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Haifeng Huang

@hhuang.bsky.social
610 followers 126 following 26 posts

Information, opinion, and equilibrium. hhuang.org. “as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded.”

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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Insight vs. solution mathstodon.xyz/@tao/1172373...
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
How the reduction of moral hazard rent by AI prevents benefits of power from being distributed more widely in society
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Reposted by Haifeng Huang
Adam Berinsky @adamberinsky.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Next week, I'll be teaching my Advanced Survey Design class. Sign-up details below. instats.org/seminar/adva...
instats.org
Advanced Survey Design - Livestreamed Research Training | Instats
PhD-level seminar on Advanced Survey Design with Adam Berinsky . Live Q&A plus on‑demand access. Join via your university’s Instats membership or enroll directly.
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Roman Senninger @rsenninger.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
⚽📚 The Ultimate World Cup Research Thread I've set up a little automated thread: every day of the 2026 World Cup (11 Jun–19 Jul) it shares one study on what football does to society: politics, economics, migration, health, crime & more. One paper a day. Kickoff below 👇
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LSE US Politics and Policy blog - USAPP @lseusablog.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
American pro-democracy messaging in China works as a shield, not a sword finds @hhuang.bsky.social blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...
blogs.lse.ac.uk
American pro-democracy messaging in China works as a shield, not a sword | LSE United States Politics and Policy
Democracy promotion through messaging is unlikely to convince people living in confident, fast-growing non-democracies.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Takeaway: democratic messaging rarely converts publics in a confident, rising power, but it can defend a democracy's image in a crisis. Incidentally, the findings also undercut the popular "foreign forces" line: the most visible foreign voice barely moves domestic demands. doi.org/10.1017/S153...
doi.org
The Sound of Silence: Championing Democracy in an Authoritarian Society | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core
The Sound of Silence: Championing Democracy in an Authoritarian Society
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
But it stops there. The posts did NOT shift general attitudes toward democracy, views of China or its government, or willingness to move abroad or express dissent, in either year. A democratic "sound" met mostly with silence.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Pooling both years confirms it: the same posts moved US views significantly more in 2021 than 2018. Public diplomacy works as a "shield" to defend credibility in a crisis, not a "sword" for proactive conversion in normal times.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Because by 2021 Chinese favorability toward the US had collapsed, while views of China stayed high. A beaten-down baseline leaves room to move: a calm, factual account of how American democracy works therefore supplied something the prevailing narrative lacked
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
I reran the experiment in Jan 2021, after the US's botched pandemic response and the Jan 6 Capitol attack. The SAME articles now measurably improved views of the US (the "U.S." column). A worse moment for America, a better result. Why?
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
First experiment, Nov 2018 (calm US-China relations): I showed people genuine embassy articles on US elections, press freedom, official asset disclosure, party funding and free speech. The effect on their views of the US? Basically nothing, even slightly negative.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Does promoting democracy to the public of a rising authoritarian power work? In a new paper in Perspectives on Politics, I test it using the US Embassy in China's pro-democracy posts on Chinese social media, using two survey experiments in 2018 and 2021. Results are sobering and counter-intuitive
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
寂静的声音:美国使馆对华公共外交是否有效 (open access)
doi.org
The Sound of Silence: Championing Democracy in an Authoritarian Society | Perspectives on Politics | Cambridge Core
The Sound of Silence: Championing Democracy in an Authoritarian Society
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Reposted by Haifeng Huang
Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 27/05/2026
#OpenAccess from @poppublicsphere.bsky.social - The Sound of Silence: Championing Democracy in an Authoritarian Society - cup.org/49p4Xfq - @hhuang.bsky.social #FirstView
Image titled "Perspectives on Politics" with a cityscape background. A yellow banner displays the text: "First they came for the journalists, and I did not speak out, because they said it was all fake news. Then they came for..." The hashtag "#OpenAccess" is below.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Honored to participate in this great workshop hosted by @rsenninger.bsky.social. Learned a lot from his team’s phenomenal research and other scholars’ excellent work on the topic of information from abroad.
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Roman Senninger @rsenninger.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
The 'Information from Abroad' workshop starts today. @aarhusbss.bsky.social Glad to bring together a great group of researchers working on how citizens and elites respond to foreign signals (especially relevant amid war, tariffs, and election interference). Grateful for support @carlsbergfondet.dk
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Adam Berinsky @adamberinsky.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
New working paper: Rethinking Misinformation Interventions. The field has spent years searching for the one intervention that will solve misinformation. This search is the wrong approach — and our disappointment says more about our expectations than our tools. (1/5) osf.io/preprints/so...
osf.io
OSF
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Sobering take. Agree its taste is average.
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Reposted by Haifeng Huang
Adam Berinsky @adamberinsky.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
I'm teaching a few survey research courses live and online. First, a free one hour seminar. Feb 20 instats.org/seminar/surv... Then a set of two (half) day courses. Not free (sorry!). -Intro Surveys (Feb 26-27): instats.org/seminar/intr... -Advanced Surveys (March 5-6): instats.org/seminar/adva...
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Roman Senninger @rsenninger.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
We’re organizing a workshop at Aarhus University. Please share and consider submitting! 🗓️ 13–14 April 2026 | 📝 Deadline: Mon, 16 Feb 2026 (extended abstract) — junior scholars prioritized 🎤 Keynotes: @stefwalter.bsky.social (Univ. of Zurich) & @hhuang.bsky.social (Ohio State)
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Policy-wise, accurately understanding one's global reputation and influence is essential, even when foreign opinions may contain bias. This clarity is essential both for meaningful image improvement and for avoiding overconfidence that can impede a nation's "peaceful rise."
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
While many studies examine individual overconfidence in psychology and economics, and leader overconfidence in IR, this research investigates national overconfidence (about a country's performance and standing) and the correctability of such overconfidence, both new contributions to the literature.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Being informed of China's global image also increases citizens' awareness of what issues foreign publics consider regarding China and of the salience of China's negative aspects.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
The information treatments have particularly large effects on factual perceptions of China's global reputation, extending even to new questions not directly addressed in the original corrections. These effects appear broad and genuine rather than mechanical.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Critically, informing Chinese citizens of actual international public opinion about China changes their evaluations of the country, its governing system, and their expectations for its global role. These effects from simple corrections are durable for at least 2-4 weeks.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
Using two studies in China during the COVID-19 pandemic and a post-pandemic study of Chinese students in the U.S., I find that the Chinese public overwhelmingly and systematically overestimates China's global reputation and soft power compared to international polls, even during a national crisis.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/11/2025
How do people in a rising power view their country's global standing? My new paper in @iojournal.bsky.social finds significant national overconfidence in China—and shows that factual misperceptions can be corrected and triumphalism mitigated #Overconfidence #NationalImage #Correction #厉害了我的国 #大不自多
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Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 21/11/2025
#OpenAccess from @iojournal.bsky.social - Reckoning with Reality: Correcting National Overconfidence in a Rising Power - cup.org/3LQ3LIZ - @hhuang.bsky.social #FirstView
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
If it makes you feel any better, I left my keys in my Vancouver APSA hotel. I paid to have them shipped to me.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
Using two studies conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic and an additional post-pandemic study, I show that the Chinese public widely and significantly overestimates China's global reputation and soft power (as compared to actual global polls), even during a national crisis.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
An under-rated and under-cited paper in the same spirit: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Laws and authority
A law prohibiting a particular behavior does not directly change the payoff to an individual should he engage in the prohibited behavior. Rather, any …
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
When will you be in HZ?
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 11/11/2024
Thanks, Christian.
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 12/06/2024
Congrats to SAIS!
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 20/05/2024
This article of mine has a brief review of the formal literature on the issue: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... (shameless self-promotion). There might be a newer literature on valence that's also relevant.
journals.sagepub.com
Electoral Competition When Some Candidates Lie and Others Pander - Haifeng Huang, 2010
In this paper we analyze a two-candidate electoral competition in which a candidate can either lie about his private policy preference in order to get elected, ...
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Haifeng Huang @hhuang.bsky.social · 20/05/2024
This article of mine has a brief review of the formal literature on the issue: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... (shameless self-promotion). There might be a newer literature on valence that's also relevant.
journals.sagepub.com
Electoral Competition When Some Candidates Lie and Others Pander - Haifeng Huang, 2010
In this paper we analyze a two-candidate electoral competition in which a candidate can either lie about his private policy preference in order to get elected, ...
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