Why are some people more prone to believe in conspiracy theories? Part of the answer may lie in metacognition, i.e., the ability to correctly estimate one's own knowledge about topics. -> New paper with @kwinter.bsky.social, @kaisassenberg.bsky.social & Helen Fischer 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/2044...

After a short social media pause, I’m back — will share a few highlights and reflections from the past months within the next weeks.

New article out in the Journal of Environmental Psychology led by @kwinter.bsky.social (with @lpummerer.bsky.social Matthew Hornsey & Timo von Oertzen) showing that conspiracy mentality and wind farm opposition mutually predict each other over time. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very excited to listen to Paula Wessel presenting the project by @lpummerer.bsky.social, Nadira Faber, Kevin Winter and myself today @ddc-sdu.bsky.social brown bag lunch series!

Unfollowing toxic social media influencers makes people less hostile! In 2 experiments, we found that unfollowing extreme influencers: -Reduced partisan animosity by 24% -Increased satisfaction with X -Led people to share higher-quality news Effects lasted for 6+ months. osf.io/preprints/ps...

1/6 Just coming back from the interdisciplinary conference on "Perspectives on Knowledge Resistance". Cool to see how perspectives from philosophy, pol science, comm science & psychology compliment each other - esp when reaching similar conclusions from different angles 🧵

New paper out, led by Kevin Winter, with @kaisassenberg.bsky.social and Matthew Hornsey on believing misinformation about wind farms. Biggest predictor is not education and science knowledge, but conspiracy mentality. Over 25% of respondents from US, UK, AUS agree with more than half of statements.

#DGPS2024 with another conspiracy panel for me - in the first talk Lukasz Stasielowicz presents a meta-analysis (n = 60 samples) on interventions against conspiracy beliefs. He disentangled the average positive effects of interventions on reducing conspiracy beliefs

Haben Sie Menschen in Ihrem persönlichen Umfeld, die sich als „Reichsbürger*innen“ oder „Selbstverwalter*innen“ bezeichnen? Die unten aufgeführte Studie (auch in Deutsch möglich) sucht noch Leute mit entsprechenden Erfahrungen, um bessere Hilfs- und Beratungsangebote zu schaffen.

Is partisan animosity a threat to democracy? We find that political sectarianism (a blend of othering, aversion, and moralization toward opposing partisans), robustly predicts antidemocratic tendencies. In contrast, affective polarization does not! osf.io/preprints/ps...

When people receive political campaign text messages from female-named volunteers, they are more offensive and silencing, but they are more likely to respond and agree to the ask, finds @alanyan.bsky.social @rivb.bsky.social in a great field experiment doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Verschwörungstheorien behindern nicht nur Maßnahmen bei Pandemien, sondern auch die Energiewende. @kwinter.bsky.social und ich haben dazu einen Überblicksartikel im in-mind Magazin (@de.in-mind.org) geschrieben, editiert von @wilhelmhofmann.bsky.social und HLandmann de.in-mind.org/article/der-...

New work with @rolandimhoff.bsky.social! ✨Victim groups have every right to reject an apology. However, if they do, it may impact their morality & power in the eyes of third parties, which is related to the support they receive. Now accepted at JPSP: IRGP. osf.io/preprints/ps...

Der Band "Psychologie der Verschwörungstheorien" ist fertig und vor einer Woche erschienen - Hurra! Ich als Herausgeber habe Exemplare, von denen ich drei gerne verschenke. Unter allen Reposts lose ich drei aus (wenn es mehr als drei sind) und schicke Euch das Buch per Post. Nur auf bluesky...

Postdoc opportunity: Are you interested in research on bias reduction? Come to work with me in Trier (Germany)! International applications very welcome!! leibniz-psychology.onlyfy.jobs/job/ki64gegu

Safe the date! The fifth meeting of the German Political Psychology Network will be held at the University of Vienna on September 19-20, 2024. Please submit your abstracts to: univiepsy.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_... (Deadline January 31, 2024)

New team effort lead by Anna Soveri. we examined if trait reactance measured before the pandemic was related to willingness to get vaccinated up to 2 years later. We also tested whether trait reactance makes anti-vaccination attitudes more resistant to information. doi.org/10.1111/aphw...

When you discover new effects using preregistration, high power, & replicate faithfully with open materials, you get a replication rate of 86% & effect sizes 97% as big! Our new published paper with so many wonderful researchers: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In our new Bioethics paper we find that people deem moral behaviour helped by biological means (e.g. pills that increase empathy) less worth praising than moral behaviour that is achieved via more effortful means. #philsky #PsychSciSky #socialpsyc onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Himmel über Heidelberg - nur einer von vielen Eindrücken vom @nawik.de- Seminar über Wissenschaftskommunikation. Kurz, einfach, lebendig und strukturiert sollen die Texte sein - gut, sich immer wieder darin zu versuchen. Danke, @hannocharisius.bsky.social & Klaus Wingen für den Input, und der KTS

Over >10 years Annika Scholl, Naomi Ellemers, Daan Scheepers, and I have researched the construal of social power. All materials we have used over the years are available here: doi.org/10.23668/psy.... For a summary of the research see dx.doi.org/10.1016/bs.a...

PSA: there are now normal lists on Bluesky like on Twitter (i.e. not for muting), where you can add some people you want to follow, and you can pin such list and it becomes a feed. So you don't need SkyFeed to create simple feeds that just include posts from a list of people 👍

The Elon Effect (but not the one you're thinking of): Showing Republicans Musk's pro-environmental stances increases their climate beliefs and intended actions, with no backfire effect on attitudes towards Musk, finds @rorchinik.bsky.social @dgrand.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/v9mzk/

I propose all journals make the initial submissions open format. They can require formatting changes at the revision stage. This would save millions of wasted hours and remove one of the most mind numbingly stupid aspects of academia. We also have the power to easily change this.