iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Still counting votes, but the breadth of the shift towards Paxton, and how modestly the shift varies geographically, is striking

000

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

According to the May @apsa.bsky.social's eJobs bulletin, tenure-track job postings are still 27% below where they were at this point in the 2023–24 cycle.

011

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

The vivid partisan sorting of US house districts by income and party -- 2005 -2024

12910

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Given declining US confidence in institutions overall, striking that low election confidence is *not* a secular trend--instead 2020 is the disjuncture. Plot shows the winner/loser effect demonstrated by Charles Stewart and others. Data from @mitelectionlab.bsky.social

054

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

In the April @apsa.bsky.social ejobs release, we're still tracking a 30% decline in political science tenure track jobs since 2023-24.

0109

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Striking partisan stability in Israel/Gaza attitudes in the 2025 CES study

Figure depicting partisan attitudes on 9 different policy dimensions for the US to respond to the Israel Gaza war

020

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 17/03/2026

Political Science's academic job market having its worst post-Covid year -- almost 20% fewer jobs than at the same point in the previous cycle (which itself was bad!) Data scraped from APSA ejobs pdfs.

35233

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

Bookmakers have shifted Democratic chances of winning the White House in 2028 by 2pp since the start of the Iran war

010

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Pedagogical opportunity to remind undergraduates that the Democratic party used to dominate the presidential vote in the Mahoning Valley.

021

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

APSA authored papers by subfield and department, 2018-2025. A coarse but interesting look at the areas of research activity in the discipline.

343

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

To show prospective students our discipline's research priorities, I scraped the last 6 @apsa-preprints.bsky.social annual meeting programs to count papers by section, then assigned sections to subfields. Polisci remains fascinated with the American case!

4244

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 26/02/2026

Things undergrads are surprised to learn -- there are only modest amounts spent on American politics. data from @opensecrets.org and US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

010

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

Trump's first year in office saw a rapid decline in GOP affiliation, erasing the advantage in net partisanship that had endured during the Biden term. data from @gallup.com

064

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 08/02/2026

Views of American industrial sectors remain strikingly non-ideological (save for the publishing, the movie industry, and fossil fuels).

011

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

The consequences of low media trust and Republican partisanship--only 1 news media source enjoys over 30% use among those partisans. Data from @pewresearch.org's American Trends Panel, March 2025.

022

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Among the most vivid declines in the American people's trust -- their diminished trust in other people. Data from @gallup.com's Social Series.

072

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

The shrinking levels of white ethnocentrism in the @electionstudies.bsky.social Cumulative Datafile conceal a pretty striking partisan effect: since around 2012 very low ethnocentrism among white Democrats, but the opposite effect among other Democrats.

031

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

With thanks to amengel.bsky.social, the decline is far more modest when I take proper account for the administrative codes in the feeling thermometers

073

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 24/11/2025

Americans have become increasingly confident that their votes are counted as intended—aside from a sharp drop among Republicans in 2020. Data from the Survey of the Performance of American Elections.

040

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

In 2025, polarization on schools & the Supreme Court leaves only Banks + Big Business with moderate/high confidence across parties. Populism still cuts across partisan lines. Data: @gallup.com Social Series.

Line charts showing Americans’ confidence in 14 national institutions (1973–2025), split by party (Democrats in blue, Independents in gray, Republicans in red). Institutions include the military, small business, churches, police, Supreme Court, banks, medical system, public schools, newspapers, organized labor, big business, criminal justice system, Congress, and health maintenance organizations. Across institutions, partisan polarization has grown, especially for public schools and the Supreme Court. By 2025, banks and big business are among the few institutions with similar moderate/high confidence across parties.

062

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 26/10/2025

The recent reversal in Republicans' moral approval of Gay and Lesbian relations is even more striking in context -- it does *not* coincide with more restrictive moral licensing in other areas. Data from Gallup's Social Series.

140

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

The inversion between income and Whites' presidential vote is also found among the validated voters in the just released Cooperative Election Study.

051

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 08/10/2025

Something undergrads after often surprised to find out--there's curiously little money in American politics.

030

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 02/10/2025

The last time I posted the income relationship to presidential vote among White respondents to the @electionstudies.bsky.social ANES, people asked for additional estimates among all voters. Updated estimates here:

912836

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Rapid secularization of Democratic politics continues -- in the 2024 ANES, only 54% of Democrats reported religion an important part of their life.

2114

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Trump's presidency has coincided with a rapid decline in GOP partisan advantage -- a 5 percentage point decline since the end of Biden's presidency. Data from Gallup social series.

130

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Might be of interest to those teaching American politics -- motivated reasoning in retrospective economic/personal/geostrategic evaluation has been a stable part of presidential elections for 40 years. Data from the @electionstudies.bsky.social CDF and 2024 timeseries.

042

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 23/08/2025

By the end of 2024, Stimson's Policy Mood was near 20 year highs in liberal policy support. (Ht @mattgrossmann.bsky.social for tweeting the new data!)

081

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

As expected, the change in government sharply reduced Democrats’ trust in the CDC and FDA. But surprisingly, by 2025 Democrats now express higher trust in federal health authorities than Republicans do.

021

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

With initial data, it appears that Trump's 2nd term approval is weakly related to consumer confidence.

010

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

The rightward shift in young men's partisanship is recent -- since 2024. data from the @pewresearch.org 's NPORS study.

030

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 07/07/2025

Even Republicans have not recovered their pre-pandemic levels of economic confidence. Data from the University of Michigan ISR's (bsky-less?) consumer sentiment survey

021

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

Presidential vote has only been correlated with life expectancy since 2008, and even then the effect is strongest among whites.

020

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

While liberals have moved almost a full scale point more supportive of free trade since the election (on a 7pt scale) conservatives are unmoved. A super interesting case for the role of elites in shaping mass attitudes. Data from the incredible @prl.bsky.social 's 'America's Political Pulse.'

101

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Outside of a tiny number of super polarized issues (in this case, immigration and climate change), the American public basically agrees on the topics deserving of national attention. Data from AP-NORC.

051

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Gun control attitudes continue to depolarize (on the margins!) in the 2024 General Social Survey. Data from @norc.org

010

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

It's only on questions of race where younger generations are less tolerant -- for the other speakers on the GSS, Gen Z/Millenials basically indistinguishable from other Americans.

010

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 30/05/2025

National political spending preferences by partisanship, 1972-2024. Fascinating that numerous policy areas have seen negligble polarization over this period. Data from @norc.org's GSS

0102

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 29/05/2025

Confidence in national institutions, by partisanship, 1974-2024. The collapse in Democrats' Supreme Court confidence in 2022-2024 is the largest single year change seen in 50 years. Data from the GSS @norc.org

1124

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

The newly released GSS shows Whites continue to liberalize in their perceived cause of racial economic inequality.

0307

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 27/05/2025

Stark class income * partisan effect also apparent in 119th Congress's congressional districts:

011

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 24/05/2025

Abortion attidudes depolarized (on the margins!) in the newly released 2024 General Social Survey from @norc.org.

130

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Presidential vote among whites shows continued income polarization (data from @electionstudies.bsky.social's 2024 timeseries), with income negatively correlated to GOP presidential vote.

913352

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

It's not just the coastal universities -- a plurality of conservatives perceive even the flagship public university in their state to be liberal.

043

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

If the Papal pick leaked, no one made it to the bookmakers...

010

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 05/05/2025

With the release of the 2024 ANES, further evidence that Trump's invovlement in US politics had the effect of *reducing* authoritarianism in the public (in a thermostatic style--of course!--with larger changes among Democratic voters) Data from @electionstudies.bsky.social CDF and 2024ts

0106

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

The Australian Federal election swing in historical context (1943-2025). The shift in two-party preference is more modest than I expected, given the swing in seats. #auspol

031

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

In April, Republicans in the UofM Consumer Sentiment adjudged national business conditions the best they'd been since the pandemic.

000

Thomas J Wood @thomasjwood.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

The 2024 election saw a modest *depolarization* in whites' answers to the racial resentment battery among @electionstudies.bsky.social respondents.

062