New preprint: Empathy, Thick and Thin papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... It is perhaps foolhardy to attempt to say something new about a topic as widely studied as empathy. I tried anyway! 1/

Sometimes, doing research feels truly fulfilling. Working on this paper was one of those moments. doi.org/10.1037/ccp0...

New preprint alert! (1/5)🌟 I’m thrilled to share the preprint of my first first-authored PhD paper! We test whether shared reinforcement functions help explain why adolescents who engage in one self-destructive behavior often engage in others. Summary⬇ osf.io/preprints/ps...

💫 Excited to share new preprint a systematic review & meta-analysis of 123 studies (40k+ ppl) on how well language-based models detect depression from text. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8...

📣🔥Thrilled to announce that 2026 Computational Psychiatry Conference will take place in New Haven, CT, btw July 14-16 - www.cpconf.org @robbrutledge.bsky.social @drrickadams.bsky.social @tobiasuhauser.bsky.social @docqhuys.bsky.social @clairegillan.bsky.social Sonia Bishop More info to come soon!

Although most of my photos right now are of State College autumn, here's Happy Valley from the sky this August. It was awe-inspiring to get this view. So, come join us here! I'll be recruiting a graduate student to the Empathy & Moral Psychology (EMP) Lab during this cycle, to start in fall 2026.

delighted to see this published 🙌 using EMA, we (with @roryoc.bsky.social) investigated suicidal ideation in daily life. we found that it arises from an interaction of within-person increases in loneliness and an individual’s level of personality functioning psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Thrilled to share a new paper in @jamapsychiatry.com on path asymmetry in complex dynamic systems of psychopathology! jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... With amazing collaborators @tfblanken.bsky.social, Han van der Maas, & Denny Borsboom 🥳

1: In 2023, I wrote this paper arguing that research on active ingredients of CBT, and by extension on their mechanisms, is not close to improving therapy outcomes. I just read a paper on inhibitory learning improving outcomes of exposure. Egg on my face? www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New paper led by Nele Assmann, in which we used causal forests to test the heterogeneity of treatment effects of Schema Therapy vs. DBT for severe Borderline Personality Disorder.

Interesting new special issue in Psychological Assessment. Edited by Kristin Naragon-Gainey and @kstanton.bsky.social Here's their overview paper: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-... And here's our contribution, which will win us no friends: psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...

Thanks to @bbrfoundation.bsky.social for highlighting our lab's study (led by @hadarfisher.bsky.social & @nigeljaffe.bsky.social) using📱smartphone sensors + LLM-derived text ratings to track behavioral activation and symptom change in teens with anhedonia. bbrfoundation.org/content/smar...

We built the openESM database: ▶️60 openly available experience sampling datasets (16K+ participants, 740K+ obs.) in one place ▶️Harmonized (meta-)data, fully open-source software ▶️Filter & search all data, simply download via R/Python Find out more: 🌐 openesmdata.org 📝 doi.org/10.31234/osf...

Here are two "I can't believe these are free" online stats texts books that cover both underlying principles and practical applications in R that I regularly refer to. Learning Statistics with R learningstatisticswithr.com Doing Meta-Analysis with R bookdown.org/MathiasHarre...

Now out in NPP – Digital Psychiatry and Neuroscience! 📱🧠 Can LLMs and smartphone sensing help us track therapy progress in real time?

🆕 study by @hadarfisher.bsky.social @nigeljaffe.bsky.social @diegopizzagalli.bsky.social @christianwebb.bsky.social tested whether smartphone mobility sensing & LLM ratings of text can track behavioral activation in teens to boost engagement in rewarding activities www.nature.com/articles/s44...

In 2018, Charles Murray challenged me to a bet: "We will understand IQ genetically—I think most of the picture will have been filled in by 2025—there will still be blanks—but we’ll know basically what’s going on." It's now 2025, and I claim a win. I write about it in The Atlantic.

Congrats to CHM Core Faculty member Simon Goldberg and Founder/Director Dr. Richard J. Davidson on receiving a $2.8M grant from National Institutes of Mental Health to support their research on digital interventions for mental health interventions! @sgoldbergphd.bsky.social @d3center.bsky.social

Had a great time presenting my poster exploring people's thoughts & feelings about death w/ #BERTopic this evening at the Society for Research in Psychopathology Annual Meeting! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to chat– it was wonderful learning more about others' work and nerding out! 💀🪦 #SRP2025

Why We're Like This Ep. 1: Shannon Sauer-Zavala on how to be less neurotic open.substack.com/pub/olgakhaz...

The lab has been doing some cool work around basic affect regulation processes and their links to substance use. This paper was just accepted at JSAD. OSF has the pre-print, pre-reg, codebooks, and analysis files here: osf.io/ha58c/ Paper is here: www.jsad.com/doi/abs/10.1...

Two new preprints on multilevel HMMs! Time series data is now pervasive in psychology and new methods are needed to model the dynamics in such data. Hidden Markov Models (HHMs) are powerful models for dynamics in which a system is switching between a number of discrete states.

Postdoc with us in Columbus! 🌰 I'm pumped to recruit a 1-2 year postdoc working on: - mechanisms of change in treatment - treatment personalization - emotion reg With a breakdown of: 50% research 30% treatment 20% mentorship/collaboration/conferences osu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/OSUCareers/j...

Year 2 of Temple's Demystifying Graduate Applications Event!

📱EMA is increasingly used in intervention studies to acquire a more fine-grained and ecologically valid assessment of change. But EMA is relatively burdensome. What's the added value? We tried to address this question in our new paper now out @jmirpub.bsky.social www.jmir.org/2025/1/e69297 1/n

Now on CRAN, the apa7 package extends @davidgohel.bsky.social's flextable to get the finicky details of APA style right with minimal fuss, even in tables, even in .docx. #rstats wjschne.github.io/apa7/

In a new paper, my colleagues and I set out to demonstrate how method biases can create spurious findings in relationship science, by using a seemingly meaningless scale (e.g., "My relationship has very good Saturn") to predict relationship outcomes. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Machine learning can identify which adolescents are more likely to benefit from SBMT vs. TAU. This may point to a path toward precision prevention in schools. Next step: prospective trials testing whether algorithm-guided intervention assignment improves outcomes. 4/n

🚨 New research alert We applied machine learning to the large MYRIAD trial (84 schools and 8,376 UK teens) to ask: 👉 Which adolescents benefit most from mindfulness delivered in schools? Bottom line: One-size-fits-all doesn’t work. Paper link: tinyurl.com/vvpvfunh 1/n

Deep diving the newest from @jamesmcmurtry.bsky.social The Black Dog and the Wandering Boy. It is really, really good. A true wordsmith. Builds great characters. Tells bold truths. Writes about getting old. I'll put him up against Prine, Clark, Van Zant, Earle.... Give a listen. Catch him live.

Potential grad applicants: I'm hoping to take 1-2 new students this cycle! There's no need to email me in advance unless you have specific questions that aren't answered on the lab or psych department's website - everyone's applications will be considered equally. u.osu.edu/mattlab/2025...

(1/6) New pre-print alert! 🤩🚨 We provide new evidence for contra-hedonic functions of NSSI & ED behaviors in adolescents. See 🧵 for a brief summary 👇 osf.io/preprints/ps...

Excellent new paper spearheaded by lab member @hadarfisher.bsky.social finding that emotion rigidity (assessed via EMA) in youth predicts future depressive symptoms over a 2 year follow-up.

🚨New paper on emotion rigidity as a risk factor for future depression out in BRAT! Thank you to @christianwebb.bsky.social @diegopizzagalli.bsky.social and the awesome teddylab team @nigeljaffe.bsky.social, KristinaPidvirny, and Anna Tierney 🙌 Free 50d access: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lRqe1KMdl...

🧠📱Excited to share our invited commentary in @jamanetworkopen.com on the promise and pitfalls of using smartphones (and wearables) to track psychopathology w/ @hadarfisher.bsky.social and linked to excellent paper by @whitneyringwald.bsky.social, @aidangcw.bsky.social & team. tinyurl.com/5n8z4r6e

📱 Want to know when to schedule your #EMA / #ESM beeps for the highest completion rates? ⏰ Timing matters: some moments during the day and week are more receptive than others. See: link.springer.com/article/10.3...

BREAKING: A federal judge reversed National Institutes of Health's terminations of hundreds of critical research grants that were canceled because of their alleged connection to disfavored topics, including diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender identity. This is a major win for public health.

Both LLM-derived activation (daily texts) and passive sensing features (places visited ↑, time at home ↓) correlated significantly with self-reported activation —supporting their convergent validity.

While LLM ratings predicted immediate daily emotional changes (more positive, less negative affect), passive sensors (places visited (↑), time at home(↓))predicted weekly improvements in depression and anhedonia.

New paper from the lab testing whether passive📱smartphone data (like GPS and activity levels) and LLMs applied to teen texts can help us objectively measure behavioral change during behavioral activation therapy (led by @hadarfisher.bsky.social and @nigeljaffe.bsky.social). osf.io/preprints/ps...

Very excited about this new preprint, and grateful to our team!

Can we track therapeutic change outside the clinic? In a new preprint, we explored whether digital tools - smartphone passive sensors📱 and LLM (GPT-4o) 🤖 - can track daily-life activation in adolescents with anhedonia receiving Behavioral Activation. osf.io/preprints/ps...

And I’m one of them 🥹

🚨 Now out in Emotion! 🚨 📄 psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-... Grateful to all collaborators 🙏

Exclusive: Confusion over new DEI language from NSF and NIH leads Williams College to be first institution to pause accepting any grants www.science.org/content/arti...

I’m writing a book for general readers presenting new scientific and philosophical approaches that reshape our understanding of mental disorders, and it will be published by Harvard University Press

Care about suicide research? Then you should care about how we measure suicide-related constructs! Very proud to share this viewpoint led by @kirstenchristensen.bsky.social, recently accepted at J Psychopathology and Clinical Science 🥳 osf.io/preprints/ps...

🚨New Postdoc Opportunity We have an opening for a postdoc jointly mentored by Justin Baker and me for work on digital therapeutics and passive sensing using smartphones and wearables (smartwatches + smart rings). More info 👉: webbslab.com/job-postings Please RT & share!

My opinion piece in today’s @nytimes.com . I discuss how clinical neglect of medication-related harms has made RFK Jr’s stance on antidepressants appealing to so many and moving the public conversation in a productive direction requires us to remedy this neglect. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/o...