Carlo Hofer

Carlo Hofer

Postdoctoral Research Associate at QMUL on the Horizon Europe DEMETRA project. PhD in Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick (2026).

Publications

Journal articles

Polarising punchlines: The influence of intergroup humour on affective political polarisation

Political Studies, 2026

A survey experiment in Great Britain: serious criticism of one’s own side increased affective polarisation, and the same criticism delivered as humour increased it significantly less.

Recommended citation: Sleiman, Y., Grasso, M., Pattie, C., Serra, L., & Hofer, C. (2026). Polarising punchlines: The influence of intergroup humour on affective political polarisation. Political Studies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217261496123

PhD thesis

Exposure structures and intergroup attitudes in the UK: Linking media infrastructure and residential environments to affective polarisation and immigration attitudes

PhD thesis, University of Warwick, 2026

PhD thesis, University of Warwick. Two empirical projects on the British Election Study Internet Panel: online information consumption and affective polarisation, and neighbourhood segregation and immigration attitudes.

Recommended citation: Hofer, O. C. (2026). Exposure structures and intergroup attitudes in the UK: Linking media infrastructure and residential environments to affective polarisation and immigration attitudes. PhD thesis, University of Warwick. https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/202258/

Working papers

Where migrants live and what their neighbours think: composition, segregation and a decade of measured neighbourhood change in England and Wales

Working paper (sole-authored), 2026

How neighbourhood composition and segregation relate to attitudes to immigration in England and Wales, linking British Election Study respondents to the 2011 and 2021 censuses.

Recommended citation: Hofer, C. "Where migrants live and what their neighbours think: composition, segregation and a decade of measured neighbourhood change in England and Wales." Working paper.

Not that funny: a preregistered test of climate memes and political participation

Working paper (lead author), ESRC humour project, 2025

Lead-authored preregistered survey experiment with 2,024 adults in Great Britain, testing whether climate memes affect political participation.

Recommended citation: Hofer, C. (lead author). "Not that funny: a preregistered test of climate memes and political participation." Working paper.

Research notes

What a vintage difference measures

Self-published research note, 2026

A hand check of 19 apparent ownership changes across two releases of the same asset-level database: twelve had no corporate event behind them, and the six that were real arrived between 12 and 1,674 days late.

Recommended citation: Hofer, C. (2026). What a vintage difference measures: hand verification of ownership changes in a public asset-level database. Self-published research note. https://github.com/ochofer/paper1-hazard-exposure-data/releases/download/note-v1.2/what-a-vintage-difference-measures.pdf

Datasets

Polarising Punchlines: The Influence of Inter-group Humour on Partisan Affective Polarisation, 2024 (data)

UK Data Service ReShare [Data Collection], 2026

Survey-experiment dataset on intergroup humour and partisan affective polarisation.

Recommended citation: Sleiman, Y., Grasso, M., Pattie, C., Serra, L., & Hofer, C. (2026). Polarising Punchlines: The Influence of Inter-group Humour on Partisan Affective Polarisation, 2024. [Data Collection]. UK Data Service. https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-858409

Policy briefs

Citizens as Partners in Food System Transformation: Scaling Deliberative Democracy for Sustainable Food Systems

DEMETRA (Horizon Europe), Policy Brief No. 1, 2026

Six priority actions for embedding deliberative participatory processes in European food and sustainability policy.

Recommended citation: Hofer, C. (2026). Citizens as Partners in Food System Transformation: Scaling Deliberative Democracy for Sustainable Food Systems. DEMETRA Policy Brief No. 1. Horizon Europe DEMETRA project (Grant Agreement No. 101132286). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22541483

Beyond Pilots: Building Durable Governance Frameworks for Urban Food Systems

DEMETRA (Horizon Europe), Policy Brief No. 2, 2026

Five priority actions for turning temporary urban food initiatives into durable governance, based on 120 policymaker interviews across seven European cities.

Recommended citation: Hofer, C. (2026). Beyond Pilots: Building Durable Governance Frameworks for Urban Food Systems. DEMETRA Policy Brief No. 2. Horizon Europe DEMETRA project (Grant Agreement No. 101132286). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22541657