🇵🇷 72% of residents say the Puerto Rican government has little or no power to make independent decisions without U.S. intervention. @maraceci.bsky.social: "This lack of economic and political sovereignty fundamentally shapes how residents view democratic possibility." news.umich.edu/who-holds-po...

Who holds power? Puerto Ricans' distrust runs deep

Puerto Ricans share deep skepticism toward elected officials and a widespread sense of limited self-governance, according to a new study from the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research...

news.umich.edu

👏 Congratulations to Edgar Franco-Vivanco & @jguardado.bsky.social, winners of @repalconference.bsky.social's Best Paper Award for 2026 for their work explaining the geographic persistence of Indigenous identity in Mexico. Read about the paper here: cps.isr.umich.edu/news-events/...

Edgar Franco-Vivanco Wins REPAL’s Best Paper Award

University of Michigan researcher recognized for groundbreaking study on colonial institutions and Indigenous identity in MexicoEdgar Franco-Vivanco, an assistant professor of political science at the...

cps.isr.umich.edu

Red para el Estudio de la Economía Política de América Latina@repalconference.bsky.social · 2w ago

🏆 Best Paper Award: Jenny Guardado and Edgar Franco-Vivanco for "Jurisdictional Havens: The Geography of Indigenous Identity in Mexico" (2/5)

A team of @umich.edu researchers is celebrating a major milestone in rural Tanzania: Clean, safe water now flows to Esilalei and Oltukai villages, to pastoralist families who formerly traveled long distances in search of water. #LookToMichigan Find the whole story on the CPS blog: myumi.ch/Z8D69

Clean Water Reaches Tanzania Villages through U-M Partnership

Partners in the U-M Bold Challenges Initiative are celebrating as clean, safe water now flows to Esilalei and Oltukai villages

myumi.ch

Interesting use of my work in a new paper. Authors use well-established finding that ideology is weaker predictor of party id among Black Ams than among White Ams as benchmark for sample quality. Representative samples recover that pattern. Less rep. samples do not. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

CPS interim director Mike Traugott will represent @umisr.bsky.social at UM's reading of the Declaration of Independence-- on the Diag this evening at 6. #LookToMichigan #DemocracyAndCivicEmpowerment #America250 events.umich.edu/event/148813

Sharing the Spirit of America | Happening @ Michigan

events.umich.edu

Consumers feel burdened by the recent escalation in inflation and worry that higher inflation could remain stubborn going forward. (@umisr.bsky.social) More, via Opinion Today: opiniontoday.substack.com/p/260614

@joshpasek.com of CPS explains key concepts that explain how people consume and interpret information and come to hold fixed, polarized views.

CAPTivated Podcast@captivatedpod.bsky.social · 3mo ago

In our latest episode, we sit down with @joshpasek.com, professor of Communication and Media and Political Science at the University of Michigan, to unpack two of the most important concepts in media psychology: selective exposure and motivated reasoning. 🎧 captivated.buzzsprout.com/2569769/follow

Something you can do right now, to advocate for social science. If you're at U-M, ready-to-mail postcards are available at the @umisr.bsky.social front desk, and in the ISR atrium you'll find pre-addressed, stamped cards ready for you to add your own words. We've sent >500 so far-- join us!

UM Population Studies Center@um-psc.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Social science serves every state. Tell your reps to reject drastic cuts to the NSF and science funding that serves the public interest. Use the link below to: 🇺🇸 Find resources and postcard templates 🇺🇸 RSVP for our Ann Arbor event tomorrow 🇺🇸 Or get cards at the front desk of ISR! myumi.ch/wwAM9 🧪

Social science serves every state. Tell your reps to reject drastic cuts to the NSF and science funding that serves the public interest. Use the link below to: 🇺🇸 Find resources and postcard templates 🇺🇸 RSVP for our Ann Arbor event tomorrow 🇺🇸 Or get cards at the front desk of ISR! myumi.ch/wwAM9 🧪

⚠️ How can tech companies, journalists, and policymakers can prevent AI decision-making from going wrong? CPS's Christian Sandvig co-authors a novel exploration of why and how to audit artificial intelligence. New from @mitpress.bsky.social systems.https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262051729/auditing-ai/

At #AAPOR2026? Join this morning's "director's cut" session on the future of AI in survey research-- with CPS panelist Josh Pasek

Are national politics and issues increasingly being discussed in local settings? As a window into public opinion, Sabina Tomkins et al use machine learning to mine public comments from city council meetings. Hear about the findings and this innovative methodology at #AAPOR2026.

How do liberal or illiberal interpretations of Islamic prescriptions impact attitudes and values of Arab publics, pertaining to democracy and democratic governance, political trust, and gender equality? Mark Tessler presents evidence from Arab Barometer surveys in 5 Arab countries at #AAPOR2026.

The ANES American National Election Studies measures party identification with a follow-up question for those who don't pick a party: distinguishing pure independents from leaners. The web mode impacts results; a new paper evaluates effects of adding a new question. Rachel Smilan-Goldstein

👏 Congratulations to CPS affiliate and computational scientist @cerenbudak.bsky.social who is among the 24 Andrew Carnegie Fellows announced yesterday to explore the causes of political polarization and identify possible solutions. myumi.ch/G7rAJ #LookToMichigan

Congratulations the the newly minted Dr. @shaylafolson.bsky.social who just defended her dissertation titled “Sacred Commitments, Racial Convictions: Religion, Identity, and Racial Attitudes in American Politics.” It was such a treat to watch her defend! I’m so excited for all her future work!

When we think about how political beliefs are formed, we typically point to parents as the primary teachers. But in Latino immigrant households, it's often the children who teach the parents. @robertocarlos.bsky.social presents critical research in 'Information Brokers'⬇️ cpsblog.isr.umich.edu?p=3651

Information Brokers: Rethinking Political Dynamics in Latino Immigrant Families

In many Latino families, it is the children who teach the parents about American politics.

cpsblog.isr.umich.edu

Using the 2024 American National Election Studies, Matthew DeBell et al use simulations to investigate when weighting on “recalled vote” (asking survey participants who they voted for in a previous election and weighting voters to match the election outcome) can correct biased associations.

LLMs are increasingly used to annotate data, but labelling subjective concepts accurately may require a system that integrates researchers to improve reliability. At #AAPOR2026, Sabina Tomkins et al present on a new system, AnnotateThis, that they use to surface climate pessimism on social media.

Declining survey response rates mean we need to better understand the factors that motivate individuals to participate. Henning Silber et al investigate self-reported participation motives among young adults, using data from a 2025 web-based survey of 10K U-M undergraduates. #AAPOR2026

This piece from @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social is worth reading.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Wrote a piece for @slate.com on how our theories of partisan polarization gave the SCOTUS majority more intellectual cover to kill the VRA slate.com/news-and-pol...

Are you an early career scholar? Do you want to be part of the next season of our workshop series and get feedback from experts in the field? Apply by May 31 here: forms.gle/5SSuuybK3739... For more information visit: apsg.work/seminar-rules/

Apply to Present Your Work!

Complete the form to be considered for the Authoritarian Political Systems Group Fall 2026 Season. Read the Seminar Rules before applying.

forms.gle

"Democracy relies on objective measurements of public opinion." So honored to receive the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Science and to help document social realities in service of the public interest. @umisr.bsky.social #GoBlue #LookToMichigan @electionstudies.bsky.social

Simone Schnall, Ph.D.@simoneschnall.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Announcement of the 18th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Social Sciences. @umisr.bsky.social and @norc.org are recognized for rigorously documenting social realities in the United States and across the world. Democracy relies on objective measurements of public opinion. youtu.be/88SOqExvA6I?...

Low variability in polling in the 2024 presidential elections led to concerns that some pollsters might be engaging in "herding" -- deliberate mirroring of other estimates to avoid producing outlier results. Josh Pasek presents on AAPOR's Task Force evaluation of those claims. #AAPOR2026

🇨🇴 Colombia ante una elección decisiva: LATAM-EH tuvo un evento en la Universidad de Michigan para analizar el escenario. Por Andrés Ospina: latinosenmiusa.com/colombia-ant...

Colombia ante una elección decisiva: expertos analizan el escenario desde Michigan - Latinos en Michigan

Académicos advierten sobre el impacto de la violencia, el voto en el exterior y la polarización en las presidenciales del 31 de mayo Por: Andrés Ospina ANN ARBOR, Michigan — A pocas semanas de las ele...

latinosenmiusa.com

The American public is increasingly distrustful and avoidant of the news media. At #AAPOR2026, Sabina Tomkins, ariel hasell and Tong Lin present a study considering how people come to distrust news media despite having little to no experience consuming news media; is disdain sown on social media?

Out today: The U-M Record profiles CPS's @simko.bsky.social, who uses AI and big data to tackle gerrymandering and bring unprecedented transparency to local government decisions. #LookToMichigan for leading innovative research with advanced technologies. @umichnews.bsky.social myumi.ch/9J5Dn

Demography friends, we have some exciting things happening at #PAA2026 in St. Louis, please join us! @popassocamerica.bsky.social www.populationassociation.org/paa2026/rela...

We crowdsourced questions for our guest from PAA members like you.

Demography friends, we have some exciting things happening at #PAA2026 in St. Louis, please join us! @popassocamerica.bsky.social www.populationassociation.org/paa2026/rela...

For our postdoctoral community @PAA2026 - don't miss @popassocamerica.bsky.social Postdocs Meet Up: At the opening night mixer (5/6 @6), stop by the Postdoc banner. Join a Demography Postdoc Listserv, and we give us ideas about how PAA can better serve you at your career stage. See you there!