And in Canadian Politics: jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-... @uoft-poli-sci.bsky.social

🪧 The University of Toronto (St. George) is hiring in American Politics, with a focus on democracy in the United States. Please spread the word! I'm on the committee and am more than happy to answer questions. Full ad & details here: jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

My dear friend and colleague has left this world. A towering intellectual giant of constitutional politics, Ran’s body of scholarship runs deep and wide. His passing leaves a giant hole in the academic community, in our dept, and in the lives of all who knew him. May his memory be a blessing. 💔

Proud to have presented this co-authored piece with @semrasevi.bsky.social "Are Young Canadians Shifting to the Right? Evidence from the Canadian Election Study, 2015–2025" at @cpsa-acsp.bsky.social in Ottawa today! Thank you to my great co-author and all who came to engage with our work!

📢 Webinar invitation: May 20 on "AI & Politics" with Semra Sevi (University of Toronto) @semrasevi.bsky.social and Don Green (Columbia University)! Start time: 9:30 ET, 14:30 London, 15:30 CET, 16:30 Israel. For zoom link & additional info: www.prd-erc.eu/events

🧵 Why do facts often change beliefs but not attitudes? In a new WP with @yamilrvelez.bsky.social and @scottclifford.bsky.social, we caution against interpreting this as rigidity or motivated reasoning. Often, the beliefs *relevant* to people’s attitudes are not what researchers expect.

Science communication has never been more important. In this animation, @yamilrvelez.bsky.social, Donald Green and I break down our research exploring whether AI chatbots can increase political engagement among young, politically unaligned voters. Link to animation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCuX...

Can AI Chatbots Increase Political Engagement of Young Unaligned Voters?

YouTube video by Semra Sevi

youtube.com

Semra Sevi @semrasevi.bsky.social · 8mo ago

🚨Excited to share our new paper published in PNAS (joint with @yamilrvelez.bsky.social and Don Green)! AI can enhance political knowledge and provide balanced information about politics with proper guardrails and vetted sources (e.g., party platforms). www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

🚨New WP: Can an AI voter guide (grounded in information from a nonpartisan, fact-checked source) help voters’ decision making? 🚨 We built and evaluated an LLM-based chatbot that provided voting info in CA & TX (N=2,474) right before the 2024 election. 🧵👇

🎺 Call for proposals 🎺 1️⃣ replicate an existing experiment 2️⃣ run a novel experiment on repdata.com 3️⃣ coauthor with Mary McGrath and me to meta-analyze the replications and existing studies 4️⃣ publish your study details: alexandercoppock.com/replication_... applications open Feb 1 please repost!

This paper was a blast to work on. The challenge: present party positions across many issues, in real time, using language voters actually use. 🧵 on why we went with a more involved retrieval-based approach and where I think these tools are headed.

Semra Sevi @semrasevi.bsky.social · 8mo ago

🚨Excited to share our new paper published in PNAS (joint with @yamilrvelez.bsky.social and Don Green)! AI can enhance political knowledge and provide balanced information about politics with proper guardrails and vetted sources (e.g., party platforms). www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

An AI Voter bot improves knowledge about politics But, the AI bot has weak effects on downstream outcomes like vote preferences and party evaluations among respondents whose primary issue position aligns closely with one of the parties. Partisan action is hard to change. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🚨Excited to share our new paper published in PNAS (joint with @yamilrvelez.bsky.social and Don Green)! AI can enhance political knowledge and provide balanced information about politics with proper guardrails and vetted sources (e.g., party platforms). www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Quite a 24 hours in Canadian Politics, two Conservatives out (one to the Liberals, one gone altogether), a new Budget on the table, and my debut on Power & Politics! Nothing beats watching your research come to life. Full interview here: gem.cbc.ca/power-politics #cdnpoli

Our study of every election since 1867 shows party switchers in Canada once thrived, but now they face steep losses. Here is a summary of our results: policyoptions.irpp.org/2018/09/rese... #cdnpoli

Research shows that MPs who cross the floor lose votes

Leona Alleslev, MP for Aurora-Oak Ridges-Richmond Hill, crossed the floor this week to join the Conservatives from the Liberal party. If she runs for re-election in 2019 under the banner of her new pa...

policyoptions.irpp.org

Rachel Gilmore@rachelgilmore.bsky.social · 9mo ago

🚨HE'S OUT OF THE CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS🚨

@utoronto.ca, do better! The Uni is excluding recent hires from cost-of-living adjustments that an arbitrator decided ALL faculty/librarians deserve. This harms junior colleagues struggling w/ inflation: we’ve organized a petition demanding @utoronto.ca change course. Spread the word! www.utfa.org

Which Canadian MPs are on Bluesky and what do they post? My new paper w/ @rohanalexander.bsky.social in @cjps-rcsp.bsky.social unpacks these questions, finding MPs use it like Twitter to discuss policy, the Ottawa bubble & constituency Read more: doi.org/10.1017/S000... #polsky #commsky #cdnpoli

🚨NEW STUDY: Do Americans support a woman president? Our list experiment during the 2024 election, when @kamalaharris.com was on the ballot, reveals hidden bias, and it's more widespread than you'd expect. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Do Voters Support a Female President? Evidence from a List Experiment - Semra Sevi, Can Mekik, 2025

Public opinion polls indicate that a significant portion of the American public would be willing to vote for a qualified female presidential candidate. However,...

journals.sagepub.com

🪃Do legislators trade proposals? ➡️Leveraging a lottery in the Canadian Parliament, @semrasevi.bsky.social & D.P. Green find little evidence MPs second motions to gain favor. Support seems driven by shared interests, not quid pro quo www.cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

🚨NEW PAPER: Do legislators trade favours? My latest with Donald Green uses a natural lottery in the Canadian Parliament to test whether MPs return favours when others support their proposals. Our findings may surprise you.👇 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

🚨NEW PAPER: Do incumbents really have an edge in elections? Research says yes. But what happens when party labels are added to the ballot? A natural experiment from Canadian elections tells an interesting story👇🧵

From classroom to control room: #UofT students join Global News on election night 🗳️ uoft.me/bzJ

#UofTArtSci students joined @globalnews.ca on election night, working behind the scenes in the newsroom to help call live results — an unforgettable hands-on experience. Read more: bit.ly/3YpJPQL

Just days after Canadians elected Liberal leader Mark Carney as Prime Minister, the mix of victories, upsets and expected outcomes reflects deeper trends that #UofTArtSci elections expert Semra Sevi has spent years analyzing. Read more: bit.ly/4lVQ7ld

Can AI reduce prejudice? 🇺🇸 In our new preprint, GPT-4o moved the needle on trans rights in a national U.S. study using morally tailored messages. The shift was real and short-lived. For more, read 👇 Comments and feedback are welcome.

John Holbein@johnholbein1.bsky.social · last yr.

Prejudice is common in modern societies. Reducing prejudice is difficult to do, particularly in a cost-effective & scalable manner. Can AI help reduce prejudice? My new working paper w @semrasevi.bsky.social, @mbosley.bsky.social & Crabtree examines this question! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Prejudice is common in modern societies. Reducing prejudice is difficult to do, particularly in a cost-effective & scalable manner. Can AI help reduce prejudice? My new working paper w @semrasevi.bsky.social, @mbosley.bsky.social & Crabtree examines this question! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Why aren't we talking about harassment in #elxn45? In my new op-ed, I reflect on the harassment women continue to face in #cdnpoli, and the threat it poses to democracy: theconversation.com/growing-thre... @theconversationca.bsky.social #gendersky #polisky

Growing threats faced by women candidates undermine our democracy

This scholar has found that 86 per cent of replies to tweets sent to women MPs contained some form of harassment. This is a clear threat to women’s participation in politics.

theconversation.com

🚨 NEW PAPER 🚨 with Charles Crabtree & André Blais "Do Voters Punish Women Politicians More?" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🚨Are feminine traits a liability in elections? My latest with André Blais at Acta Politica is now online!

Ever wonder whether snap elections backfire? In my latest with Marco M. Aviña & @rdassonneville.bsky.social we study this question in the Canadian context. Now out at the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion & Parties. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....