1/ We're hiring a postdoc in the Wisdom & Culture Lab @uwaterloopsych.bsky.social to lead a new SSHRC-funded project on cultural narratives & decision-making. Fall '26 / Winter '27 start. 🧵

New paper in @commspsychol.nature.com, with @ycleong.bsky.social, Marc Berman, and @joshcjackson.bsky.social! Two-sentence summary: Political pundits often talk as if partisans are divided in how they feel about political issues, as in “Democrats love abortion” or “Republicans hate immigrants.” 1/2

This study finds partisan language to be less affectively divided over political issues than identity labels, suggesting meaningful affective alignment on contentious issues despite partisan animosity. @nwrim.bsky.social @joshcjackson.bsky.social @ycleong.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s44...

#NoKings in Chicago.

Our paper on close relationships as microcultures (led by @mrossignacmilon.bsky.social) is a nice example of how cultural evolutionary ideas are beginning to broaden psychological theorizing I highly recommend to cultural evolutionists who are interested in psychology, or vice versa!

When you collect data online, are the results from humans or AI? In a project led by Booth PhD student Grace Zhang, we estimate the prevalence of AI agents on commonly used survey platforms: osf.io/preprints/ps... 🧵

For folks interested in learning about our lab's research, check out this flier with all our presentations at this coming #SPSP2026 conference @spspnews.bsky.social. With research by several rising stars covering tech, culture, politics and more Credit to our talented lab manager Hanying Yao!

Thrilled to share our latest paper, out now in Science Advances! We explored the development of cooperative behaviors — fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, & honesty —  across five societies, culturally contextualizing them & seeing how they correlate. (1/5) www.science.org/doi/full/10....

We're excited to announce the first Mind & Machine Alignment Summit at Ohio State! Join leaders from social science and the AI industry to advance AI that promotes well-being and aligns with human values. Learn about emerging work and connect with leading researchers and builders.

Before the end of this year, I’m glad to share a short perspective/policy piece, recently out with @joshcjackson.bsky.social , Zhao Wang, and @williambrady.bsky.social: “Large AI Models Have a Prioritization Problem: Policy Implications and Solutions.”

Postdoctoral Researcher Positions!

UPDATE: Americans who use YouTube 84% Facebook 71% Instagram 50% TikTok 37% WhatsApp 32% Reddit 26% Snapchat 25% X (Twitter) 21% Threads 8% Bluesky 4% Truth Social 3% Full Pew Research Center report: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/11/20/americans-social-media-use-2025/

Americans are growing more socially isolated and politically divided. Our new paper in Applied Network Science suggests these two forms of disconnection may be linked. People with denser, more connected social networks often feel less partisan animosity. 🧵

Only 2 days left to get your abstracts in!

Thank you to @joshcjackson.bsky.social and Dan Medvedev for a fascinating recent lab presentation on how attitudes toward the rich vary globally! Innovative methods and fascinating findings, all around. @robbwiller.bsky.social

What happens when we model the detective archetype at scale? 🕵️‍♂️📚 Our new paper, accepted for #CHR2025 combines literary history and computational modeling to trace how the figure of the detective evolves across 150 years of French fiction. arxiv.org/pdf/2511.00627

Our "Historical Psychology" special issue is now out in CRESP! www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu... Co-edited with @mohammadatari.bsky.social and featuring historical perspectives on love, racial identity, emotion expression, well-being, collectivism, religion, and more! Brief 🧵

On election day, I wanna announce that I am recruiting social psych PhD students for my lab at UIC. My lab focuses on racial identities (esp Asian, Latino, MENA Americans) and intra-minority conflict/ coalition. So please tell your students to pick me! All details on my website: www.pbandjlab.com

This thicc 71-chapter book (academic.oup.com/edited-volum...) arrived just in time to use as the textbook for my new "Cultural Evolution" class I've just started teaching! Featuring this chapter from @cailinmeister.bsky.social @psmaldino.bsky.social & Jingyi Wu as well as much more including...

Adam Smith wrongly predicts that celebrity wages will drop once people begin to like celebrities (Wealth of Nations was published in 1776)

How do humans keep inventing tools and technologies that no single person could create alone? Our new preprint, led by @anilyaman.bsky.social & @ts-brain.bsky.social shows that semantic knowledge guides innovation and drives cultural evolution. 🧠📘 arxiv.org/abs/2510.12837

Only two days left to apply!

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

🚨Historical Psych Pre-Conference🚨 We have a great lineup of speakers for the #SPSP2026 edition! Submit your poster or data blitz abstract by Oct. 23 (link below!). Open to folks from any career stage Any research on psychological change or historical context of social psych is welcome!

We're accepting poster & data blitz abstract submissions from all career stages. If your work is broadly related to morality, you should apply! We welcome a wide range of topics and approaches. Submit here: spsp.wufoo.com/forms/2026-p... Deadline to submit an abstract: Oct. 23.

@elijfinkel.bsky.social & I are recruiting a postdoc in the #LitowitzCenter for Enlightened Disagreement at Northwestern University. We seek research excellence regarding navigating conflict. Application deadline: Nov. 17. Salary: ~$80k. facultyrecruiting.northwestern.edu/apply/MjQzNw==

I am happy to announce that our project on risk and social learning is now in press at Psychological Review. Several new additions and revisions thanks to detailed feedback from colleagues and anonymous reviewers. osf.io/preprints/so... @psmaldino.bsky.social @babeheim.bsky.social

🚨New preprint🚨 osf.io/preprints/ps... In a sample of ~2 billion comments, social media discourse becomes more negative over time Archival and experimental findings suggest this is a byproduct of people trying to differentiate themselves Led by @hongkai1.bsky.social in his 1st year (!) of his PhD

The @spspnews.bsky.social Religion & Spirituality Preconference is accepting applications for talks, data blitzes, & posters until 10/23! We're excited to hear from Kathleen Corriveau, @alexandraworm.bsky.social, @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social & @joshcjackson.bsky.social. More info: tinyurl.com/33x9za7r

One of my favorite conferences, @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social, just released key dates and other info! I highly recommend checking it out for great research from across the social, behavioral, and natural sciences

🚨 New paper alert! (slightly belated) We (with @joshcjackson.bsky.social) suggest that complex technologies, as they need several (often many) people to use them, require innovations that distribute cognition to help regulate cognitive load and coordinate. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Below is my new post about our Three Stages of Religious Decline paper (www.nature.com/articles/s41...). We argue that a similar process of decline affects countries on every populated continent, including countries in which Christianity, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism is the largest religion. A🧵

@helenamiton.bsky.social and I have a new paper out: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Past theories focus on how we evolve complex technologies (jet engines), but neglect cultural innovations that help us operate these technologies (pilot checklist) Paper has tons of examples and new theory!

Social media often feels saturated with politics and morality - but is that feeling accurate? Our new paper finds that moralization has increased markedly on social media from 2013-2021, more than traditional media. See 🧵 below!

One of the largest-scale analyses of historical text data that I have contributed to The finding: language on social media has become more moralized over the 21st century; we don't see the same trends on news media Kudos to the first author @curtispuryear.bsky.social on the enormous effort

English language is filled with trait words like “caring” and “smart” These words are the currency of personality/social psych, yet key questions remain about their evolution, function, and structure We take on these questions in a preprint led by @yuanzeliu.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps...

Look what you could publish (anonymously) in Nature in 1970.

If anyone is submitting to SESP and looking for a speaker to complete their symposium, I have a collaborator doing really interesting work related to culture, income, and social cognition. He has multiple cool projects on all of those topics. Feel free to message me and I can connect you

I'm disappointed to share that my NSF career grant on anti-Asian dehumanization was terminated. This affects ongoing project activities, which have shown great progress so far, and support for my research team and more. I'm sad to share that the hiring of the postdoc role is currently on pause.

This paper is now published. www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

I'm hiring a new lab manager! Deadline to apply is April 1st. More details here: www.chicagobooth.edu/-/media/facu... I formed some of my deepest and most impactful partnerships as a lab manager, and it's a position that I highly value. If you are a PI, please circulate to possible applicants!

Wyd at 8AM this Saturday? If at #SPSP2025 in Denver, and willing to tolerate such an aggressive time slot, please join us for our symposium on High-Dimensional Social Cognition, featuring @gandalfnicolas.bsky.social , @chujunlin.bsky.social, @joshcjackson.bsky.social, and myself

This was a really interesting project to be part of, and cool use of causal methods to study a big societal question. I recommend reading the preprint, and looking at our last theoretical paper (linked here) that generated the predictions tested in this paper.

My first PhD project is out there. Thank you to my advisor @psmaldino.bsky.social and to mentor, co-author and friend @babeheim.bsky.social for encouraging and helping build this exciting and insightful collaboration. Onwards!

How do job seekers react when orgs quantify their diversity commitments? In a 🚨new paper🚨 with @ikesilver.bsky.social & Edward Chang, we explore competing predictions about how women and racial minorities react to measurable goals vs. vague, values-focused commitments.

Applications open for SFI’s Summer 2025 residential Education programs in Santa Fe! santafe.edu/education Details below. In this photo, SFI Professor Sid Redner meets with summer students at the SFI Cowan Campus (image: Doug Merriam)

I am delighted to share our latest piece of research: ‘A global cross-cultural analysis of string figures reveals evidence of deep transmission and innovation’. This was long in the works and is by far the largest project I’ve led to date. A thread: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

🚨A four-year making @naturehumbehav.bsky.social with @UmitKeles @markthornton.bsky.social @Ralph Adolphs Across large sets of mental states, traits, situations, faces, & participants in five continents🌎 face impressions shape mental state attributions in various situations doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Horrified at the government cuts to basic research funding in NZ. No more funding for humanities and social sciences. 50% focused on economic outcomes. business.scoop.co.nz/2024/12/04/m...