-data-leaked hack. www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...
insidehighered.com
“PAY OR LEAK”: Hackers Target Big Higher Ed Vendor
The criminal extortion group ShinyHunters breached Instructure last week. The hackers, who have also attacked individual universities, demanded the ed-tech giant pay up or face a data leak.
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Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte @turnbulldugarte.com · 07/05/2026
Looking forward to being back in Mannheim next week. If you are keen to hear how political parties are rewarded and punished for taking non-ambiguous positions on trans rights, then you might find this paper I'll be presenting (w\ @bogatyrev.bsky.social) of interest!
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 02/05/2026
Got to present this early draft paper today at a neat workshop organized by @rohanalexander.bsky.social. It's my attempt to grapple with the need for struggle and friction in learning in a world where LLMs remove all that friction. Read the whole thing at stats.andrewheiss.com/pinky-lychee/
AI for Me, Not (Yet) for Thee? Desirable Difficulties and Deliberate Friction with LLMs

Author: Andrew Heiss

Affiliation: Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University

Latest version: May 1, 2026

Details: This is a short position paper written for the Toronto Data Workshop’s 2nd Colloquium on Applications of AI, “Notes on the Future of Quantitative Social Science,” held at the University of Toronto on May 1, 2026.

Abstract: I am simultaneously a critical skeptic of large language models (LLMs) and their role in the learning process, and a reluctant and wary user of those same tools in my own work. This essay is an attempt to work through this tension by examining how LLM-based tools shape and reshape the foundations of expertise required to use them. If learners can generate working code through a Google search, if they can upload a blank problem set template and get a completed assignment in seconds, and if they can design, carry out, and analyze research projects in minutes, how can they build the expertise that is required to work with LLM output? Relatedly, if experienced researchers spend the bulk of their time reviewing LLM output and not working through code themselves, what happens to their expertise? The answer to these questions, I argue, is to deliberately introduce difficulty and friction in quantitative work, allowing learners to build expertise and helping experienced researchers maintain it.
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James David Griffiths @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
🚨 New Research Recently accepted at the @bjpols.bsky.social, our paper shows that Brexit led to weaker British 🇬🇧 identities among Remainers! You can read the paper by @jaclarner.bsky.social, me, and @danielwincott.bsky.social here: tinyurl.com/mrj96ywu
tinyurl.com
Dropbox
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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 09/04/2026
Finally done (for now). If you study elections, want to use the Constituency-Levels Election Archive, but don't like bugs, then say hello to `clean_clea`, now on GitHub: github.com/jackobailey/...
github.com
GitHub - jackobailey/clean_clea
Contribute to jackobailey/clean_clea development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Semih Çakır @mascakir.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
🚨 New paper with great co-authors (@oguzhan-alkan.bsky.social @rdassonneville.bsky.social @zeynsom.bsky.social) in Political Behavior! How well do citizens perceive where parties stand? 🤔 Open access: rdcu.be/fb83Z
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Andrew Gordon @andrewgordon.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
The takeaway: LLM agents are not infiltrating the platforms researchers actually use. Outside of one platform already notorious for pre-LLM bot problems, they just aren't there. The human data quality problem on the other hand is large, systematic, and fixable through platform choice. [9/9]
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Minas Karamanis @minaskar.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
Hey, I wrote a thing about AI in astrophysics ergosphere.blog/posts/the-ma...
ergosphere.blog
The machines are fine. I'm worried about us.
On AI agents, grunt work, and the part of science that isn't replaceable.
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Ralph Scott @ralphscott.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
🚨 NEW REPORT! 🚨 What is the state of the UK academic job market in politics, and what does this mean for the field and #highered? In a new @psaecn.bsky.social report, @lawrencemckay.bsky.social @williamlallen.bsky.social and I find worrying trends in job adverts and HESA data from 2012-25 #PSA26
psa.ac.uk
Academic Job Market Trends in Politics and International Relations - Political Studies Association
Academic Job Market Trends in Politics and International Relations: Evidence from the UK, 2012-25 Authored by: Dr Ralph Scott, Dr Lawrence McKay, and Dr William Allen Read the full report here   Execu...
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Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Is partner partisanship associated with vote choice? @cerifowler.bsky.social finds that it was for the 2016 Brexit Referendum & subsequent elections in the UK & argues that this can help us understand gender gaps in vote choice. Read OPEN ACCESS: buff.ly/D8Fdnbw @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky
buff.ly
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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the wilk @thewilk.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
media.tenor.com
a man wearing ear buds stands in front of a microphone and says " don t back down double down "
ALT: a man wearing ear buds stands in front of a microphone and says " don t back down double down "
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Grumpy Philosopher @stevecooke.org · 19/03/2026
Oh really? Is that because pandering to the far-right and assuming they will act rationally, reciprocally, & in good faith has always worked in the past, & because there's good evidence that Reform can be trusted? I totally trust this former Tory advisor report published by a right-wing think tank.
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Department of Political Science, University of Oslo @statsvitenskap.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
📢 New article 🌟 👥 @silkegoubin.bsky.social , @olijacques.bsky.social , @staffankumlin.bsky.social (ISV), & @dweisstanner.bsky.social 👉 Why Some Want Something for Nothing: Three Explanations for Unfunded Spending Demand 📗 Open Access in Scandinavian Political Studies 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/1467...
doi.org
Why Some Want Something for Nothing: Three Explanations for Unfunded Spending Demand
Several studies have documented ‘something for nothing’ (SFN) attitudes among citizens: preferences for increased government spending and lower taxes. Such a demand for unfunded public spending may g....
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Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
"Young people who were studying humanities subjects in school, namely history and art, became more likely to support more socially liberal parties. Those studying a technical subject, such as design and technology, became more supportive of more radical right parties."
theconversation.com
What you study in school shapes your voting choices in adulthood
Subject choice fairly early on is linked to later political preferences.
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 09/03/2026
and if you have a billion images to work with (like me teaching dataviz lol), this by @emilhvitfeldt.bsky.social is super helpful for an initial pass at making alt text for plots
emilhvitfeldt.com
Adding alt text to figures in quarto with Claude Code
Alt text is a very important thing to make sure you do right when making websites. Using AI agents such as Claude Code can help with a lot of the heavy lifting.
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Andrew Heiss @andrew.heiss.phd · 09/03/2026
If you use #QuartoPub for any PDF documents for teaching and you need to meet impending PDF accessibility rules, upgrade to v1.9, add format: typst: pdf-standard: ua-1 to the YAML front matter, and it'll work!
Accessibility score for: evalsp26_01-exam_answers
100% Accessibility score: 100 percent
arrow_drop_up
Perfect!

This PDF has a perfect accessibility score, although further improvements may still be possible. Keep up the good work!
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James David Griffiths @jamesdgriffiths.bsky.social · 01/03/2026
Great to speak with @meganekenyon.bsky.social of @newstatesman1913.bsky.social on location about the result in Gorton and Denton, including the role of party blocs! Clipped my bit below, but you can watch the whole video here (bonus, there is a cat!): youtu.be/dUh_1XuAg-g?...
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Jane Green @profjanegreen.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
@martamiori.bsky.social and I have been writing, since 2024, about why Labour's 'Reform' challenge and emphasis was based on a misunderstanding of Labour's vote. Here for anyone interested: politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/news-and-eve...
politicscentre.nuffield.ox.ac.uk
Article - Nuffield Politics Research Centre
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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 27/02/2026
While you're all messing around on Bluesky: I have a new working paper on the Gallagher index, the most common measure of disproportionality. TL;DR: I show that it is constrained by the size of the party system, which can cause problems comparing elections across time and space.
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Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Just to put this in context for you, this would nearly double the deficits posted by the big unis in deepest trouble if they had to pay in a one-shot. Now no doubt they will try another Heath Robinson financial vehicle to do so if needs must, but some simply won't be able to pay if on this scale.
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Duncan McDonnell @duncanmcdonnell.com · 13/02/2026
ICYMI: in the past week, we released the YOUMEM dataset — with survey responses from 5000+ members of 12 youth wings. It is the largest comparative study of youth wing members to date. It is also, we believe, the largest comparative party membership survey dataset ever made publicly available.
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Ryan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · 11/02/2026
I have a new paper. We look at ~all stats articles in political science post-2010 & show that 94% have abstracts that claim to reject a null. Only 2% present only null results. This is hard to explain unless the research process has a filter that only lets rejections through.
It must be very hard to publish null results
Publication practices in the social sciences act as a filter that favors statistically significant results over null findings. While the problem of selection on significance (SoS) is well-known in theory, it has been difficult to measure its scope empirically, and it has been challenging to determine how selection varies across contexts. In this article, we use large language models to extract granular and validated data on about 100,000 articles published in over 150 political science journals from 2010 to 2024. We show that fewer than 2% of articles that rely on statistical methods report null-only findings in their abstracts, while over 90% of papers highlight significant results. To put these findings in perspective, we develop and calibrate a simple model of publication bias. Across a range of plausible assumptions, we find that statistically significant results are estimated to be one to two orders of magnitude more likely to enter the published record than null results. Leveraging metadata extracted from individual articles, we show that the pattern of strong SoS holds across subfields, journals, methods, and time periods. However, a few factors such as pre-registration and randomized experiments correlate with greater acceptance of null results. We conclude by discussing implications for the field and the potential of our new dataset for investigating other questions about political science.
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Leonardo Carella @leonardocarella.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
The moral panic about young men is the new version of “UKIP is winning over former Labour voters” (also a Goodwin argument). Both rely on anecdote more than data, and do significant damage to public understanding of the radical right. Young men are the second *least* pro-Reform group in the UK.
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Lukas Warode @lwarode.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
partycoloR is now on CRAN! Started as a simple idea 6 years ago, now it's a full-featured package. Extract party colors and logos from Wikipedia with one line of code. It's already powering ParlGov Dashboard. install.packages("partycoloR")
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Tristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 28/01/2026
What you do need training on is how to identify AI generated images, video, and text - and how to learn the pitfalls of GenAI tech like their habit of confirming whatever you say to them. This is not what is being proposed. They won't want people to be AI-sceptics.
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Tristan Grayford @tristangrayford.scot · 28/01/2026
"This is how you navigate to a website and type a sentence." You do not need training to use ChatGPT. This would be the government absolutely flushing money down the toilet (the toilet here is AI "consultancy" firms who will happily quote you enormous sums to deliver this non-task).
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Sir Basil @sirbasil.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
I'm looking forward to the Reform Party fighting corruption, putting a few quid in workers' pocket and turning the country around like they did when they were Conservatives
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Heinz Brandenburg @heinzbrandenburg.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Ever wondered why Germany, in 2001 only the seventh country in the world after the Nordic ones and Netherlands to have more than 30% of MPs female, has since completed stagnated and been overtaken by 50-odd countries? In this newly published paper, @maarja.bsky.social and I try to explain that.
sciencedirect.com
The myth of compensatory effects: How party organisation shapes women's representation in dual-candidacy mixed electoral systems
Electoral systems are widely recognised as important institutional determinants explaining women's political representation. Mixed-member proportional…
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Prof David Farrell, UCD @davidfarrell-ucd.bsky.social · 24/01/2026
Congratulations to my amazing @ucddublin.bsky.social @ucdpolitics.bsky.social colleague @stefanmueller.bsky.social on his latest project www.ucd.ie/newsandopini...
ucd.ie
UCD-co-led research into AI’s influence on democracy awarded seed funding
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Youth Political Representation Research Network @youthpolrep.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Very interesting new publication by Leonie Rettig and @lukasisermann.com on descriptive attributes as voting heuristics - specifically age and gender: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Just like me? Testing descriptive attributes as voting heuristics
The lack of candidate diversity and the descriptive under-representation of groups such as women and young people in parliaments is a recurring concer…
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