Omar Wasow | @owasow@bsky.social

@owasow

Asst Prof, Berkeley, Pol. Science. Study protests, stats & race: 1/ Agenda Seeding j.mp/agenda-seeding 2/ Race as Bundle of Sticks j.mp/bundle-of

omarwasow.com Joined June 2007

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Omar Wasow | @owasow@bsky.social @owasow May 27, 2020

For 15 years, I’ve been studying 1960s civil rights protests with particular attention to how nonviolent and violent actions by activists & police influence media, elites, public opinion & voters. I'm thrilled some of that work was published last week. 1/
cambridge.org/core/journals/…

Omar Wasow | @owasow@bsky.social @owasow May 21

Thrilled this paper is now published! Here’s my earlier thread explaining Text as Behavior: x.com/owasow/status/…

Political Analysis @polanalysis May 21

The paper walks through three studies where text is used to quantify attitudes and actions. Ultimately, the paper argues that expression is sufficiently demanding that it should be understood as a form of action. Read the paper here: cambridge.org/core/journals/…
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Omar Wasow | @owasow@bsky.social @owasow May 7

"Writing is hard." Thrilled to share that this simple idea led to a new paper in @polanalysis. Most text methods focus on content. I test if expression is also effortful action and find measures like character counts reveal attitudes and predict voting. cup.org/4cUmoXi 1/

Text analysis typically focuses on content—such as sentiment or topic—but expression is also a form of effortful action. Building on this insight, I propose using simple features of open-ended tasks to study text as behavior. This approach treats expression, such as writing, as cognitively, emotionally and temporally “costly” for subjects but inexpensive for researchers. I show basic statistics like the number of characters can approximate effort and significantly improve estimation of quantities of interest, including candidate choice, the probability of turning out to vote and psychological states about which a subject may not be fully aware. Further, these methods can convert nonresponse into informative data; validate survey instruments; serve as mechanism checks; be hard for a subject to “game”; work across different languages and analogize well to real-world situations. In sum, text as behavior can help address a range of issues related to quantifying attitudes and actions.

Omar Wasow | @owasow@bsky.social @owasow Mar 10

“The analysis found 300 billionaires and their families donated more than $3 billion—19% of all contributions—in federal elections in 2024. The billionaires gave an average of $10 million each, equal to what 100,000 typical political donors gave, combined” nytimes.com/2026/03/09/us/…

www.nytimes.com The Scale of Billionaires’ Campaign Donations is Overwhelming U.S. Politics (Gift Article) Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in 2024, a Times analysis shows, and even more in some local elections. Wealthy donors are reaping the rewards.

Omar Wasow | @owasow@bsky.social @owasow Feb 25

“Despite Trump’s having lost ground in almost every demographic during his second term, one group stands firmly in the president’s camp: the superrich who have their wallets open.” Gift link: nytimes.com/2026/02/24/opi…

www.nytimes.com Opinion | The Trump 1 Percent Fan Club Has a Lot of New Members (Gift Article) There are some elites the president likes.