Bas Hofstra

Bas Hofstra

@bashofstra.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Radboud University | prior Utrecht University & Stanford University | member Radboud Young Academy | networks | sci of science | big data www.bashofstra.com

240 followers483 following53 posts

Bas Hofstra reposted

Miranda Lubbers
@mirandalubbers.bsky.social

Replying to @mirandalubbers.bsky.social

The whole (still evolving!) collection of papers can be found at www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu..., with among others blueskyers @bashofstra.bsky.social, @rensec.bsky.social, @afdezanta.eurosky.social, @aespinosarada.bsky.social, @franciscaortizruiz.bsky.social, ...

sciencedirect.comSocial Networks | The Network Scale-Up Method and Aggregate Relational Data in Social Network Research | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevierhttps://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/social-networks/about/call-for-papers#the-network-scale-up-method-and-aggregate-relational-data-in-social-network-research

Bas Hofstra reposted

Marc Keuschnigg
@marckeuschnigg.bsky.social

On the uses of computational text analysis methods in sociology. Excited to share 🙌 Huge thanks to my co-authors for such a rewarding collaboration doi.org/10.1007/s115...

Heinz Leitgöb@heinzleitgoeb.bsky.social

A highly-recommendable state-of-the-art discussion of computational text analysis for theory building and testing by @mhbodell.bsky.social , @marckeuschnigg.bsky.social , @anamacanovic.bsky.social , and @anmen.bsky.social: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comComputational Text Analysis for Building and Testing Social Theory - KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und SozialpsychologieDigitization and advances in natural language processing have transformed how sociologists can measure, model, and interpret social life through text. We provide an overview of computational text anal...
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

Thrilled that we were awarded a LISS panel grant, with @rensec.bsky.social & Beate Völker! With the grant we realize survey time in the LISS panel to measure change in extended networks that include both strong and weak ties. We apply a new instrument: the network scale-up method in the panel

ODISSEI@odissei.bsky.social

Due to the high number of extraordinary proposals for the 2025 LISS panel Grant, ODISSEI and Centerdata have decided to award additional projects 🌟 The grantees will explore themes surrounding domestic gender imbalances, political polarization, and more. Read more here: edu.nl/nv8x4

Bas Hofstra reposted

ODISSEI
@odissei.bsky.social

Due to the high number of extraordinary proposals for the 2025 LISS panel Grant, ODISSEI and Centerdata have decided to award additional projects 🌟 The grantees will explore themes surrounding domestic gender imbalances, political polarization, and more. Read more here: edu.nl/nv8x4

Bas Hofstra reposted

Ozan Aksoy
@aksoyundan.bsky.social

A new publication at www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We find that religious markers (esp. beards) can reduce perceived trustworthiness in Turkey. (That's why you often see me clean shaven ;-)

pnas.orgReligious markers reduce perceived trustworthiness in a Muslim-majority country | PNASFirst impressions often hinge on visible cues, leading people to infer the trustworthiness of strangers from their appearance and dress. While reli...
Sociology at Oxford@sociologyoxford.bsky.social

📝 Research from Turkey finds that visible religious markers like headscarves & beards can reduce perceived trustworthiness among strangers 🤝 This held even among highly religious respondents - challenging the idea that these markers signal trust. 🔗 www.sociology.ox.ac.uk/article/reli...

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

It combines longitudinal register data on salaries and, uniquely, matches that to survey data on PhD holders to follow their careers. This enables to precisely pinpoint how gender inequities in salaries develop after a PhD both within and outside the university.

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

Whether or not to be afraid of awkward discussions about politics during family diners over the holiday? 🎄 Find out in our paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Excited to share our open access study just published in Social Networks by myself, Thijmen Jeroense, and Jochem Tolsma!

sciencedirect.comThe impact of dyads and extended networks on political talk: A factorial survey experiment in the NetherlandsOpen political dialogue is regarded as foundational to democratic health and our social fabric. Here, we study political dialogue by examining with wh…
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Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

-Homophily on gender, ethnic background, or political opinion similarity surprisingly has little effects - Whether you know someone well, and friends much more so than family, seems more important than whether you look alike

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

This was a very cool paper to write and combines complicated Bayesian NSUM models and vignette experiments with a very important sociological topic – i.e., discussing politics is a vehicle to de-polarize society. Here is the open replication website to the paper: politicaltalk.netlify.app

politicaltalk.netlify.appREPLICATION PACKAGE: The Impact of Extended Networks on Political Talk: A Factorial Survey Experiment Among Multiple Ethnic Groups in the Netherlands
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

Whether or not to be afraid of awkward discussions about politics during family diners over the holiday? 🎄 Find out in our paper here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Excited to share our open access study just published in Social Networks by myself, Thijmen Jeroense, and Jochem Tolsma!

sciencedirect.comThe impact of dyads and extended networks on political talk: A factorial survey experiment in the NetherlandsOpen political dialogue is regarded as foundational to democratic health and our social fabric. Here, we study political dialogue by examining with wh…
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

🔭What do we study? - We ran an experiment with thousands of people in the Netherlands as to how they choose political discussion partners - We consider dyadic similarity and extended networks using network scale-up methodology

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

🧐 What do we find? - The overwhelming majority of people in the Netherlands (>70%) disclose political opinions or engage in substantive debate - Men do so more often than women, as do theoretically educated rather than practically educated people

Bas Hofstra reposted

Herman van de Werfhorst 🟥
@hermwerf.bsky.social

This is an important paper for institutes that want to engage more with non-academic audiences. @eui-eu.bsky.social

European Sociological Review@europeansocreview.bsky.social

📢 New #OpenAccess! Why do some professors appear in the media far more than others? #RH_Heiberger @BasHofstra #S_Unger find both patterns of cumulative advantage & gender inequality, with men more likely to become “short-listed”! ➡️ Read it ungated at: doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaf037 image.png

doi.orgProfessors in the media: dynamics of cumulative advantage, reputation, and genderAbstract. Translation of science to a general public is increasingly important in modern academia. Yet, there is little knowledge on whether and why scient

Bas Hofstra reposted

European Sociological Review
@europeansocreview.bsky.social

📢 New #OpenAccess! Why do some professors appear in the media far more than others? #RH_Heiberger @BasHofstra #S_Unger find both patterns of cumulative advantage & gender inequality, with men more likely to become “short-listed”! ➡️ Read it ungated at: doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcaf037 image.png

doi.orgProfessors in the media: dynamics of cumulative advantage, reputation, and genderAbstract. Translation of science to a general public is increasingly important in modern academia. Yet, there is little knowledge on whether and why scient
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

Thrilled to share our latest open access paper published in European Sociological Review by @mshu.bsky.social, Raphael Heiberger, and myself! You can find it here: academic.oup.com/esr/advance-...

academic.oup.comProfessors in the media: dynamics of cumulative advantage, reputation, and genderAbstract. Translation of science to a general public is increasingly important in modern academia. Yet, there is little knowledge on whether and why scient
M. Saïd H. Unger@mshu.bsky.social

What gets professors into the media? 📢 New open access publication in @europeansocreview.bsky.social together with Raphael Heiberger from @s7css.bsky.social and @bashofstra.bsky.social! 👉 doi.org/10.1093/esr/...

doi.orgProfessors in the media: dynamics of cumulative advantage, reputation, and genderAbstract. Translation of science to a general public is increasingly important in modern academia. Yet, there is little knowledge on whether and why scient

Bas Hofstra reposted

M. Saïd H. Unger
@mshu.bsky.social

What gets professors into the media? 📢 New open access publication in @europeansocreview.bsky.social together with Raphael Heiberger from @s7css.bsky.social and @bashofstra.bsky.social! 👉 doi.org/10.1093/esr/...

doi.orgProfessors in the media: dynamics of cumulative advantage, reputation, and genderAbstract. Translation of science to a general public is increasingly important in modern academia. Yet, there is little knowledge on whether and why scient

Bas Hofstra reposted

Herman van de Werfhorst 🟥
@hermwerf.bsky.social

COVID has reduced the number of papers published by NL-based scholars, but it has not increased the gender gap. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

link.springer.comKnowledge lost, parity gained? COVID-19 and gender gaps in Dutch academia - ScientometricsWe investigated the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted long-standing gender inequalities in Dutch academia. Dutch academia is an ideal case to gain insight on exacerbated gender differentials due to COVID-19 on employees, because men and women face comparable institutional contexts and any COVID-19 impact becomes visible and measurable fast through potentially decreased yearly publications. We reconstructed the complete publishing careers up till 2022 of more than 8000 Dutch scientists who received a PhD from 1990 onwards and still had an active publication career before the pandemic started. We compared the publication dip between men and women during COVID-19. Our data allowed us to investigate whether the gendered impact of COVID-19 varied across research domains, different PhD cohorts and type of research output. We consistently find that COVID-19 did not have more severe consequences on research output for women than for men.
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

I'm thrilled to share our latest study, published open access in Scientometrics. The paper is by Jochem Tolsma, myself, and Anne Maaike Mulders. Here's the paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Here's the replication website: coviddutchacademia.netlify.app

link.springer.comKnowledge lost, parity gained? COVID-19 and gender gaps in Dutch academia - ScientometricsWe investigated the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted long-standing gender inequalities in Dutch academia. Dutch academia is an ideal case to gain insight on exacerbated gender differentials due to COVID-19 on employees, because men and women face comparable institutional contexts and any COVID-19 impact becomes visible and measurable fast through potentially decreased yearly publications. We reconstructed the complete publishing careers up till 2022 of more than 8000 Dutch scientists who received a PhD from 1990 onwards and still had an active publication career before the pandemic started. We compared the publication dip between men and women during COVID-19. Our data allowed us to investigate whether the gendered impact of COVID-19 varied across research domains, different PhD cohorts and type of research output. We consistently find that COVID-19 did not have more severe consequences on research output for women than for men.
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Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

This is a key paper in the growing literature on the effects of COVID-19 on academia. It is done purely with webscraped data, and it is a showcase how you can do fine-grained analyses if you put in the work.

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

I'm thrilled to share our latest study, published open access in Scientometrics. The paper is by Jochem Tolsma, myself, and Anne Maaike Mulders. Here's the paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Here's the replication website: coviddutchacademia.netlify.app

link.springer.comKnowledge lost, parity gained? COVID-19 and gender gaps in Dutch academia - ScientometricsWe investigated the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted long-standing gender inequalities in Dutch academia. Dutch academia is an ideal case to gain insight on exacerbated gender differentials due to COVID-19 on employees, because men and women face comparable institutional contexts and any COVID-19 impact becomes visible and measurable fast through potentially decreased yearly publications. We reconstructed the complete publishing careers up till 2022 of more than 8000 Dutch scientists who received a PhD from 1990 onwards and still had an active publication career before the pandemic started. We compared the publication dip between men and women during COVID-19. Our data allowed us to investigate whether the gendered impact of COVID-19 varied across research domains, different PhD cohorts and type of research output. We consistently find that COVID-19 did not have more severe consequences on research output for women than for men.
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Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

📖 What did we find? - During COVID-19, scientists published about 33% fewer papers - Dutch science was hit hard: “lost” around 20,000 publications - Scientists with childcare responsibilities struggled to maintain productivity - Researchers with a migration background were also hit harder

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

I'm thrilled to share our latest study, published open access in Scientometrics. The paper is by Jochem Tolsma, myself, and Anne Maaike Mulders. Here's the paper: link.springer.com/article/10.1... Here's the replication website: coviddutchacademia.netlify.app

link.springer.comKnowledge lost, parity gained? COVID-19 and gender gaps in Dutch academia - ScientometricsWe investigated the extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacted long-standing gender inequalities in Dutch academia. Dutch academia is an ideal case to gain insight on exacerbated gender differentials due to COVID-19 on employees, because men and women face comparable institutional contexts and any COVID-19 impact becomes visible and measurable fast through potentially decreased yearly publications. We reconstructed the complete publishing careers up till 2022 of more than 8000 Dutch scientists who received a PhD from 1990 onwards and still had an active publication career before the pandemic started. We compared the publication dip between men and women during COVID-19. Our data allowed us to investigate whether the gendered impact of COVID-19 varied across research domains, different PhD cohorts and type of research output. We consistently find that COVID-19 did not have more severe consequences on research output for women than for men.
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

Ik werd geinterviewd met een aantal vragen over hoe je duurzame en nuttige netwerken opbouwt als student in een interessant stuk van de trouw @trouw.nl in de introductieweken.

Trouw@trouw.nl

Het geheim van een geslaagde introductieweek? Onbezonnen lachen en niet als eerste naar bed

trouw.nlHet geheim van een geslaagde introductieweek? Onbezonnen lachen en niet als eerste naar bedDe introductieweken voor nieuwe studenten zijn weer begonnen. Hoe maak je vrienden in deze spannende levensfase? ‘Voor iedere hobby bestaat wel een clubje.’
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

Met in de @volkskrant.nl tekst en uitleg bij de studie: www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/e...

volkskrant.nlEen Nederlander kent zo’n 568 mensen: ‘Soort zoekt soort en opleiding is een bepalende factor’De gemiddelde Nederlander kent 568 mensen, zo blijkt uit onderzoek. Die grote netwerken zijn net zo weinig divers als de kleine kring van vrienden en familie.
Bas Hofstra@bashofstra.bsky.social

Thrilled to share my latest publication in the journal Social Networks, together with Beate Völker (lead), @rensec.bsky.social, and Frank van Tubergen. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.comWho’s in your extended network? Analysing the size and homogeneity of acquaintanceship networks in the NetherlandsThis study advances the understanding of the size and homogeneity of personal networks, focusing on extended networks that encompass both core discuss…

Bas Hofstra reposted

Rense Corten 🟥
@rensec.bsky.social

Nothing like having your Social Networks article (as seen at #Sunbelt2024) published while attending #Sunbelt2025!

Bas Hofstra@bashofstra.bsky.social

Thrilled to share my latest publication in the journal Social Networks, together with Beate Völker (lead), @rensec.bsky.social, and Frank van Tubergen. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.comWho’s in your extended network? Analysing the size and homogeneity of acquaintanceship networks in the NetherlandsThis study advances the understanding of the size and homogeneity of personal networks, focusing on extended networks that encompass both core discuss…
Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

Additionally, we find a pretty strong presence for gender and educational homogeneity. These findings have important implications for Dutch social structure as to who is at risk to become socially isolated and as to where social barriers between groups exist.

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

We find fascinating patterns where average network size across a representative set respondents in the Netherlands is about 518 people. But more importantly, it decreases with age, unemployment, lower income, lower house values, lower education, and fewer people in a household.

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

In this paper we use computational methods (for insiders, specifically the Network Scale-Up Method) to calculate both network size and its determinants, as well as network homogeneity and its determinants.

Bas Hofstra
@bashofstra.bsky.social

After a pretty gruesome train ride, finally arrived in Paris for #sunbelt #sunbelt2025. Can’t wait to hear about all the amazing network studies. Shoot me a message if you want to meet or catch up!

Bas Hofstra reposted

Arnout van de Rijt
@arnoutvanderijt.bsky.social

As some of you guessed, the two models are statistically indistinguishable. The answer is Model 1, but there was no way to tell from the data. I was very surprised when I first saw this. Here we show that this confounding of heterogeneity and reinforcement is general: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

pnas.orgReinforcement generates systematic differences without heterogeneity | PNASInequality in outcomes may emerge through a reinforcement process in which stochastic variation in values is determined by prior values but may als...
Arnout van de Rijt@arnoutvanderijt.bsky.social

Did Model 1 or Model 2 generate these sequences? Why? Model 1: Pólya urn, starting with one black and one red ball. 1 (0) stands for black (red). Model 2: Empty probit model, random intercepts with mean 0, ICC = 1/2. All 100,000 sequences here: tinyurl.com/35pkyfxa

Bas Hofstra reposted

Nella Geurts
@nellageurts.bsky.social

Mixed methods milestone! 🛠️Check out this Special Issue edited by @nielsspierings.bsky.social, Tine Davids & I! No textbook perfections but practical realities on how to mix methods in migration studies and which structural barries keep mixed methods from thriving! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.comTwo peas in a pod? How to mix methods in ethnic and migration studiesThis introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Two peas in a pod? How to mix methods in ethnic and migration studies’ highlights scholars’ experiences and reflections on doing mixed methods research wi...