Clara Vandeweerdt
Biographic Data
| ID | 1616779 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Clara Vandeweerdt |
| GIVEN NAMES | Clara |
| FAMILY NAME | Vandeweerdt |
| SIGNATURE | VANDEWEERDT C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Copenhagen |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3024-1441 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 22 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 9 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Measuring Social and Political Identities in Social Media Self-Descriptions
Identities are fundamental to our understanding of social and political behavior, but are challenging to measure and are rarely observed in real-world settings. We introduce a method for measuring the identity-relevant aspects of brief self-descriptions regularly used online (e.g., on social media). Our approach combines the benefits of word embeddings for finding related identity terms with the ability of clustering algorithms to aggregate terms…
The Activist’s Trade-Off
Disruptive non-violent protest in the name of climate action is on the rise, with more and more movements turning to unconventional actions in the hopes of raising awareness and creating policy change. So far, research has found mixed results regarding the effects of disruptive tactics on public opinion. This study is the first to measure effects on salience (public attention to climate change) side by side with other policy-relevant climate atti…
Perceptions of Ethnic Minority Discrimination
Disadvantaged minority groups can gain support for their cause by convincing majority members of their experienced adversity. We theorize and empirically test the efficacy of different types of evidence, varying in character (statistical versus personal) and ambiguity (manifest versus ambiguous), vis-à-vis raising majority members’ awareness of ethnic minority discrimination. Reflecting the combination of these two dimensions, we develop four tre…
Do green parties in government benefit from natural catastrophes? How wildfires are linked to voting
This paper investigates whether wildfires are linked to increases in vote share for a green party in government. We argue that natural disasters move climate change action up on voters’ agendas, consequently affecting electoral behavior. Making use of the impact of an intense wildfire season in Sweden in 2018, we analyze changes in propensity to vote for a green governing party after experiencing wildfires in the election year. The Green party's …
Experiencing herd immunity in virtual reality increases Covid-19 vaccination intention
654 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three VR conditions: (1) Gamified Herd Immunity; (2) Gamified Herd Immunity + Empathy (with additional narrative elements); (3) Control (gamified with no vaccination-related content). In the Gamified Herd Immunity simulation, participants embodied a vulnerable person and navigated a wedding venue trying to avoid getting infected. A total of 455 participants with below maximum intentions to tak…
Weaving It In
How do ideologically slanted media outlets react to politically relevant events? Previous research suggests that partisan media trumpet ideologically congenial events, such as opposing-party scandals, while ignoring bad news for their own side. Looking at reactions to newsworthy events on political radio—an often-partisan medium that reaches more Americans than Twitter—I find a different pattern. Based on recordings of hundreds of shows totaling …
In-group interest cues do not change issue attitudes
In this paper, I investigate whether people change their attitudes about societal issues when they learn that those issues affect others like them. In three pre-registered survey experiments, I find that these in-group interest cues have little to no effect on issue attitudes. This is true for social groups based on gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. People who closely identify with an in-group do not react more strongly to group int…
Mental Health and the PhD
There is a severe mental health crisis among graduate students in political science. We present findings from an original survey on the mental health of political science PhD students at seven US universities. Our results are concerning: 15.8% expressed thoughts of suicide in the two weeks prior to taking the survey. About 30% of respondents met the criteria for depression and only a third of those were receiving treatment. Approximately 32% met …
Climate voting in the US Congress
In the United States, few constituents know and understand climate policy, prioritize it as a political topic, or let their voting decisions depend on it. In these conditions, representatives would not be expected to pay heed to constituents’ climate concern in their voting decisions. Still, even after controlling for the presence of interest groups, campaign finance, and legislators’ party affiliation and ideology, there is a consistent link bet…
Climate voting in the US Congress
In the United States, few constituents know and understand climate policy, prioritize it as a political topic, or let their voting decisions depend on it. In these conditions, representatives would not be expected to pay heed to constituents’ climate concern in their voting decisions. Still, even after controlling for the presence of interest groups, campaign finance, and legislators’ party affiliation and ideology, there is a consistent link bet…
Do green parties in government benefit from natural catastrophes? How wildfires are linked to voting
This paper investigates whether wildfires are linked to increases in vote share for a green party in government. We argue that natural disasters move climate change action up on voters’ agendas, consequently affecting electoral behavior. Making use of the impact of an intense wildfire season in Sweden in 2018, we analyze changes in propensity to vote for a green governing party after experiencing wildfires in the election year. The Green party's …
Mental Health and the PhD
There is a severe mental health crisis among graduate students in political science. We present findings from an original survey on the mental health of political science PhD students at seven US universities. Our results are concerning: 15.8% expressed thoughts of suicide in the two weeks prior to taking the survey. About 30% of respondents met the criteria for depression and only a third of those were receiving treatment. Approximately 32% met …
Weaving It In
How do ideologically slanted media outlets react to politically relevant events? Previous research suggests that partisan media trumpet ideologically congenial events, such as opposing-party scandals, while ignoring bad news for their own side. Looking at reactions to newsworthy events on political radio—an often-partisan medium that reaches more Americans than Twitter—I find a different pattern. Based on recordings of hundreds of shows totaling …
Climate voting in the US Congress
In the United States, few constituents know and understand climate policy, prioritize it as a political topic, or let their voting decisions depend on it. In these conditions, representatives would not be expected to pay heed to constituents’ climate concern in their voting decisions. Still, even after controlling for the presence of interest groups, campaign finance, and legislators’ party affiliation and ideology, there is a consistent link bet…
In-group interest cues do not change issue attitudes
In this paper, I investigate whether people change their attitudes about societal issues when they learn that those issues affect others like them. In three pre-registered survey experiments, I find that these in-group interest cues have little to no effect on issue attitudes. This is true for social groups based on gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. People who closely identify with an in-group do not react more strongly to group int…
Mental Health and the PhD
There is a severe mental health crisis among graduate students in political science. We present findings from an original survey on the mental health of political science PhD students at seven US universities. Our results are concerning: 15.8% expressed thoughts of suicide in the two weeks prior to taking the survey. About 30% of respondents met the criteria for depression and only a third of those were receiving treatment. Approximately 32% met …
Experiencing herd immunity in virtual reality increases Covid-19 vaccination intention
654 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three VR conditions: (1) Gamified Herd Immunity; (2) Gamified Herd Immunity + Empathy (with additional narrative elements); (3) Control (gamified with no vaccination-related content). In the Gamified Herd Immunity simulation, participants embodied a vulnerable person and navigated a wedding venue trying to avoid getting infected. A total of 455 participants with below maximum intentions to tak…
Weaving It In
How do ideologically slanted media outlets react to politically relevant events? Previous research suggests that partisan media trumpet ideologically congenial events, such as opposing-party scandals, while ignoring bad news for their own side. Looking at reactions to newsworthy events on political radio—an often-partisan medium that reaches more Americans than Twitter—I find a different pattern. Based on recordings of hundreds of shows totaling …
Do green parties in government benefit from natural catastrophes? How wildfires are linked to voting
This paper investigates whether wildfires are linked to increases in vote share for a green party in government. We argue that natural disasters move climate change action up on voters’ agendas, consequently affecting electoral behavior. Making use of the impact of an intense wildfire season in Sweden in 2018, we analyze changes in propensity to vote for a green governing party after experiencing wildfires in the election year. The Green party's …
The Activist’s Trade-Off
Disruptive non-violent protest in the name of climate action is on the rise, with more and more movements turning to unconventional actions in the hopes of raising awareness and creating policy change. So far, research has found mixed results regarding the effects of disruptive tactics on public opinion. This study is the first to measure effects on salience (public attention to climate change) side by side with other policy-relevant climate atti…
Perceptions of Ethnic Minority Discrimination
Disadvantaged minority groups can gain support for their cause by convincing majority members of their experienced adversity. We theorize and empirically test the efficacy of different types of evidence, varying in character (statistical versus personal) and ambiguity (manifest versus ambiguous), vis-à-vis raising majority members’ awareness of ethnic minority discrimination. Reflecting the combination of these two dimensions, we develop four tre…
Measuring Social and Political Identities in Social Media Self-Descriptions
Identities are fundamental to our understanding of social and political behavior, but are challenging to measure and are rarely observed in real-world settings. We introduce a method for measuring the identity-relevant aspects of brief self-descriptions regularly used online (e.g., on social media). Our approach combines the benefits of word embeddings for finding related identity terms with the ability of clustering algorithms to aggregate terms…
Political science (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Law (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political economy (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (3 works) · Social Media and Politics (3 works) · Social Psychology (3 works) · Sociology (3 works)