🌟 Excited to share that I'm recruiting PhD students in Psychology for my new lab at Rice University this cycle (Signal boost appreciated!) To learn more, check out the Learning & Behavior Change Lab website: www.sinclairlab-rice.com Applications are due Dec 1st: psychology.rice.edu/graduate/pro...

In this @pnas.org Letter, we respond to a comment on our paper about behavioral interventions to motivate action on climate change. In new analyses exploring individual differences, we find that our leading interventions were effective across the political spectrum. 🧵⤵️ www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....

Original paper here. @falklab.bsky.social @michaelemann.bsky.social @dcosme.bsky.social @diegoreinero.bsky.social @curse10.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The psych job market may not be dead... but it is gravely injured 😬 So far it's looking like the Trump administration's attacks on higher ed/research are going to have more than 2x the impact on the job market as the covid-19 pandemic. #psychjobs #neurojobs #academicjobs

In this letter in @pnas.org, we respond to a comment on our recent paper. Although multiple factors shape whether we act on our intentions, intentions are valuable precursors of behavior that can guide the iterative development of behavior change interventions. www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10....

Cool new paper in PNAS from @vanessachg.bsky.social et al. When it comes to moral dilemmas, LLM's: 1) are more altruistic than humans 2) exhibit a stronger omission bias than humans 3) are biased toward answering "no" These biases may come from fine-tuning. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New paper suggests economists’ political preferences may influence their writing/work. E.g., Papers on the left imply a higher optimal top tax rate (77%) vs. ones on the right (60%), though note our actual federal top tax rate is just 37%. What should we takeaway? academic.oup.com/ej/article/1...

That being said, scientists are people too. Read Helen Longino's "Science as Social Knowledge" for a nice discussion of the inherent subjectivity of science. jstor.org/stable/j.ctv.... So we shouldn't be that surprised by this latest econ paper's finding.

🚨New WP🚨 Can AI do "deep canvassing"—the time-intensive, empathic persuasive dialogues that durably reduce prejudice when done by humans? Spoiler: Yes! We find durable reduction in prejudice toward undocumented immigrants LLMs make deep canvassing possible at massive scale osf.io/preprints/os...

Since 1954, "The Handbook of Social Psychology" has been the field’s most authoritative reference work, and today is the launch of the 6th edition with 50 new chapters by 100 leading scholars. Best news? The HSP is now an open-access public resource—free to read, download, and share. the-hsp.com

🚨Excited to see our new paper out in @pnas.org led by @asinclair.bsky.social!🚨 We tested 17 psychological interventions head-to-head in a “tournament” to see what motivated people to take action and share info about climate change. Winners depicted here for brevity; read our paper for details!

What motivates people to take action and share info about climate change? We tested 17 psychological interventions in a tournament—Discover the winners in our new paper! Out now in @pnas.org w/ @falklab.bsky.social, @michaelemann.bsky.social, & team. Thread ⤵️ 1/9 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Wanted to share a handy little resource with you all (especially those in dev psych) — my lab & I made a "journal submission cheat sheet" that summarizes article types, word limits, & other requirements for the journals we typically submit to. Link below 👇🏼 docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

👉 👈 Meta announced that they're changing their models to reduce "left-leaning [political] bias"--that means leaning them to the political "right". Lots to unpack about what that might mean. So I ran a quick "shot in the dark" study...and found a *political right* bias in Meta models. Some notes.🧵

This statement from the NSF is insane. Science is, in essence, designed to separate the true from the false. Understanding how falsehoods spread is key to the scientific endeavor. It is not a violation of free speech to be proven wrong.

Can confirm that my NSF grant "How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them" was cancelled today because it is "not in alignment with current NSF priorities" Shocking that understanding how people are misled by false information is now a forbidden topic. Our work will continue but at a smaller scale

Moral Psych community: @jowylie.bsky.social & I will be organizing the pre-con at SPSP again! This past year was sold-out and we expect next year to be even bigger! Who do you YOU want to hear from next year? Recommend a speaker with this quick form: tinyurl.com/moralpsychrecs

Using GPS data from 220,000+ Lyft drivers in Florida to look at actual speeding behavior (not just police reports), Aggarwal et al find: White & Minority drivers drive similarly, BUT minority drivers were 33% more likely to be cited for speeding + paid 34% more money in fines.

Trying something new: A 🧵 on a topic I find many students struggle with: "why do their 📊 look more professional than my 📊?" It's *lots* of tiny decisions that aren't the defaults in many libraries, so let's break down 1 simple graph by @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social 🔗 www.ft.com/content/73a1...

Nearly 90% of US Christian religious leaders believe that humans are contributing to climate change. Yet most never talk about it with their congregation (and US Christians underestimate the prevalence of this belief among their leaders). But misperception corrections help!

New paper finds that what people pay attention to on social media (click “read more”) is 7x more politically diverse than what they publicly engage with (“share” or “like”). Measuring likes and shares alone misses the attention and search process!

We're just a few days away from this year's Morality Preconference!! Don't miss it! #SPSP2025

New research finds that people form swirling ‘vortex’ patterns in densely-packed crowds, with individuals moving in circles. Collective oscillations in massive human crowds! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cool cross-cultural sample of infants from the US and Uganda shows that emotional contagion is a response to peer distress (e.g., another baby crying) - not just due to the aversive nature of a sound in general onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Interesting paper finds that Republican elected officials are not fact-checked more often than Democratic officials. Politician prominence predicts fact-checking, but partisanship does not. t.co/K0F6oJ3V1m

We are excited to announce this year's Shared Reality Virtual Conference happening Wednesday March 12 & Thursday March 13, 2025, between 9:50 AM - 1:10 PM ET! You can register below to receive the Zoom link! Submit a data blitz anytime until Feb 7. northwestern.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

Not every analysis of multiple (<whatever>) requires multiplicity adjustments (correcting p-values for multiple testing): www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

“Facts are not censorship. Fact-checkers never censored anything. And Meta always held the cards. It's time to quit invoking inflammatory and false language in describing the role of journalists and fact-checking.” https://www.wired.com/story/metas-fact-checking-partners-blindsided/

We're hiring! Please share with your networks and especially those who would make a great fit for our center! More info here: web.sas.upenn.edu/pcssm/opport... @michaelemann.bsky.social

Is there any work on whether people are more (or less) susceptible to misinformation presented in the form of tik-tok videos than headlines? As a younger millennial/ elder gen z I don't have much trouble discerning headlines, but catch myself accepting info from tik-toks too readily...

what counts as breaking a rule? you might think this q is easy, but people actually integrate signals from morality, legality, punishability, and normativity to figure it out, new preprint w/ @jowylie.bsky.social & dries bostyn osf.io/preprints/ps... #psychscisky #cognition #socpsyc #philsky

Pleased to share the latest version of my paper with Arthur Spirling and @lexipalmer.bsky.social on replication using LMs We show: 1. current applications of LMs in political science research *don't* meet basic standards of reproducibility...

Excellent post on the lack of empirical support for stereotype threat, from someone deeply involved in the research. Also, importantly, "stereotype threat isn't real" != "stereotypes are not threatening." These are very different claims, but the former is often taken to mean the latter.

Very glad to see this out in American Psychologist - Why misinformation should not be ignored. "We demonstrate that the prevalence of misinformation is nonnegligible ... and that misinformation has causal impacts on important beliefs and behaviors." psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...

Two political psych starter packs! Both have been around, but 2 has had a lot more people added. Check them out if you haven’t already 1: go.bsky.app/T2Uc2Bx 2: go.bsky.app/43FXWwj

🚨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...

Moral and political psychologists may want to join this starter pack created by Ryan Bruno!

Moral psychology postdoc opportunity at the University of Toronto! Please repost, and pass on to anyone you think might be interested.

BLUESKY MEGA-THREAD Altmetric is thrilled and also LITERALLY RELIEVED to officially announce: We are now tracking research attention as it happens on Bluesky! We have been picking up posts on the site since late Oct. Our team is on Bluesky all day answering questions. Let's get into it!

There are already many articles for which there is more attention on Bluesky than on other comparable micro-blogging sites, meaning the academic community and the general public have clearly adopted Bluesky as one of its core places to disseminate and discuss new research. A Place of Joy.

Request for Moral Psych folks!! If you’re planning to attend the Morality Preconf @ this year’s SPSP conference & have NOT signed up yet, please DM or email me! The precon is already sold out (!!), and we are trying to gauge interest so that we can push for more space! Thank you! #MoralPsych

A new study found "bypassing" can work better than direct corrections to reduce misinformation's influence on attitudes. Instead of directly correcting false claims, bypassing offers an alternative strategy: focus on positive, truthful statements about the same topic. substack.com/home/post/p-...

New paper out in @ScienceMagazine! In 8 studies (multiple platforms, methods, time periods) we find: misinformation evokes more outrage than trustworthy news, when it does it's shared more + ppl are less likely to read before sharing. w/ @killianmcl1 @Klonick @mollycrockett 🧵👇

New paper suggests economists’ political preferences may influence their writing/work. E.g., Papers on the left imply a higher optimal top tax rate (77%) vs. ones on the right (60%), though note our actual federal top tax rate is just 37%. What should we takeaway? academic.oup.com/ej/article/1...

The rumor is true. I *will* review PhD applications for my lab, newly located at the University of Illinois Chicago! Please apply if you're interested in social identity (with focus on Asian, MENA, Hispanic Americans) and intraminority coalition-conflict. Lab: www.pbandjlab.com (jk there's no rumor)

Mind, Brain & Society: Works in Progress Tues, 11/19, 4:45-6:30 PM Goddard Labs, 200 Using behavior science to bridge the political divide on climate change Diego Reinero, MindCORE Postdoctoral Fellow Pizza and drinks provided @uofpenn.bsky.social @appcpenn.bsky.social @michaelemann.bsky.social

Come hear our Fellow, Diego Reinero, at 4:45 today talking about: Using behavior science to bridge the political divide on climate change. 200 Goddard, with pizza & drinks! @diegoreinero.bsky.social

This article is totally insane; NPR should be ashamed. The headlines and lede give you no indication at all that RFK is a crank whose claims about vaccines are false and threaten public health. Would they write a story saying "Alex Jones wants to inform the public but he faces a lot of pushback"?

Finally made a #Blackademics starter pack! Let continue to build community here. This is part of #Blacksky so please show your appreciation to the architect, @rudyfraser.com

Excited to announce the return of the Moral Psychology pre-conference at #SPSP2025! A crowd-pleaser for over 20 years! We have an incredible lineup of speakers! 🚨Deadline to submit an abstract is tomorrow night (Oct. 17, 11:59pm PT).🚨 Submit here: bit.ly/3NsJiaQ