Belén Abdala
Political science postdoc at University of Salzburg/DEUDEM project. Previously at the University of Vienna.
Research on political behaviour & quantitative methods.
She/her.
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaUganda has shut down the internet again - ahead of tomorrow's elections. This is bad news for those monitoring the elections, it is bad news for the spread of rumours, and it is bad news for holding perpetrators of election-related violence accountable.
- ICYMI: #Uganda is currently in the midst of a widespread internet shutdown as telecoms regulator UCC imposes a blackout in advance of tomorrow's general election. Far from halting misinformation, the measure is likely to limit transparency and increase the risk of vote fraud 🗳️
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaWhy is #Politics so negative right now? 🤔 Ming M. Boyer @carolinaplescia.bsky.social & André Blais finds two kinds of negativity: ⚡ #Voting against a candidate ⚡ Feeling like voting doesn’t matter at all Only one threatens #Democracy--and it’s not the one you think. 👀
- Had a great time at the @zweitstimme.bsky.social Workshop on Elections, Public Opinion & Elite Behavior. I presented my work on why minority groups vote, and how these motivations relate to turnout among LGB and ethnic minorities. Amazing conversations and a very inspiring group!
- 🎉 Kicking off the Zweitstimme.org Workshop! We’re looking forward to two days discussing new work on Elections, Public Opinion & Elite Behaviour. Today’s sessions: 👉 Panel I – Elites 👉 Panel II – Participation 👉 Panel III – Party Strategies Huge thanks to @hertieschool.bsky.social for hosting us!
- Reposted by Belén Abdala🚨New paper out in @jeppjournal.bsky.social: doi.org/10.1080/1350... @manuelwagner.bsky.social & I re-conceptualize class representation to take into account social mobility between classes and variation in how individuals enter politics.
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaAlthough not yet available to read (January 2026!), very happy to see our book on political trust online. Co-edited with @mfair.bsky.social and available open access, we think it'll be a useful addition to the field. www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/a-r...
- Reposted by Belén Abdala💥Online first: "How populist citizens see the people and their place in representative democracy" by Rosa Kindt @robert-a-huber.bsky.social & @kristofjacobs1.bsky.social doi.org/10.1080/0140...
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaJoin us next week! Anna Lia Brunetti (@univie.ac.at ) & @beluabdala.bsky.social (@unisalzburg.bsky.social) will be presenting their work on the moderating role of citizen's meanings of voting. Sarah Birch (KCL) and Carolien van Ham (@radboudpol.bsky.social) will discuss.
- Check out these *amazing* papers on the adoption, use, and effects of postal voting! Including a little self-promo 🎉: my article on how the direct cost of voting shapes citizens’ preferences for postal, in-person, or internet voting. 🔗 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Today is #WorldPostDay, marking the establishment of the Universal Postal Union—a UN agency coordinating postal policies globally. The post revolutionised communication and is an increasingly common voting method, so to mark the occasion, here are some of our recent articles on postal voting... 📫 ✉️
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaLast Friday (Sept. 19), @andduer.bsky.social, @mcortinaescudero.bsky.social, @yavuzmehmet.bsky.social and I had the great pleasure of hosting an excellent workshop at @unisalzburg.bsky.social on how to use Large Language Models #LLMs to boost International Relations research. A short 🧵1/4
- Reposted by Belén Abdala‼️ There are a few more days left to apply for the PhD positions in my group at KU Leuven. Make sure to send in applications by July 4! 👇
- I'm recruiting 2 PhD researchers to work with me on a project studying how social groups influence vote choices! Info on the position and how to apply 👉 www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... Please share with interested students who would like to move to beautiful Leuven!
- Thrilled to share that "The Meanings of Voting for Citizens" is out with OUP! Loved working on this with brilliant mentors, co-authors, and friends 📘 The book (open access) explores how people think about voting and how these meanings influence participation 📊 And the data’s open too via AUSSDA
- New book publication by @carolinaplescia.bsky.social et al.: What does #voting mean to citizens around the world? 🗳️ A new open access (via @oxunipress.bsky.social) explores answers from 25,000+ people in 13 countries. Read here: ⤵️ staatswissenschaft.univie.ac.at/news-detaila... #PoliticalScience 📚
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaAbsolutely incredible turnout for Budapest Pride! So proud of all the organizers, including some old friends, who estimate hundreds of thousands— major embarrassment to Orban
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaDoing important things at @epsanet.bsky.social …like locating the one veg canapé at the reception 👀 @stawi-univie.bsky.social @bseisl.bsky.social @mkaltenegger.bsky.social @alexanderdalheimer.bsky.social @marvins.bsky.social @elenaheinz.bsky.social @mascakir.bsky.social @thomasmmeyer.bsky.social
- Reposted by Belén Abdala🚨EPSA alert 🚨 @priera.bsky.social and I are organizing a pre-EPSA conference on political institutions on Wed 25 June. Same location as EPSA - Room 0.A.04. We've an amazing line-up of fantastic junior colleagues matched with more senior discussants. All EPSA attendees can attend and are welcome
- Reposted by Belén Abdala[This post could not be retrieved]
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaI'm recruiting 2 PhD researchers to work with me on a project studying how social groups influence vote choices! Info on the position and how to apply 👉 www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo... Please share with interested students who would like to move to beautiful Leuven!
- Some exciting news! Today’s my first day at @unisalzburg.bsky.social, joining the DEUDEM team (sites.google.com/view/deudem) with @mblauberger.bsky.social to study democratic backsliding in the EU. Thrilled to be part of this project 💫 And what a view to kick things off! 🤩
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaSystematic peer-reviewed assessment showing the fundamental flaws of the Cass Review. Many in politics and beyond have used the Cass report to justify the erosion of gender-affirming care. This study is a litmus test for those who claim to "follow the science" on the topic.
- Just out! Our peer-reviewed critique of the Cass Review has been published by BMC Medical Research Methodology. Please read and share. We show that the Cass Review is fatally flawed and should not be the basis for policy or practice in transgender healthcare. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaA few years ago, @danweitzel.net, John Gerring, @skaaning.bsky.social and I were curious how well one could predict subjective democracy measures using easy(ish) to code observables. Turns out, *quite* well, even out of sample. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
- Reposted by Belén Abdala🎉 Das Warten hat ein Ende: Das Programm für das Pint of Science Festival 2025 in #Wien ist online! 🍻🧠 Vom 19. bis 21. Mai erwarten euch zahlreiche spannende Vorträge in gemütlicher Atmosphäre. Alle Details und Tickets findet ihr hier: pintofscience.at/events/wien #Pint25AT
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaCall for Papers! 📢 6th Annual Digital Democracy Workshop 🏫 University of Zurich 📅 13-14 November 2025 ⏳ Deadline to submit paper abstracts: 31 May 2025 democracy.dsi.uzh.ch/app/uploads/...
- This is such an amazing opportunity to learn more about computational methods and connect with inspiring women*! Can't recommend it enough.
- 🚨 Join us for the next edition Summer School for Women* in Political Methodology in Bremen 🚨 Open to PhD students and early career scholars Fully-funded places available for applicants, deadline 1st of May 📅 summerschoolwpm.org
- Reposted by Belén Abdala🏳️🌈 Join us for our April webinar with @grahn.bsky.social this Thursday! 🧐 Michal will present his new insights on how negative messages affect support for trans rights in tolerant societies. 📆 Be sure to mark your calendars!
- ✨Big news✨ I successfully defended my PhD last month! Still can’t quite believe it. So grateful to everyone who made it possible, especially my amazing supervisors @carolinaplescia.bsky.social @rdassonneville.bsky.social & committee @turnbulldugarte.com @zeynsom.bsky.social @thomasmmeyer.bsky.social
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaHow does the “mental load” of taking care of family and household influence decisions about participating in public life? In a new @bjpols.bsky.social paper w @annanhelgoy.bsky.social we use a survey experiment priming domestic mental load to find out. doi.org/10.1017/S000... 🧵 1/9
- Excited to share our new article, "Trust in Government or in Technology? What Really Drives Internet Voting," now out in Political Research Quarterly! With @carolinaplescia.bsky.social , Ming Boyer & Anna Lia Brunetti, we test the impact of (multidimensional) trust on i-voting likelihood.
- Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaAPSA's Political Organizations and Parties section is now on Bluesky! Follow us for section updates! @apsa.bsky.social
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaOur new piece in Nature Machine Intelligence: LLMs are replacing human participants, but can they simulate diverse respondents? Surveys use representative sampling for a reason, and our work shows how LLM training prevents accurate simulation of different human identities.
- Reposted by Belén Abdala‼️ New paper out in EJPR! With @mauritsmeijers.bsky.social, we use a new survey item that we fielded in surveys in five countries to examine who accepts party policy change. Check out the 🧵 by Maurits below for an overview of our findings!
- Parties often change their policy positions, but what do citizens actually think about party policy change? In our new EJPRjournal article, @rdassonneville.bsky.social and I study party policy change acceptance among citizens in 5 countries (🇩🇪🇳🇱🇵🇱🇪🇸🇬🇧) ejpr.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 1/n
- Reposted by Belén Abdala📢 Our new paper in Political Analysis explains how to use LLMs like GPT-4o, Llama or Mistral to estimate the ideological and policy position of political texts. Our approach is fast, reliable, cost-effective and reproducible and works with texts written in different languages 1/7 cup.org/4axBEXo
- Reposted by Belén Abdala🚨 Job Alert! 🚨 I’m looking for a postdoc to join my Emmy Noether project on the New Climate Divide! 🌍 🔍 It is a 3-year position with a likely extension for another 3 years & no teaching obligations 📄 Check out the job call: uni-heidelberg.de/md/politik/p... Thanks for sharing! 🤝
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaUpcoming: Protests against a potential FPÖ-led government are set for tomorrow at 6 PM in Vienna, Ballhausplatz. #Donnerstagsdemo www.derstandard.at/story/300000...
- Reposted by Belén Abdala⭐ CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: 5 open PhD Positions at the newly founded Vienna Doctoral College for Digital Humanism, funded by the WWTF, @univie.ac.at , Technische Universität Wien and WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). All information here: t.ly/836lz
- Reposted by Belén Abdala🎄🌟 Exciting news! 📊🎉 The AUTNES Online Panel Study 2017–2024 is here! 🎁🤩 Explore 23 survey waves to uncover the dynamics of voting behavior and public opinion in Austria. 🗳️🇦🇹 Access the data via #AUSSDA ➡️ doi.org/10.11587/HNU... #AUTNES #ElectionStudies #Polisky #DataRelease #WeLoveData ❤️
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaPlanning on attending the EPSA conference in June? Consider coming one day before and joining our (w/ @emmylindstam.bsky.social & Joan Ricart-Huguet) one-day workshop on Culture at @iepolisci.bsky.social. Deadline to apply is Feb 15th 2024. More info and submissions at forms.gle/S9id4GsVwokK...
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaLike many other European social democratic parties, Labour is moving right on immigration, certainly driven by the recent success of Reform. We have researched this question for years now. There is an abundance of evidence of why this isn't a good strategy. A thread summarizing some of our research
- Had the best time at the Future of Electoral Democracy conference at UdeM! It was such a privilege to connect with amazing people, learn about their work, and share my research. Huge thanks to @rdassonneville.bsky.social for organizing a great event and for the invitation :)
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaMuch looking forward to the Future of Electoral Democracy conference! Over the next two days, current and former students of the CRC in Electoral Democracy will be at UdeM to present their work, think about research, and recall memories of all the fun we had at the CRC over the last eight years!
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaNot that there aren’t many starter packs out there but here’s a list of LGBTQ+ voices in political science. You know the drill: self-nominations welcome :) go.bsky.app/4muositat://did:plc:o5cvai7ybqeqnc34ii4x54vf/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lbueird2ic2h
- Reposted by Belén Abdala❗DO YOU OR SOMEONE YOU KNOW WANT TO DO A PHD? We have a PhD project on 'Democratic Resilience, Identities, and Geographical Imaginaries'. Fully funded ✅ Generous research support grant ✅ Supervised by me and a colleague in Geography. Details: generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk/irs/wp-conte...
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaI have added another 50 or so PhD researchers in political science to this starter pack, so check it again and hit the follow button royally.
- Just to make sure that our new generation of researchers does not get less attention than more senior scholars, I have made a starter pack with PhD researchers in Political Science go.bsky.app/MYHYycUat://did:plc:id2p7xpu7k3p6ij3ppx4bq5i/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3laydt4r7qs2h
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaA thread about being wrong: 5 years ago, we wrote a paper about how how newly enfranchised 16-year-olds vote in Austria. But we were wrong. This year, @elisabethgraf.bsky.social, @schnizzl.bsky.social, Sylvia Kritzinger and I are setting the record straight: authors.elsevier.com/c/1juT5xRaZk...
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaYou are a PhD/postdoc & have a paper on how citizens view or understand representation, or what they expect from representatives? If yes, please send us your paper proposal for a fully-funded place in a workshop on "Citizens' Views on Representation" 👇. t.co/aJ0SOwyCge
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaJust to make sure that our new generation of researchers does not get less attention than more senior scholars, I have made a starter pack with PhD researchers in Political Science go.bsky.app/MYHYycUat://did:plc:id2p7xpu7k3p6ij3ppx4bq5i/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3laydt4r7qs2h
- Reposted by Belén Abdala🔔 Publication Alert: New Research Note Revisiting eligibility effects of voting at 16: Insights from Austria based on regression discontinuity analyses By @elisabethgraf.bsky.social, @schnizzl.bsky.social, @laurabronner.bsky.social & S. Kritzinger Electoral Studies ➡️ doi.org/10.1016/j.el... 🧵1/5
- Reposted by Belén AbdalaDelighted that our paper on who gets shortlisted and subsequently selected for winnable seats (with @robfordmancs.bsky.social @martamiori.bsky.social) is finally out journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/.... In short we found that selectorates still discriminate against women and ethnic minorities
