đŸ€– Must-Read Articles đŸ€–

Experimental Feature

Even just looking backwards a week, there are a lot more articles published than most of us could hope to read. We can always skim the titles and abstracts ourselves, but I wanted to test out some automation. The articles below, all of which can be found elsewhere on this site among other new publications, were chosen by Google Gemini Flash Thinking as "must-read" articles. The proper criteria are in the eyes of the beholder and Gemini doesn't apply my criteria without error. I may continue to refine the prompting based on experience and feedback. Like the rest of the site, this will update daily!

The narrative construction of disinformation: Reach and impact in Central and Eastern Europe
European Journal of Communication
Dren GĂ«rguri, Jaume Suau Martinez, Dinko Gruhonjić
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This study analyzes the reach and impact of disinformation narratives within four Central-Eastern Europe countries: the Czech Republic, Kosovo, Poland, and Serbia. Using survey data collected in mid-2023, we examine how citizens have been exposed to common disinformation narratives (reach) and how this prior exposure influences their belief in them (impact). The results provide empirical information on this underrepresented area, which highlights that the repeated, reinforcing impact of previous exposure is a universal cognitive mechanism. This study contributes to the literature in two significant ways. In theory, they demonstrate the value of shifting from a claim-based to a narrative-based paradigm, which is much more similar to the clustering, emotional appeal, and ideological framing of disinformation. The findings provide empirical evidence from an underrepresented region in the study of disinformation, demonstrating how foreign-sponsored and domestically produced narratives hijack all of those concerns and exploit existing political divisions, historical grievances, and media weaknesses.
Media effects, selection effects, or no effects? A longitudinal analysis of the relationship between media use and misperceptions
Information, Communication & Society
Elena Broda
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A Community Data Trustee for Sensitive Data Sharing in Far-Right Online Research
Media and Communication
Jan Rau, Nils Jungmann, Moritz FĂŒrneisen, Gregor Wiedemann, Heidi Schulze, Pascal Siegers
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Data sharing poses a major challenge for digital media and communication research, particularly in sensitive areas such as far-right online studies. This article introduces the innovative concept of a “community data trustee” (CDT), a research infrastructure aimed at fostering collaboration and the sharing of research data, such as digital account lists. Compiling these lists is a critical yet labor-intensive step in many research projects; sharing them could significantly reduce effort and improve data quality. However, especially in sensitive research areas, sharing remains rare due to legal uncertainties and limited incentives. This hinders the traceability and comparability of research findings and threatens overall research quality. To address these challenges, we introduce the CDT as a collective research infrastructure that promotes the shared use of extensive account lists. The CDT views actor directories as a communal asset, developed and utilized based on mutually agreed-upon guidelines. A principle of reciprocity underpins this model: Those who access the lists also contribute to their updates and expansions, returning them to the data pool. An online portal facilitates the exchange and collaborative maintenance of the data. The setup of the CDT includes appropriate technical measures to ensure compliance with data protection and security standards, along with a robust regulatory framework that creates a legally secure environment for sharing personal data. This approach aims to (a) incentivize data sharing, (b) foster trust and legal certainty among research projects, (c) enhance data quality through ongoing maintenance, and (d) enhance researcher safety.
Learning the algorithm: Responsibilization and the limits of agency on YouTube
New Media & Society
Nadia Urban
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Content creators invest extensive effort in “learning the algorithm” to secure visibility and growth. While existing research documents the proliferation of folk theories and optimization strategies, less attention has been paid to the structural conditions under which such learning unfolds. Drawing on a computational analysis of 179 YouTube videos discussing the platform’s algorithm, this article identifies recurring interpretive patterns that frame visibility as optimizable through metrics, strategic adjustment, and disciplined self-management. This paper argues that attempts at algorithmic learning are sustained by an asymmetry between epistemic agency – the capacity to interpret metrics and hypothesize about system behavior, and effective agency – the capacity to reliably influence outcomes. Because large-scale machine-learning systems are probabilistic, multi-objective, and continuously recalibrated, effective control remains systemically indeterminate. This asymmetry produces governance through responsibilization: creators internalize responsibility for unstable outcomes, sustaining engagement because the system appears responsive while remaining structurally uncontrollable.
Overconfident youth, underconfident elders: Age differences in algorithmic knowledge confidence and information perceptions
New Media & Society
Myojung Chung
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Age-related differences in algorithmic knowledge are typically interpreted as competence gaps that render younger “digital natives” better equipped and older users more vulnerable in algorithmically curated environments. This study challenges these assumptions by examining (a) algorithmic knowledge confidence—whether users’ subjective algorithmic knowledge exceeds or falls short of their algorithmic awareness and knowledge—and (b) what consequences such misalignment has for information environment perceptions. Using US survey data ( N = 1205), this study found systematic misalignment between subjective and awareness-based algorithmic knowledge: younger users overestimate their understanding, whereas older users underestimate theirs. Social media use partially mediated the age–knowledge confidence relationship. Knowledge confidence, in turn, predicted perceived information reliability and diversity. These findings reveal that critical assessment of information environment is determined not by knowledge level alone but by alignment between subjective and awareness-based knowledge, highlighting the need for age-tailored interventions addressing knowledge overconfidence and underconfidence.
Political Fact-Checking Efforts are Constrained by Deficiencies in Coverage, Speed, and Reach
Political Communication
Morgan Wack, Kayla Duskin, Damian Hodel
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Affective Publics in the YouTube Live Chat: Multimodal Emotional Contagion During the 2024 U.S. Presidential Debate
Political Communication
Sungwon Jung, Zhi Lin, Joseph M Stepniewski, Jennifer Castillo Cortes, Yuzhe Lei
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Exploring Possible Explanations for the Modest Relationship Between News Media Trust and Use
The International Journal of Press/Politics
Yariv Tsfati, Rens Vliegenthart, Elina Lindgren, Jesper StrömbÀck
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Despite the widespread assumption that trust in news media drives news use, empirical research consistently finds only a modest correlation between the two. This study investigates possible explanations for the modest relationship between news media trust and use, drawing on recent qualitative insights and testing five hypotheses using a four-wave panel survey of Swedish respondents ( N = 3,542). We examine whether outlet-specific trust better predicts news use than generalized media trust, and whether the tendency for selective exposure, news avoidance, news finds me (NFM) perceptions, and conspiracy mindset moderate the trust–exposure relationship. Contrary to expectations, outlet-specific trust did not outperform generalized trust in predicting news use. Selective exposure showed no significant moderating effects. In contrast, news avoidance significantly moderated the relationship, such that the association between news media trust and mainstream news media use was stronger for those reporting low intentions to avoid the news. Stronger associations were also observed for those ranking themselves high on the NFM and conspirancy mindset scales, though these latter interactions became insignificant when entering all interactions to the model simulteneously.
Contesting repression in divided democracies: Can counternarratives reduce support for police violence?
American Journal of Political Science
Yanilda MarĂ­a GonzĂĄlez, NatĂĄn Skigin
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Democracies often struggle to contain police violence, which undermines the rule of law and reproduces inequality by targeting marginalized citizens. Yet, scholars have shown that repressive policing enjoys considerable public support. Focusing on Brazil, we demonstrate that attitudes toward police violence mirror polarization between left‐ and right‐wing voters, and investigate how competing narratives change attitudes toward police violence through multiple mechanisms. We argue that marginalized victims’ counternarratives can counteract police discourses justifying violence through perspective‐getting, enabling citizens to hear about the experiences of stigmatized groups. Using a nationwide survey experiment, we find that although police narratives increase endorsement of lethal violence, statements from victims’ mothers emphasizing innocence and disadvantage reduce support for police killings—even among right‐wing voters—by increasing empathy and reducing victim‐blaming. We demonstrate that, even in deeply unequal and polarized democracies where exclusionary attitudes align with entrenched ideological divides, counternarratives from marginalized groups can shape public attitudes toward injustices.
The democratic ideal under stress: Citizen commitment to democratic rights and procedures in challenging times
European Journal of Political Research
Christian Rauh, Heiko Giebler, Jan Paul Heisig, Johannes Gerschewski, Jianghong Li
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To what extent do citizens support democratic rights and procedures in the face of major societal challenges? Drawing on a Dahlian ideal of democracy, we exploit the context of the Covid-19 pandemic to address this question with two preregistered survey experiments covering 9,000 respondents in six countries (Germany, Hungary, Japan, Poland, South Korea, and Spain). A conjoint experiment on preferences for pandemic policies reveals that citizens strongly oppose restrictions that interfere with their private lives but are largely indifferent to constraints on core democratic rights (elections, rallies, freedom of the press). A framing experiment assessing citizens’ procedural preferences, elicited using best-worst scaling, shows that expert and business input are consistently ranked higher than parliamentary votes or partisan consensus – regardless of whether Covid-19, climate change, or generic ‘societal challenges’ are at stake. We discuss alternative readings of our results and conclude that commitment to democracy does not appear particularly robust when citizens confront concrete crisis-related trade-offs, with largely similar patterns across countries. While our findings diverge from those of some other experimental studies, they are broadly consistent with accounts that point to rising technocratic preferences, concerns about stealth democracy, and risks of gradual democratic erosion rather than abrupt autocratic shifts.
The online transnationalisation of populist radical right publics
European Journal of Political Research
Francesco Vittonetto
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International cooperation between radical right populists has escalated over the last decade as parties and leaders worldwide increasingly establish formal and informal connections. Although studies have investigated the role of populist radical right parties (PRRPs) in transnationalisation processes, we know little about the transnationalisation of their online audiences, who are key to amplifying the circulation of PRR narratives across countries. This article therefore addresses the following research question: Which factors explain transnational online engagement with PRR communications? I argue that their digital publics play a role in constructing a transnational network for the PRR, facilitated by online spaces. I hypothesise that engagement varies according to party strategies, platform architectures, and linguistic and geographical factors. To investigate my research question, I analyse YouTube data from 2016 to 2024 of nine PRRPs in eight countries across three continents – the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. Using content and social network analysis, I find transnational engagement is on the rise, that it intensifies around public joint appearances of PRR actors from various countries, and is driven by language and content popularity. These results indicate that transnationalisation is not only catalysed by party elites but is shaped from below and by the architecture of digital platforms amidst a complex interplay of grassroots activity, algorithmic visibility, and party communications.
Identity threat, personal values, and political attitudes: Evidence from a large‐scale survey across the European Union
Political Psychology
Colin R. Kuehnhanss, Mario Scharfbillig
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In political contexts, identities are typically based on shared values. Populist rhetoric often utilizes real and perceived threats to evoke such identities, especially on the far right. Using dedicated items in a survey covering all 27 EU Member States ( N = 27,032), we present evidence on the understudied link between perceived identity threat and values, reflecting foundational motivations of people, as well as downstream political attitudes. At the EU level, personal values related to anxiety avoidance correlate positively with perceived identity threat, whereas growth‐focused values correlate negatively. The positive relationship between identity threat and values focusing on increasing one's self‐efficacy and status is especially pronounced, suggesting compensatory motivational processes. National‐level analysis reveals a more nuanced picture. Perceived identity threat correlates strongly with lower support for liberal policies. This result is relatively homogenous across the EU‐27 and holds when controlling for personal values. Overall, the findings resonate with populist rhetoric focusing on in‐groups and status while attacking liberal policies and universalist values. Conversely, the findings offer hope that policies and communication reducing identity threat may reinforce support for liberal policies and aligned values.
Benchmarking in public updating of economic perceptions
Political Science Research and Methods
Derek A. Epp, Christopher Wlezien
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How do people respond to new information about social conditions? For example, does an improvement always lead people to say things are “better”? We argue that people update their views differently depending on whether preexisting perceptions are positive or negative, meaning equivalent changes in conditions can elicit different public reactions. To test this possibility, we update a classic model of aggregate public responsiveness to economic conditions by including recent public perceptions as a moderator variable. This reveals a substantial source of heterogeneity: changes in the economy matter either a great deal for public perceptions or not at all, depending on the prior levels of those perceptions. The results imply that updates of public perceptions are benchmarked to the recent past.
Impunity and coordination under polarization: public legitimacy and anti-corruption enforcement
International Journal of Public Opinion Research
Carlos Pereira, Mariana Furuguem, Frederico Bertholini
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The lack of coordination among accountability institutions is widely recognized as a driver of elite impunity in democratic systems. At the same time, enhanced coordination among prosecutors, judges, and enforcement agencies can raise concerns about due process and judicial impartiality. This article examines how political polarization shapes citizens' evaluations of institutional coordination in anti-corruption efforts. Using Brazil's Lava Jato operation as an empirically salient and ideologically charged context, we field a web-based survey experiment that assesses public support for a hypothetical legislative reform designed to increase coordination among accountability institutions while explicitly acknowledging its potential legal trade-offs. We show that citizens broadly support coordination even when informed of possible risks to defendants' rights. However, when coordination is explicitly associated with Lava Jato, ideological polarization structures these evaluations: right-wing respondents become more supportive of coordination, while left-wing respondents become more skeptical. We argue that polarization shifts the object of legitimacy from judicial outcomes to institutional design, transforming coordination itself into a contested political object. The findings identify a mechanism through which polarization constrains the public legitimacy—and, thus, the political feasibility—of institutional reforms aimed at combating corruption.
Strengthening Digital Survey Implementation for Official Statistics Using Text Mining: Evidence from Feedback Dataset of the Digital Domestic Tourism Survey 2024
Journal of Official Statistics
Hanun Nabila Azis, Erna Nurmawati, Teguh Sugiyarto, Eko Rahmadian
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The shift toward non-traditional data sources has made Mobile Positioning Data (MPD) a key tool for more flexible and scalable data collection. By utilizing SMS-to-web invitations from network providers, this method improves coverage, timeliness, and cost efficiency, though it still faces hurdles regarding response rates, respondent burden, and respondent trust. This study analyzes respondent feedback from the Digital Domestic Tourist Survey 2024 using sentiment analysis and topic modeling. The most frequently discussed aspects were survey application reliability (64.48%), web questionnaire presentation (63.53%), perceived ease of use (63.09%), and questionnaire content (59.80%). Positive sentiment dominated all aspects, accounting for at least 61% of responses, indicating an overall favorable perception. Topic modeling of survey question variables produced a coherence score of 0.4199. Higher coherence was observed for the positive sentiment dataset (0.5447) compared to the negative sentiment dataset (0.4869), suggesting a well-structured alignment with the study’s framework. Despite the generally positive evaluation, improvements are needed in application reliability, questionnaire design, incentive clarity, data collection methods, and communication strategies to reduce respondent burden, and enhance participation in MPD-based SMS-to-web surveys.
Using Opt-In Non-Probability Surveys to Estimate COVID-19 Infection and Vaccination Rates
Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology
Alexi Quintana-Mathé, Ata A Uslu, Jason Radford, James N Druckman, Kristin Lunz Trujillo, Alauna Safarpour, Katherine Ognyanova, Matthew A Baum, Jonathan Schulman, Roy H Perlis, Mauricio Santillana, David Lazer
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Public health crises demand timely surveillance of disease and interventions. This was a substantial challenge during COVID-19 in the United States due to the federalized response. States varied widely in infection and vaccination rates. Continuous state-level probability samples for tracking were unavailable and would have been logistically and financially onerous. Administrative data eventually became inaccurate. We thus evaluate the accuracy of large-scale opt-in non-probability state and national samples (from the Covid States Project) that estimated infection and vaccination rates on a near-continuous basis. The estimates aligned closely with a high-quality national probability sample and state-level administrative data (when such data were reliable). We offer evidence that the success of the surveys, compared to other less accurate non-probability surveys, may have stemmed from the successful recruitment of respondents with low trust in health institutions (i.e., individuals who often avoid surveys). We conclude by discussing how the Covid States Project can inform further data collection efforts requiring extensive spatial and temporal coverage.
Reevaluating News and Opinion Dynamics in the Iraq War: New Evidence for Social Identification Effects
Public Opinion Quarterly
Zachary Jablow, Scott L Althaus
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What causes changes in popular support for American wars? Competing theories posit that either the tone and content of wartime news or social identity cues conveyed through mass media should play the larger role. We offer new evidence in this debate by analyzing a novel set of rolling cross-sectional opinion data collected continuously over 13 months during an early phase of the Iraq War and pairing it with data on news intensity and the evaluative tone of news coverage during that same period. Contrary to conventional information updating explanations of war support but consistent with a social identification process, we find that greater intensity of wartime news coverage is associated with increases in aggregate support even after controlling for the evaluative tone of that news coverage.
Does Negativity Pay Off? The Impact of Political Party Attributes on the Use and Performance of Negative Campaigning in Digital Political Advertising
Social Science Computer Review
Hanna Paulke, Simon Kruschinski, MĂĄrton Bene, Jörg Haßler, Daniel Jackson, Darren Lilleker, Melanie Magin, Uta Russmann
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While research has shown how different political actors adapt engagement-triggering strategies in organic election campaigns on social media platforms, we know little about how such strategies are used in paid political advertising and how they affect algorithmic ad performance. To address this gap, this study analyzes how party attributes shape spending on, impressions of, and the cost efficiency of negative campaigning in digital political advertising. Manually content-analyzing all Facebook ads from 48 parties across 10 countries during the European Parliament election in 2019, we find that, on average, parties do not allocate more resources to negative ads, which also do not achieve higher impression counts and are even associated with higher costs per 1,000 impressions (cost efficiency). However, party characteristics matter: Whereas opposition parties invest more in negative campaigning and consequently gain more impressions than government parties, negativity only pays off in terms of cost efficiency for extreme parties. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the interplay between advertiser characteristics and content strategies in shaping ad use and performance within commercial marketing infrastructure, emphasizing the need for greater transparency to ensure fair competition in digital political advertising.
Measurement error is lower for visual analogue scales than for slider scales
Behavior Research Methods
Tim Angelike, Ulf-Dietrich Reips
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Errors in measurement can arise in study and survey responses when there is a discrepancy between the intended and selected response. A significant portion of the scientific discourse has centered on the comparison of discrete and continuous response scales. In this study, we examined various continuous rating scales to ascertain which scale would yield the lowest measurement error. To this end, we compared visual analogue scales (VAS) with different slider scales in an online study ( N = 222) that built upon the original work by Reips and Funke (2008). In this study, participants were asked to estimate where a percentage value would lie on a line ranging from 0 to 100%. The slider scale conditions differed in the initialization of the slider thumb (left, middle, right), with an additional slider condition that employed the default HTML slider with a large thumb without any modifications. The findings of this study suggest that the measurement error in estimating the true value was lower in VAS than in slider scales. Additionally, our findings suggest that VAS lead to reduced variability in errors within and between individuals. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, we did not find a higher measurement error in the default slider than in the other slider conditions. The findings of this study suggest that VAS may offer a more precise means to the assessment of ratings. Practitioners who intend to employ continuous rating scales should consider employing VAS or at least carefully consider the pitfalls of slider scales.
Measuring complex constructs in large-scale text with computational social mixed methods
Behavior Research Methods
Alina Herderich, Jana Lasser, Mirta Galesic, Segun Aroyehun, David Garcia, Joshua Garland
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A growing convergence between social science and machine learning enables, in principle, large-scale analyses of complex social phenomena through text. Yet, approaches leveraging supervised text classification based on human-annotated data for statistical analysis often treat conceptual validity and technical performance as separate challenges, impairing measurement quality. We provide guidelines to bridge this gap in what we call computational social mixed methods pipelines across three stages: data annotation, model training, and statistical analysis. Building on best practices and our own methodological innovations, such as “Iterative Annotation” and “Training on Confident Examples”, we address recurring pitfalls like unbalanced training data or stagnant model performance. We also discuss when large language models constitute a viable alternative to transformer-based classifiers. Using a case study on countering online hate, we illustrate how consequently integrating social science and machine learning expertise improves the validity and comparability of computational social science.
Introducing openESM: A database of openly available experience sampling datasets
Behavior Research Methods
Björn S. Siepe, Jonas M. B. Haslbeck, Matthias Kloft, Anabel BĂŒchner, Yong Zhang, Eiko I. Fried, Daniel W. Heck
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Experience sampling via mobile devices enables unprecedented insights into daily life. However, individual studies often cannot answer research questions conclusively, and open data are scattered across repositories in different formats. This impedes research into robustness, generalizability, and heterogeneity. We address this issue by introducing , an open-source database of openly available experience sampling datasets in a harmonized format. The growing database currently comprises 60 datasets with more than 16,000 participants and more than 740,000 observations. Metadata can be searched via our website ( openesmdata.org ) to select and download datasets via packages in R and Python. We demonstrate the potential of through an analysis of within-person correlations of positive and negative affect in 39 datasets, providing evidence for a large negative momentary correlation ( $$-0.49$$ - 0.49 , 95% CI: [ $$-0.54$$ - 0.54 , $$-0.42$$ - 0.42 ]). We end by discussing the design principles that will allow to become a continuously evolving community resource for cumulative experience sampling research.
Public Opinion on Overturning Roe v. Wade : Separate Spheres Ideology, Abortion Identity, and Message Framing in a Three-Wave Panel Study
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
Lisette Horne, Eugene Borgida, Kiley Gilbert
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The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (hereafter, Dobbs ) overturning Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision. We focus on the influence of gender ideology, measured by separate spheres ideology (SSI), on public perceptions of this decision. In a three-wave survey-experiment panel study with a nationally diverse sample, participants reported their endorsement of SSI, gender system justification, abortion identity, and attitudes toward abortion. At Wave 2, participants were randomly assigned to one of two message-framing conditions that differed in the number of facts about Dobbs or a healthcare control. Wave 3 examined the persistence of experimental effects. Overall, SSI was the only consistent moderator of message-framing effects on all outcome measures, with persisting effects on support for restrictive abortion policies and endorsement of the gendered status quo. SSI’s predictive influence in electoral choice and nonelectoral but gendered policy contexts is discussed.
Social Media is Shifting the Values in Our Societies: An Increase in People’s Achievement and Conformity Orientation
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Ertugrul Uysal, Sascha Alavi, Valéry Bezençon
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Past research explored the beneficial and harmful effects of social media (SM), but no study has investigated how SM might change people’s identities. Authors suggest that SM is a catalyst for a shift in two individual values, achievement and conformity, transforming the fabric of our societies. A difference-in-differences analysis found that countries with higher SM adoption compared to their culturally similar country show an increase in achievement and conformity orientation. Next, authors manipulated SM use and established a causal link between SM use and the activation of achievement and conformity values in Facebook users. These findings were replicated with objective SM usage data, and the pertinent mechanism was explored: people’s SM use increases achievement and conformity orientation through an increased need for approval, particularly for those who self-ruminate. Findings suggest that SM use contributes to the emergence of a societal culture that places an emphasis on achievement-seeking and conformity.
Public responses to atrocities depend on partisanship and context, not legal labels
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Yphtach Lelkes, Ellie M. Mitchell, Erin Walk, Sean J. Westwood
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Legal labels such as genocide and crimes against humanity carry substantial legal and diplomatic weight in elite and institutional arenas, where classification shapes treaty obligations, ICC jurisdiction, and the perceived stakes of inaction. A common assumption in advocacy and policy discourse is that these labels also shape mass public judgment. Direct evidence is limited and ambiguous. We test this assumption in a preregistered, nationally representative survey experiment ( N = 2 , 000 ) comparing four legally salient atrocity terms—genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing—against a nonlegal control across five real-world conflict contexts, measuring support for punitive and humanitarian policies as well as moral attributions of responsibility. Across outcomes, estimated label effects are small and rarely distinguishable from zero. Critically, even within a given partisan and country context, swapping legal labels produces smaller shifts than the baseline gaps across partisan and geopolitical contexts—indicating that where you stand and who you are matter far more than what word is used. Any departures from zero are narrow and do not accumulate into a consistent pattern across outcomes or conflicts. These results suggest that the political significance of atrocity labeling lies primarily in elite and institutional arenas; for mass publics, legal terminology is a weak lever compared to country context and partisan commitments.
When trust building looks like surveillance: Public polarization toward Chicago policing
Science Advances
Tony Cheng, Shelley Liu
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Public debate about policing highlights competing views about whether community initiatives build trust or reinforce surveillance. We argue that perceptions depend on prior state orientations, which can polarize opinions across groups. Using a preregistered survey experiment in Chicago, we examined responses to the police department’s “Sentiment Dashboard,” a project designed to enhance legitimacy by collecting community feedback. Results show that the dashboard increased trust in police among non-Black respondents but reduced trust among Black respondents, especially when framed as monitoring. Among non-Black respondents, dashboard exposure also reduced support for the Black Lives Matter movement and racial equity policies unrelated to policing, such as diverse hiring and climate justice. Mechanism testing with qualitative evidence suggests that treated non-Black participants were more likely to regard police reforms as substitutes for racial equity policies, rendering further measures unnecessary. These findings reveal how state legitimacy initiatives may instead widen racial divides and weaken coalitions for structural reform.