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Paul Teas

@icedteas.bsky.social
167 followers 202 following 50 posts

Survey Research Scientist at Far Harbor, LLC | Academic research on attitude moralization and political conflict

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S. Erdem Aytaç @seaytac.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
🚨🚨 New working paper! When do citizens punish presidents who breach the limits of executive power? We (with Susan Stokes and Paul Teas) explore this question by drawing on a conjoint experiment in the U.S. (1/5, link at the end)...
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Reposted by Paul Teas
Linda Skitka @lindaskitka.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
🧵 New paper out in JPSP: Morality Cut Both Ways. Can reading facts make you moralize an issue — or lose a moral conviction? We ran 6 studies, 4,464 participants. The results were surprising. 👇 #MoralPsychology #Attitudes. @icedteas.bsky.social 1/8
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Full paper available here: www.researchgate.net/publication/...
researchgate.net
(PDF) Partisan or Principled? Explaining Political Differences in Attitudes About Violations of Democratic Norms
PDF | Although both Democrats and Republicans tend to be more tolerant of democratic norm violations that benefit their own party, this pattern is not... | Find, read and cite all the research you nee...
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Anyway, a lot more in this paper, but a main takeaway: Both parties bend democratic principles when it helps their side. But partisan asymmetries beyond that emerge around politicized issues like mail-in voting—not out of more stable differences in democratic values.
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I shouldn't say partisan differences disappear… it's just that partisans on *both sides* oppose democratic violations less when it benefits their side, which is not ideal but not unexpected.
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
I find the latter. When I test reactions to less politicized violations such as removing polling locations from opponent strongholds, the partisan differences disappear!
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
But are Republicans actually just more tolerant of limitations to voter access than Democrats? Or is this more about specific, politicized practices like vote-by-mail and voter ID laws?
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
For instance, I find that Republicans are less opposed to politically-driven limitations to vote-by-mail than Democrats are—even when the restriction hurts their own party. Note: this holds even when using **perceived** (rather than manipulated) inparty benefit.
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Some would argue that Republicans are more tolerant of limitations to voter access, even when such limitations could hurt them electorally. That is, they just care less about voter access in principle (or Democrats care more about it in principle)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Across two experiments, both parties show the same basic pattern: they’re more accepting of norm violations when those violations benefit their side (shocking no one) But there are important wrinkles in this tendency too
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Really excited to share my first solo-authored article, out now in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin! I test when and why Democrats and Republicans differ in their tolerance for undemocratic actions. 🧵
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Reposted by Paul Teas
Pierce Ekstrom @pierceekstrom.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
New preprint with my grad advisee, Zeenat Ahmed. When and why do Americans prioritize party wins over democracy? Not because they don’t know what democracy is. Maybe, sometimes bc they don’t notice that in-partisans are violating democratic principles. There are some caveats. osf.io/preprints/os....
osf.io
OSF
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
Officially a doctor, or PhDONE (I think is what they say). So grateful to @lindaskitka.bsky.social and all the help I've received these past few years!
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Reposted by Paul Teas
Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
*Texas doctor & professor points out on tiktok that patients are not legally required to answer citizenship question in order to receive care *Abbott threatens funding of hospital and university *Video is removed These overt threats by politicians to stifle speech becoming all too common.
Abbott tweet: Hey, Texas Children's Hospital & Baylor College of Medicine this doctor is putting your Medicaid & Medicare funding at risk. You better think twice & have crystal clear records. There will be consequences for failing to follow the law in the order."
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Also confirmed that young participants is definitely a factor in antidemocratic endorsement in both datasets, but it doesn't nullify the effect of outparty warmth
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Of course, when graphing only outparty warmth, we get the weird relationship where the more you like the other party, the more willing you are to violate their democratic rights
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Thanks for posting this! Here are my graphs from a couple data sets configured like yours. I get a slight positive relationship in one and a negative relationship in another, but there is clearly that curvilinear pattern going on in both—though not quite the same as yours @derekholliday.com
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
We've removed inattentive respondents through several rounds, so we're pretty confident that it's not that. I've also found this in a few datasets with different methods of cleaning, etc.
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
It would be one thing if they were just anti-democratic actions in general, but the items ask about specific actions *against Republicans* so I can't see how liking Republicans more is associated with greater willingness to screw them over
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Yes, it appears in a couple of my data sets that the negative relationship between affective polarization and support for anti-democratic actions occurs for Democrats, but not really for Republicans.
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Thanks! Though I checked for that and political interest (extent to which one follows politics) didn't eliminate the effect
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Has anyone else found this? Is there a theoretical explanation I’m missing? Would love to hear your thoughts or related findings!
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
This points to the need for better measures of affective polarization like political sectarianism—the moralized, toxic view of the other side. (come to my SPSP symposium about this!) But still... why would colder feelings lead to less support for antidemocratic actions?
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
3️⃣ Could skew in the data explain it? There’s definitely skew, but I find it hard to believe that it would fully account for the results.
skewed, but negative relationship shown in a scatterplot between outparty coldness and antidemocratic tendencies
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
2️⃣ Maybe it's because I'm not using a combination of inparty warmth minus outparty cold…coldness(?)..coldth(??) Tried that too and found the same negative relationship!
inparty warmth minus outparty coldness is still significantly negatively related to antidemocratic tendencies
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Let’s look at some possible explanations (and rule them out): 1️⃣ Maybe people who are more polarized are also more politically conscious, which is related to more commitment to democratic norms? Nah, I controlled for political interest and it does nothing.
outparty coldness is still significant when accounting for political interest
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
I've seen this before in work by Campos & @cmfederico.bsky.social and @elijfinkel.bsky.social et al., especially when accounting for political sectarianism (othering + aversion + moralization). But I thought affective polarization was just unrelated, not negatively related!
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
For context: Affective polarization (how much people dislike the opposing party) is often blamed for democratic backsliding. But in my data, it’s negatively related to support for antidemocratic actions. Isn’t that the opposite of what we’d expect?
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
POLITICAL SCIENCE MYSTERY: Why do partisans who feel colder toward the opposing political party seem LESS supportive of antidemocratic actions against them (e.g., closing polling stations)? Intuitively, dislike = more norm violations. What’s going on?🧵
correlation between antidemocratic tendencies and outparty coldness is -.20**
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 13/06/2024
This graph is showing % who said “mostly support.” Other response options were “mostly oppose” and “not sure.” Independents were more often “not sure” than other groups. They may have been more opposed than supportive of some but I don’t think that was often the case
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
Take a look at my article for more: today.yougov.com/politics/art... (11/11)
today.yougov.com
Views of 40 social movements reveal groups supported most by Americans | YouGov
Both the Civil Rights and Women’s Suffrage Movements are not only mostly supported but also viewed as mostly successful by the majority of Americans.
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
Overall, the degree of support for different movements seems to be a pretty good reflection for who Americans perceive to be worth protecting, which has come to differ substantially by which political party you affiliate with. (10/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
And vice versa, some movements were more successful than supported. Interestingly, 56% of Americans think the Gay Rights movement has been successful, but only 48% support it. The MAGA movement is also seen as more successful than supported, though not by much. (9/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
I also looked at movements that are widely supported but not seen as successful. The Native American Rights and Gun Control movements are the big ones here — more supported than successful by more than 30 points. (8/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
I was kind of shocked by the party-over-identity finding, but it makes sense. It seems to be the case for more recent movements, likely because they have been more heavily politicized, and party identity has become an overarching, moral identity. (7/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
I found the same thing with BLM support. Democrats—even White Democrats—were more supportive of BLM than Black people as a group were. Not the case for the Black Power or Slavery Abolition movements though. (6/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
Some of this is probably due to education and the fact that women were more likely than men to say “not sure”, but even accounting for these didn’t take out all the differences. (5/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
No, Democratic *men* are more supportive of all the women’s rights movements than women, as a group are — even women’s suffrage. (4/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
For instance, Democrats are more supportive of every women’s rights movement we asked about than women as a group are. Maybe that’s because more women are Democrats? (3/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
As usual, the data scream partisanship, but so much so that party affiliation often predicts support for social movements better than actually belonging to the identity group the movement advocates for. (2/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 11/06/2024
Found some weird/interesting things about how Americans view 40 social movements in a survey I conducted recently with YouGov (1/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 13/05/2024
Excited to share my first article at YouGov looking at partisan views on student debt relief! I discuss party differences in who is blamed for student debt and whether having (vs. not having) student loans may affect the parties differently. today.yougov.com/politics/art...
today.yougov.com
Explaining the partisan gap in support for student loan forgiveness | YouGov
While self-interest may play a role in shaping partisan attitudes toward debt cancellation, these attitudes are likely rooted in deeper ideological differences.
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 22/04/2024
So excited to be starting today as the U.S. 2024 Elections Intern for YouGov. Can't wait to dive into some polling with the U.S. News Team!
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
Lastly, thanks so much to my coauthors: @brittanyehanson.bsky.social @alleal.bsky.social Lindsay Novak, and @lindaskitka.bsky.social! We did the thing! (END)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
All in all, moral foundations may be better at predicting attitude positions than *moral* stances on issues, and their relationship with political orientation is still murky, but please check out the paper to dive in more! journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... (10/11)
journals.sagepub.com
Values in Context: The (Dis)connections Between Moral Foundations and Moral Conviction - Paul E. Teas, Brittany E. Hanson, Ana Leal, Lindsay M. Novak, Linda J. Skitka, 2024
Moral foundations theory (MFT) argues that liberals and conservatives form different moral positions because liberals emphasize the values of harm and fairness,...
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
Political differences were clearer when we asked moral foundation endorsement in the abstract (i.e., how relevant is harm to morality *in general* vs. how relevant is harm to abortion), but were mostly about harm for liberals and liberty for conservatives. (9/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
Interestingly, the authority foundation consistently predicted *weaker* moral conviction, meaning that the more people saw authority as relevant, the less they saw their attitudes as rooted in morality. That is, authority may be more of a *conventional* than moral value. (8/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
Most foundations predicted moral conviction most of the time, but their interaction with political orientation was a mess—We found some political differences in which foundations predicted moral conviction, but they were inconsistent and didn't always align with MFT. (7/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
If MFT is right, then the individualizing foundations should predict moral conviction for liberals (more than conservatives) and the binding foundations should predict moral conviction for cons (more than libs). How did MFT do? Not terrible.. but not great. (6/11)
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Paul Teas @icedteas.bsky.social · 12/02/2024
But are these *moral* differences or political ones? To test this, we examined the relationship between endorsement of each moral foundation and moral conviction about issues like facemask mandates, abortion, and concealed carry of firearms. (5/11)
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