iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Michael Bang Petersen

EPSS @epssnet.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

📢 The Call for Papers for EPSS 2027 is open! After a fantastic first conference in Belfast, we’re heading to Copenhagen 🇩🇰, 24–26 June 2027. ⏰ Deadline: 13 Nov 2026 👉 Call for papers: epssnet.org/2027-copenha... 1/2

epssnet.org

Call for Papers | EPSS Belfast 2026 Conference

Submit your abstract or full paper for EPSS Belfast 2026. Share cutting‑edge political science research, network with peers & contribute to academic impact.

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Will Jennings📉🗳️ @drjennings.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

This is a fascinating study by @tboeggild.bsky.social and @m-b-petersen.bsky.social - it suggests political discontent is a wicked problem, but also fundamentally about inequality.

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Dan Silverman @dmsilverman.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

This seems like a pretty notable intervention from @m-b-petersen.bsky.social and his collaborators in the debates about what is driving broad political discontent In a sense, they find evidence that inequality -- and a political system that is seen as sustaining and serving it -- is to blame

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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

People think we should be giving far less help to the rich and far more help to the mentally ill, poor, elderly, sick, young, retired, and socially disadvantaged in society. Our failure to do so is driving social discontent and conflict in society: osf.io/preprints/ps...

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Paul Rosenberg @paulrosenberg.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

🎯🧵"We focus on the role of 'collective action motivation', i.e., the perception of the pandemic response as a valuable collective enterprise.... Stronger collective action motivations (CAM) more strongly predict completing vaccination & recieving a booster"

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Michael Bang Petersen @m-b-petersen.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Vaccination is collective action: Vaccination helps others by hindering disease-spread But there is an incentive free-ride: if enough others vaccinate, you don't need to pay those costs In a new paper, we provide new evidence with data from 6+ mil covid-vaccinations: osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵1/7

Abstract
Classical theories in health psychology explain individuals’ decisions about whether or not to
engage in protective behavior such as vaccination during a health emergency as guided by
trade-offs about personal risks and benefits. Yet, vaccinations involve a clear collective action
component, where individuals can protect others by getting vaccinated, beyond the personal
benefits. Following recent research, we develop the argument that individual differences in the
motivation to engage in collective action should influence vaccination decisions during the most
significant health emergency in the 21st century, the COVID-19 pandemic, above and beyond the
predictors proposed by classical theories. We test this argument by combining survey observations
from 380,516 unique Danish adults with population-wide registry data on COVID-19 vaccination
status for 6.1 million individuals in Denmark, of whom 4.9 million received at least one vaccine
dose. Using this unique data infrastructure, we compare classical psychological correlates of
protective behavior with psychological measures of individual-differences in collective action motivation.
The results demonstrate collective action motivation was more strongly associated with
vaccination behavior than threat appraisal or coping appraisal across the vaccination sequence,
spanning completion of the recommended primary vaccination course, booster receipt, time to
full vaccination, and vaccination uptake among the children of survey respondents. Furthermore,
high levels of collective action motivation strongly weakened the role of personal considerations
that would otherwise deter vaccination uptake, both in terms of whether or not the individual
gets vaccinated and how quickly the individual gets vaccinated. These findings provide important
information on the prerequisites of successful vaccination campaigns during major health crises
and how governments and authorities can facilitate them.

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Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

What drives populists to accept expert advice? Cross-country study by A Peresman, @thoruplars.bsky.social, @honoratam.bsky.social & @m-b-petersen.bsky.social compares how populists & non-populists evaluate expertise: buff.ly/PaX1OOK #PSHighlyViewed 3/10 @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social #polsky #polsci

"Abstract
Across diverse policy domains, there is broad concern about whether trust in science and expertise has eroded during the past decade. Using quota-based surveys with over 7,500 respondents across five countries and preregistered vignette experiments, we investigate what persuades populists and non-populists to accept expert advice. We find first that populism is associated with less willingness to accept expert advice, yet with variation between countries and topics. Second, we find both populists and non-populists are similarly impacted by stronger arguments. Finally, we show that populists are more likely to judge advice as poorly reasoned and perceive it as politically biased. A mediation analysis showed that the relationship between populism and advice acceptance was nearly completely mediated by these judgments. Our study indicates that populists not only listen to expertise but also respond to the same qualities of expert advice as others, even if their skepticism is higher."

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Kristian Frederiksen @kristianvsf.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

New public pre-print with @aarslew.bsky.social and Martin Bisgaard 🧵 We introduce a perspective on democratic erosion that focuses on quiet anticipation among political elites: what do they think happens to those who cross a strongman that challenges democracy? www.researchgate.net/publication/...

researchgate.net

(PDF) The Imagined Strongman: How Elites Anticipate the Cost of Opposing Trump

PDF | What happens to politicians who speak up against a strongman that challenges democracy? Political scientists typically answer this question using... | Find, read and cite all the research you ne...

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Søren Torbjørn Svendsen @sorentsvendsen.eurosky.social · 13/06/2026

Går ud fra @anjabechmann.bsky.social her - til dels - henviser til hendes og @m-b-petersen.bsky.social nye bog i @magtudredningen2.bsky.social bogserien: Når sociale platforme udfordrer demokratiet. Kan købes og hentes som pdf (gratis) her: unipress.dk/udgivelser/n... #dkforsk #dkvid

Michael Bang Petersen og Anja Bechmann

Når sociale platforme udfordrer demokratiet

Magtudredningen 2.0

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Stinus Lindgreen @stinuslindgreen.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

Så er der kun et par dage til Folkemødet. Jeg har endnu engang et stramt program med +20 debatter. Den vigtigste ligger som sædvanlig fredag aften kl 19, hvor Ingeniørforeningen lægger scene B2 til heavy metal DJ-battle 🤘For tredje gang udfordrer @m-b-petersen.bsky.social og jeg hinanden 🖤

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Søren Torbjørn Svendsen @sorentsvendsen.eurosky.social · 08/06/2026

Apropos 👆 - fin kronik af @m-b-petersen.bsky.social og @anjabechmann.bsky.social "Danske beslutningstagere kan derudover mere generelt fokusere på at sikre robusthed i det danske informationslandskab og samfund, så udfordringerne fra de sociale platforme kan modstås." politiken.dk/del/EG7081AH...

politiken.dk

Magtudredningen: De sociale medier udfordrer demokratiet – o

De mørke dynamikker på sociale platforme er en demokratisk udfordring, og den stiger væsentligt, jo større spændinger der er i det omkringliggende samfund. Hvis vi ønsker os et mindre splittet Danmark

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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

What can we learn from automating an entire quantitative social science paper, from prompt to finished product? Thread about ongoing work with @natewilmers.bsky.social 1/12 Paper: osf.io/preprints/so...

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koenfucius @koenfucius.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

People who strongly moralize rationality are more likely to share hostile news targeting the political outgroup (even fabricated claims), but intellectual humility tempers this tendency, writes @a-marie-sci.bsky.social (summarizing a new paper with @m-b-petersen.bsky.social): buff.ly/66RIibx

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Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Three 2-year full-time postdoctoral positions in autocratic politics at the Department of Political Science at Aarhus University (in connection to projects headed by Jakob Tolstrup and Alexander Baturo). Flexible start date. Application deadline: June 1, 2026. international.au.dk/about/profil...

international.au.dk

Three 2-year Postdoctoral positions at Aarhus University: Projects on personality cults and strategic communication in autocracies - Vacancy at Aarhus University

Vacancy at Department of Political Science, Aarhus University

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Antoine Marie PhD @a-marie-sci.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

New post on my Substack summarizing our ambitious cross-national study of online hostility, published in @nature.com Nature Human Behavior - with @boralexander.bsky.social @m-b-petersen.bsky.social @leapradella.bsky.social

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Stinus Lindgreen @stinuslindgreen.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Vi gør klar til anden runde debat om Magtudredningen på Nørrebro Teater. Vi har lige afholdt første halvleg af “Magtens mange former” for nogle hundrede gymnasieelever, og nu tager vi endnu en runde for nogle hundrede nye tilhørere. #dkpol

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Jill Walker Rettberg @jilltxt.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Fra den danske maktutredningen (og kollegaer): mer ulikhet og mindre demokrati gir mer aggressive sosiale medier Det er altså ikke bare tek-oligarkene og algoritmene som er problemet. Det gir håp!!

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Mikko Meriläinen @merilainen.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

The whole thread about the recent study is well worth reading, but this is what it boils down to. We have to reject the temptation of simple technological determinism and the notion that everything is just "because of the algorithm". In short: unsurprisingly, the world matters.

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Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Online hostility is predicted by economic & political inequality Inequality breeds online hostility because people crave status in unequal societies and status-seekers constitute the main perpetrators of hostility in political settings, whether online or offline. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Antoine Marie PhD @a-marie-sci.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Our paper just hit 50 citations 🎯: "Political conspiracy theories as tools for mobilization and signaling", Current Opinion in Psychology, 2022, with @m-b-petersen.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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V-Dem Institute @vdeminstitute.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

📢 Out Now! V-Dem Dataset v16 & the V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026 💾 The V-Dem Dataset: v-dem.net/data/the-v-d... 📰 The Report "Unraveling The Democratic Era?”: v-dem.net/publications... 📈 Explore the new data with the V-Dem Graphing tools: v-dem.net/graphing/gra... #PoliSky #PoliSciSky 1/3

Two map graphs show the state of liberal democracy according to the V-Dem Liberal Democracy index for 2025 and 2024. The higher the score (or darker blue), the more democratic the country. Lower scores (or dark red) mean less democratic. While North and South America, Western Europe and Oceania are mostly in the blue, most parts of Asia and Africa are in the red in 2025.
In comparison to the map for 2024, the map graph for 2025 shows democratic backsliding in some traditionally stable democracies in Western Europe and North America, in particular the USA, United Kingdom and Italy.

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Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

IN NEW ISSUE: What drives populists to accept expert advice? Cross-country study by A Peresman, @thoruplars.bsky.social, @honoratam.bsky.social & @m-b-petersen.bsky.social compares how populists & non-populists evaluate expertise: buff.ly/MY1U8CH @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social

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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Reposted by Michael Bang Petersen

Drew Engelhardt @amengel.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

New w/@scottclifford.bsky.social. Lots of work uses agree-disagree scales, and a lit review shows these are 1) frequently just measured in one direction (agree = higher trait) and 2) correlated with each other. This has potentially big issues for conclusions. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.com

Acquiescence Bias and Criterion Validity: Problems and Potential Solutions for Agree-Disagree Scales - Political Behavior

Political Behavior - Scholars frequently measure dispositions like populism, conspiracism, racism, and sexism by asking survey respondents whether they agree or disagree with statements...

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Political Studies @polstudies.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

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Pontus Odmalm @podmalm.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Important read 👇

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Michael Bang Petersen @m-b-petersen.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

In this interview with @paulrosenberg.bsky.social, I discuss a Scandinavian tool for protecting democracy: Parliament-initiated audits of democracy carried out by independent researchers Currently, I direct such an audit in Denmark & discuss the challenges to liberal democracy in the 21st century 👇

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Liberal Currents @liberalcurrents.com · 17/02/2026

Today @paulrosenberg.bsky.social argues that Americans should learn from the Danish government's "multi-year “Power and Democracy study” to analyze how Denmark’s democracy is functioning, what challenges it faces, and what can be done to improve it." www.liberalcurrents.com/america-if-y...

liberalcurrents.com

America, If You’re Listening: Denmark’s Example for Fixing Liberal Democracy

Talking to Michael Bang Peterson on Denmark's recurring process of self-examination.

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Paul Rosenberg @paulrosenberg.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

American democracy is facing its most serious crisis since the Civil War, but we have no coherent effort to even to try to figure out what's wrong, in order to start fixing things. But Denmark is doing just that with a model it's used before. 1/9 www.liberalcurrents.com/america-if-y...

liberalcurrents.com

America, If You’re Listening: Denmark’s Example for Fixing Liberal Democracy

Talking to Michael Bang Peterson on Denmark's recurring process of self-examination.

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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

www.liberalcurrents.com/america-if-y.... If you want to see how democratic renewal is done, look to Denmark! Of course, the US is deep into autocratic capture and they are not, so already it’s too late to pull this off. Still, it’s worth looking at how functional democracies stay functional.

liberalcurrents.com

America, If You’re Listening: Denmark’s Example for Fixing Liberal Democracy

Talking to Michael Bang Peterson on Denmark's recurring process of self-examination.

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Karen Melchior @karmel80.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

@m-b-petersen.bsky.social Whereas people with a higher education, people who are older, they're still reading newspapers, they're still watching the evening news shows, and so on,” all of which “makes it much more difficult to actually have a collective will formation.”

liberalcurrents.com

America, If You’re Listening: Denmark’s Example for Fixing Liberal Democracy

Talking to Michael Bang Peterson on Denmark's recurring process of self-examination.

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Paul Rosenberg @paulrosenberg.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Denmark is taking a deep look at itself & its democracy. @m-b-petersen.bsky.social who's leading the multi-year study spoke to me about the history behind it, initial findings, challenges & more. It's a blueprint for the kind of profound rethinking that's long overdue in America.

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lassetryde.bsky.social @lassetryde.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

Mere end nogensinde før er det vigtigt med både demokratisk intuition og eksplicit demokratisk forståelse hos unge mennesker. Et fantastisk godt tilbud til ungdomsuddannelser fra Magtudredningen 2.0. @m-b-petersen.bsky.social @annebind.bsky.social @anderswivel.bsky.social ps.au.dk/forskning/fo...

ps.au.dk

Tilbud til ungdomsuddannelser

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Michael Bang Petersen @m-b-petersen.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

New paper this week by V-Dem's director, @silindberg.bsky.social, on the the current wave of autocratization: www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1... Including this important statement: "...it is by my own analysis no question that the USA no longer qualifies as a democracy."

tandfonline.com

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Michael Bang Petersen @m-b-petersen.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

New paper in @pnas.org: www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... Coupling surveys of ~8% of the adult Danish population & results of 123 million covid-tests, we show that psychological feelings of coping lowered infection risk. Feelings of fear did not. Authorities should empower people, not scare them.

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Jenna Norton @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 07/02/2026

Spoke with a PI whose postdoc is trapped abroad because of social media vetting. It appears the postdoc missed disclosing one account and it's unclear if they can come back… ever. This is the country we live in now.

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ChrisO_wiki @chriso-wiki.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Note also that Republicans are increasingly seeing Canada and the EU as outright enemies. Incessant propaganda will have that effect.

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Kevin Collins @kwcollins.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

This article, new in Comparative Political Studies, seems relevant The Way Back After Backsliding: Public Opinion and the Restoration of Democracy journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Pew Research Center @pewresearch.org · 30/01/2026

By a more than two-to-one margin, Americans overall oppose President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Greenland from Danish control. Democrats overwhelmingly oppose the U.S. taking over Greenland whereas Republicans are more divided.

pewresearch.org

Few Americans support Trump’s proposed takeover of Greenland

By a more than two-to-one margin, Americans oppose President Donald Trump’s proposal to take over Greenland from Danish control.

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Michael Bang Petersen @m-b-petersen.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Come to the Danish music festival, Copenhell, for the metal music and stay for all the insights from my brilliant partner, @ella-p.bsky.social! She’ll talk about bias against the bodies of biological women in medical research and how to communicate on a polarized topic to young people.

Poster for the talk “Breasts, blod and bias”

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Timothy Snyder @timothysnyder.bsky.social · 25/01/2026

So important. What they say is not the story. That is never the story. What happened is the story. Write what happened.

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Ashley Miller @amreports.bsky.social · 21/01/2026

An observer arrested in Suth Minneapolis. Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii/The Minnesota Star Tribune

Several agents hold a person down and sprays them with pepper spray.

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Robert Hutton @roberthutton.co.uk · 22/01/2026

The problem with this narrative, which is everywhere, is that it presupposes that if Trump had simply asked to be able to station more troops in Greenland, the Danes would have said No.

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