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Kris-Stella Trump

@kstrump.bsky.social

Political scientist at Johns Hopkins University: democracy, inequality, political psychology, public opinion, behavioral everything. No relation. American by way of Estonia, Sweden, and England.

147 Posts5078 Follower2412 Folgt
Zach Dickson@zachdickson.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Thrilled that my paper (w/@sarahobolt.bsky.social,@catherinedevries.bsky.social,@simonecremaschi.bsky.social) was accepted at the American Political Science Review! We find that declining public services fuel support for the populist right — and show why the right benefits more than other parties 🧵

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Kris-Stella Trump@kstrump.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Because I am a survey researcher, I usually take most surveys that I am asked to participate in. But I am reaching saturation on surveys about AI use in academia... how many teams are out there working on this? Everyone?

Drew Engelhardt@amengel.bsky.social · 5mo ago

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...

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...

link.springer.com

G Elliott Morris@gelliottmorris.com · 6mo ago

Reminder: All it would take to end the murder of American citizens by an untrained government goon squad is 16 Republicans in Congress voting with Dems to defund ICE (or 23 to impeach and remove Trump — 3 in House & 20 in Senate). That’s it. 23 Americans can vote for the public and end all of this.

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This law group led by @rickpildes.bsky.social had me write for their 100 Ideas series on US democracy My idea: the rule of law cannot coexist with this level of wealth concentration. Once Musk, Bezos, Zuck, & a few others bend the knee, the authoritarian consolidates too much power

"[Flor where some possess much, and the others nothing, there may arise an extreme democracy, or a pure oligarchy; or a tyranny may grow out of either extreme." It seems that American society has forgotten this wisdom of Aristotle over two thousand years ago: extreme wealth inequality destroys constitutions. It's time we remembered. Aristotle was concerned with the extremes of both oligarchy and democracy. The Framers were well aware of Aristotle's concern as they designed the U.S. Constitution, which would feature democratic elections as well as strong protections for civil liberties, checks and balances, and (probably too heavily weighted) legislative representation for geographic minorities. But Aristotle could not have anticipated the particular level of top- heavy wealth inequality in 21st century America. It is not the kind of inequality easily captured in a Gini coefficient or in comparisons between the 1% and 99%. American wealth inequality is characterized by the very, very top of the distribution. The top 12 billionaires in the United States, most of them in the tech sector, hold a combined wealth of over $2 trillion. The pace of wealth accumulation at the top is only increasing. Elon Musk, the wealthiest individual in human history and likely to be the first trillionaire, doubled his net worth in just the calendar year of 2024. It is this wealth inequality, combined with a particular technological moment, that has dismantled electoral democracy and the rule of law.
NYU Law Democracy Project@democracyproject.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Next up in our "100 ideas" series — New by @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social — "Extreme Wealth Inequality Destroys Constitutions" Part of @nyulaw.bsky.social Democracy Project's "100 Ideas in 100 Days" Read the full piece here: democracyproject.org/posts/extrem...

Adam Bonica@adambonica.bsky.social · 8mo ago

For the second year in a row, the wealth gains for the 100 richest Americans exceeded what ALL American households spent on groceries combined. ~$995B for billionaires vs ~$775B in total grocery spending. We have an oligarchy and inequality problem masquerading as an affordability crisis.

Infographic titled “2025 Billionaire Gains vs. Grocery Spending.” On the left, a large gold square shows that the top 100 richest Americans gained $995 billion in wealth in 2025, about $7,595 per U.S. household, representing wealth gains for just 100 individuals. On the right, a slightly smaller green square shows total U.S. grocery spending of $775 billion, about $5,916 per household, covering roughly 131 million households. A callout at the bottom reads “The Scale of Inequality,” noting that billionaire wealth gains exceeded national grocery spending by $220 billion. Sources listed: Bloomberg Billionaire Index and Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Anna Stansbury@annastansbury.bsky.social · 8mo ago

In our research on socioeconomic background in academia, we ran a survey. Over 2,000 faculty members responded (thanks if you were one!) Social & cultural capital showed up time and again as key issues. A few findings you might be interested in...🧵

FAIR - The Choice Lab@fair-thechoicelab.bsky.social · 8mo ago

❓ What do people’s own words reveal about their economic decisions? A new JEL article by Ingar Haaland, Christopher Roth, Stefanie Stantcheva and Johannes Wohlfart shows how open-ended survey responses offer insights that standard surveys often miss. 🔎Read more here: www.nhh.no/en/research-...

Adam Bonica@adambonica.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Those claiming Dems should retreat on racial justice aren't hard-headed realists, they're pushing against the electoral tide rather than leaning into it. The story of Gen Z isn't about racist backlash or red-pilled young men. It's the most racially progressive generation in American history. 🧵

Racial Resentment Among White Americans by Birth Year and Demographics This figure presents the same four-panel layout (education, gender, geography, religion) but for White Americans from birth years 1940 to 2000. Education panel: A pronounced divide shows non-college Whites with substantially higher resentment across all cohorts, increasing sharply for older birth years. College-educated Whites rise more modestly but remain distinctly lower, especially among younger cohorts. Gender panel: Male and female trendlines rise together, with women slightly higher in mid-century cohorts. Younger cohorts of both genders start lower and climb with age. Geography panel: Regional lines separate clearly: the South is highest in resentment, followed by the Midwest. The West and Northeast show lower levels, with the Northeast consistently at the bottom. All regions slope upward toward older cohorts. Religion panel: Protestants show the highest resentment, peaking among mid-century cohorts. Catholics sit in the middle. Non-affiliated Whites show the lowest resentment, especially among younger respondents, with a small rise among mid-century generations. The figure notes CES 2024 data with GAM-smoothed trendlines.
Bastian Becker@beckerbastian.bsky.social · 9mo ago

🚨Elites often warn: taxing the rich hurts everyone. 🤔But do citizens buy that story? With @bcastanho.bsky.social & Hanna Lierse, we find: They don’t! Most people believe progressive taxes can deliver both — more equality and more growth. @jpublicpolicy.bsky.social #openaccess cup.org/3JVuvHm

Taxing your cake and growing it too: public beliefs on the dual benefits of progressive taxation | Journal of Public Policy | Cambridge Core

Taxing your cake and growing it too: public beliefs on the dual benefits of progressive taxation

cup.org

Perry Bacon@perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 9mo ago

“Deciding to Win' also displays little awareness of what winning elections is for. There is an obvious reason why the Democratic Party ought not abandon its commitment to preventing the climate crisis," writes @davekarpf.bsky.social. Excellent piece. newrepublic.com/article/2023...

Why Centrist Democrats Keep Being Wrong About Elections

A new 60-page report insists the party is too radical. But the problem isn’t the party platform. The problem is the broader environment.

newrepublic.com

Technology Brobdingnagian@dfeldman.org · 9mo ago

A guy I used to work with was a tenured psych/CS professor as well as on an elite amateur crew team. He said "you're never going to make learning easier, just like you're never going to make rowing easier." I think about that a lot.

Joe Hanson@drjoehanson.bsky.social · 9mo ago

When people learn with ChatGPT instead of following their own searches, they end up knowing less, caring less, and producing worse advice, even when the facts are the same. Friction is an essential ingredient for learning! Convenience makes us shallow. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

Kris-Stella Trump@kstrump.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Here is a very niche sign of how far the US has fallen. If you attend a political science conference today, you will hear scholars stumbling over how to introduce datasets that until last year were known as describing "wealthy industrialized democracies".

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Wow, wow, wow. This has always been legally possible but the law has virtually never been enforced — and now this is the SECOND case I've heard of in the last month (first involving a person with a green card) of a noncitizen being charged for failure to carry their papers.

Gregory Pratt@royalpratt.bsky.social · 10mo ago

NEWS: ICE gave a Rogers Park man a $130 ticket for not having his papers on him. They rounded him up last week and eventually let him go, but not without a fine that some critics say is un-American. Trump admin enforcing little-used law www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/13/i...