Sign in

Josh McCrain

@joshmccrain.bsky.social
3.1K followers 444 following 883 posts

Political scientist at the University of Utah. Public policy, political institutions, media and politics

PostsRepliesMedia
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
interesting! positive effects of data centers on a bunch of key economic indicators www.nber.org/papers/w35194
010
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Universities are facing a crisis of legitimacy, and in response Utah is expanding their online courses chicagomaroon.com/53262/news/s...
chicagomaroon.com
Sosc Core to Institute AI Ban, Technology-Free Classrooms This Fall
All social science Core classes will transition to an “analog” approach for the upcoming academic year, restricting in-classroom technology use and banning AI-assisted writing and grading for students...
030
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
say what
020
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Do Flock cameras do anything? Not much, and the motor vehicle theft result is not really seperable from already decreasing crime trends in my read www.crimrxiv.com/pub/zleg04q3...
040
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 12/08/2026
arguing that Bluesky is nice because it's tiny and not growing is a bit like saying your local bar is great because it's always empty, it does make for a nice customer experience for you personally but that experience is probably going to be very time limited
2042126
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
completely agree with this take.
140
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
i'm finally starting to get asked to review *good* papers that clealry use agentic AI to do cool things. the bar for publication is definitely rising quickly
180
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
man WI dems what are you guys doing
020
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
so... this Arday story is wild? and people are defending him?
250
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Idiotic
010
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
What an astoundingly stupid idea
120
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
this is a very hyperbolic overstatement of the landscape (and is based quite a bit on papers I've co-authored)
100
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
All can be true: 1. Universities have been targeted by a decades-long bad faith campaign 2. Status quo is vastly more normal than craziest stuff on Fox/social media, esp. outside elite schools 3. Parts of academia are in rough shape Despite 1 & 2, we can and should address 3.
2713914
Reposted by Josh McCrain
American Political Science Review @apsrjournal.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
From our FirstView: New Evidence and Design Considerations for Repeated Measure Experiments in Survey Research by @dianamejordan.bsky.social, TRENT OLLERENSHAW and @atrexler.com. doi.org/10.1017/S000....
02616
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
New working paper! Regression to the Mean in Place-Based Crime Prevention
4144
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
for the love of god why are people still doing take home exams www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
insidehighered.com
Brown Professor Suspects Most of His Class Used AI to Cheat
Brown University leaders’ response to the alleged cheating incident has been “meek,” the professor said.
020
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
sorry why are we upset about this ban
150
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Rachel Porter @rachelporter.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Very excited that my paper with @colinrcase.bsky.social has been conditionally accepted at the AJPS!! Using our campaignview.org data, we produce measures for candidates' left-right positioning across six salient issue areas Big takeaways below ⬇️ Check it out early here 🔗: osf.io/preprints/so...
25420
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Sanjay Srivastava @sanjaysrivastava.com · 15/05/2026
What cherrypicked correlation would you try to pass off as causal if your goal was to get maximum Bluesky engagement? This one's pretty good but I bet you can do better www.cnn.com/2026/05/14/h...
cnn.com
Engaging with arts and culture can slow biological aging as much as exercise, study suggests | CNN
When it comes to slowing down our biological aging, engaging with arts and culture is as beneficial as physical activity, a new study suggests.
4274
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
not really sure this makes sense if you're also not going to require PAPs. just require them and be done with it
010
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Sizeable decline in police use of fatal force since the 2021 peak:
210
Reposted by Josh McCrain
jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 08/05/2026
it is incredible to see folks complain that good people don't run for office, that lawmaking is a hobby for the rich, that our state legislators are run by car dealership freaks, and then insist that we shouldn't pay lawmakers any more than we do.
401923220
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
Really confused why this is an issue for most classes. Provide in person assessments. Done.
4152
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
how are folks revamping their quant classes to use & teach agentic AI? it's certainly a tool we should teach rather than ignore, but i find it hard to think through how to incorporate into existing syllabi in a straightforward way.
110
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
there are actually some pretty useful prompts embedded here
110
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
All of this
5314
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
i mean yeah this is right, i always joke it's a good thing our state legislators haven't found out about bluesky
220
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
still hearing that people are using LLM checking tools on assignments, insane
000
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Andrew Trexler @atrexler.com · 24/04/2026
Thrilled to announce my paper with @dianamejordan.bsky.social & sky-less Trent Ollerenshaw is now published open-access at @apsrjournal.bsky.social. In a (very) large replication & extension, we show that design effects of repeated measure experiments are nonzero but typically small. Thread:
Abstract for "New Evidence and Design Considerations for Repeated Measure Experiments in Survey Research" by Diana Jordan, Trent Ollerenshaw, and Andrew Trexler, published in the American Political Science Review. The abstract text reads: "We re-examine recent influential claims that repeated measure experimental designs offer large precision gains without biasing treatment effect estimates in survey research. We test these claims by experimentally varying the design of six classic political science experiments across three distinct large samples of U.S. adults (total N = 13,163). In contrast to prior evidence, we observe consistent attenuation of treatment effects in repeated measure designs. However, we show in simulations that this average design effect is small enough, and the precision gains large enough, that we recommend repeated measure designs for broad application—though (large-N) post-only designs may be preferable when research priorities include estimating the precise magnitude of a treatment effect. We additionally explore how several design considerations affect the bias-precision trade-off, such as within-subject versus between-groups designs, the relative separation of repeated measures within single surveys, and differences in respondent characteristics across sample types."
45228
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
hell yeah @eunjikim.bsky.social congrats! an absolute legend
121
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
absolutely, but also this can be really time consuming
100
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Wild to hear from undergrads that take home exams are still being widely used
130
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
man the psychotic replies to this, as everyone decides it’s a chance to rip someone apart for not pretending to live in abject poverty
162777
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Uhhhh
100
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
absolutely
100
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Peter K. Enns @peterenns.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
I am excited to announce the beta release of @verasight.io’s Free AI Survey Programming Tool: Doc2Survey, that automatically converts any survey drafted in a Word or Google Doc to a programmed Qualtrics survey (.qsf file). We are making Doc2Survey available for free! www.verasight.io/doc2survey
34219
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
You can just block anyone who didn't vote for Harris and move on with your life. What is it you think you gain from listening to stupid people?
3396
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Uh oh this'll be a real conundrum for some folks on here
060
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
The research exaggeration pipeline. -Unpublished paper -One outlier: "min & max can be found at 0.3°C and 9.1°C" (95th pct "between 1.5°C & 2.4°C") -No causal identification; just pre/post that could be result of many factors Do you really believe data centers are warming *10km* away? Really?
2036465
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
the resistance expressed on (solely) this website to the use of AI in research production continues to be wild
160
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
not great, not great
290
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
neither does Criminology or *any associated journals* including Journal of Experimental Criminology (of course, no pre-regs either)
252
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Good point by Spirling here. Maybe we can finally get rid of Stata 🤞
050
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Stan Oklobdzija @stano.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
This country would be far better off if, once a month, we all clocked out a little early, headed down to the local brewery, ordered some carne asada fries and just kicked it while a cover band played biker rock jams.
5869
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Jerry Chen @jcsalterego.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
ngl the updated branding for @bsky.app is bold
"BLUESKY: IT'S ALL 38 YEAR OLDS" in the style of Dune
942485296
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 19/03/2026
It's basically impossible to have any sort of nuanced discussion on this site about AI without it devolving into a shouting match about it. People are genuinely angry about it for a lot of valid reasons and are channeling that anger into completely destructive and toxic ways online.
8445631
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
good stuff from Paul here
052
Josh McCrain @joshmccrain.bsky.social · 15/03/2026
this is a bit right
150
Reposted by Josh McCrain
Andrew Little @anthlittle.bsky.social · 14/03/2026
Agreed. “Let’s one shot a mediocre paper in 15 minutes” is a fun parlor trick but the more exciting thing is the ability to produce higher quality research faster by treating AI like a hyper efficient (if not particularly creative and sometimes mistake-prone) collaborator.
2389
Reposted by Josh McCrain
SE Gyges @segyges.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
increasingly coming around to the notion that this is a view from a sort of aristocracy that sneers at anyone who is actually trying to, and possibly must, accomplish a goal by completing work
3638429