Abstract: we collected and analyzed some data Data availability statement: OR DID WE

Local election manifestos never fail to entertain. We have: - historically bad typesetting - low res spread of someone who looks ~17 (pic doesn't capture how pixelated this really is) - a seeming member of the undead - corbyn endorsing the current mayor despite his electoral fraud conviction 🙃

Social media is no longer social. Most of it is passive viewing of videos and pictures from people we've never met. But we're still studying social media like it's 2010. We've entered the post-social media era — and research needs to catch up. osf.io/preprints/so... preprint w/ Richard Rogers

Good news everyone 🥳 Our (w @vincentab.bsky.social) primer on models as prediction machines (with the marginaleffects package) is finally officially published!> journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

From @mkarhulahti.bsky.social, me, @nballou.bsky.social, and Ivan Ropovik, newly accepted at Collabra: Psychology. This concerns a Nature: Human Behavior publication on the impacts of a Chinese anti-gaming policy. The paper has serious flaws making its results unsupportable. osf.io/preprints/ps...

I’m hiring a PhD student! The candidate will work alongside @zefreeman.bsky.social, who is joining our research group as postdoc. jobs.unibe.ch/job-vacancie...

Me, constructively imploring the authors of yet another moderated mediation paper to rethink their choices [from @veryimportantpeople.dropout.tv - go subscribe to dropout, it's the only subscription I actively enjoy paying for]

I wrote and posted this to Instagram a couple of days ago and it became my most-read poem ever. I’m honored I get to feel big feelings alongside you all. I’m posting it here too and want to use this space more consistently. Hello friends ❤️

New hack: if you're unhappy with a set of findings, simply impersonate the authors and submit a retraction on their behalf ✨ problem solved ✨

Based on sample of Nintendo Switch Online players, it turns out that folks tend to return to games from "when they were 10 years old" when engaging retro games! Latest study that I was thrilled to contribute to, out of @oii.ox.ac.uk: psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

This informational video on enshittification by the Norwegian Consumer Council is absolutely glorious.

🚨New pre-print🚨 osf.io/preprints/ps... What if the relationship between smartphone use and mental health depends not just on specific harmful or beneficial activities, but also on how users transition between activities?

A thesis student is looking at parasocial attachment to generative AI in undergraduate and postgraduate students. The questionnaire will take about 10 minutes. Please pass the study link on to anyone who might be interested. exp.psy.gla.ac.uk/project?para...

How can scientists avoid gaslighting people about digital harms and contribute to solutions — while also maintaining our commitment to following the evidence? New post out with Alan Smith, manager of Community Leadership for @consumerreports.org innovation.consumerreports.org/bad-if-true-...

Today, we presented the main results of the mental health days study 2025 (N = 8.177). Results > In May 2025, Austria implemented a nationwide smartphone-ban at schools > Compared to 2024, smartphone use went down by 30 mins > Life satisfaction went up (5.36 to 5.52) > Depression sank (15% to 12%)

finally got around to reading @tobiasdienlin.com @yesuncomm.bsky.social & @lennertcoenen.bsky.social's "A simple future for media effects research" Such a clear and compelling summary of why we (media researchers, but really any psych-adjacent field) are stuck and how to dig ourselves out

UX complaint of the day: can we please agree to call it "country of citizenship" instead of "nationality" in web forms so I don't have to check every time whether the available option is American/United States or Netherlands/Dutch

So...my undergrad thesis student is doing a quality analysis of studies found in meta-analyses. She identified a few and we contacted the authors to request their effect sizes and other variables for the studies in their papers. Here's what happened: scientiapsychiatrica.com/index.php/Sc...

What an obsequious, toadying, servile, brown-nosing, corrupt little cunt Gianni Infantino is. The FIFA 'peace prize' is the most cringe-worthy, pathetic thing I've ever seen in my life. Football deserves better than this travesty of a ceremony and ruling body.

Incredible interview with the Roblox CEO, immediately combative and somehow in favor of implementing prediction markets for children. I'm generally supportive of their new age assurance safety features, but without independent auditing, my trust remains very low. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/p...

📬 Pub alert Do effects of digital disconnection interventions translate to well-being benefits in *daily life*? Our new ESM study concludes: yes but no... kinda 👽🔋 @klingelhoefer.bsky.social @adrianmeier.bsky.social Out now in Communication Research doi.org/10.1177/0093...

NEW PREPRINT 💡 Together with @dougaparry.bsky.social, I just published a new preprint experimentally examining how specific normative cues on social media shape self-disclosure using an innovative simulation approach. Link: osf.io/preprints/ps... Read on for more information (1/9) 👇

American TV commercials have always been unhinged but I've never felt like so much of a foreigner as this past visit home. Just non-stop sports gambling and pharmaceuticals, on broadcasts like the world series with millions of children watching. A ticking time bomb with a very short fuse.

I love this so much, and will absolutely being using squad_up() instead of group_by() and main_character() instead of pull() from now on, reviewers don't @ me hadley.github.io/genzplyr/

New release of PowerLMM.js! Browser-based power analysis for longitudinal models with dropout. Now includes: - Power analysis summary report - Reproducible & shareable configs (URL/JSON) - Calculations validated against R - Hypothesis region visualization powerlmmjs.rpsychologist.com

I am hiring PhD candidates to study the psychology of attention & technology use at @tilburg-university.bsky.social. We're looking for motivated & curious scholars with expertise in cognitive psychology and statistics, and offer a friendly work environment with great terms & benefits. tiu.nu/22989

As a PhD student, one of my most adaptive habits was doing any <30m task immediately, to clear time for focused work. The problem is, now <30m tasks could fill most work days, but I can't shake the habit - I want the peace of mind before undertaking chunky work. How do other people handle this?

New! Did you know gaming can improve your mental health? Watch @nballou.bsky.social @mentalhealthoii.bsky.social @oii.ox.ac.uk explaining how gaming can lift your mood in this new film from BBC Bitesize. #gaming bit.ly/4pEKWYQ

🚨 New Preprint 🚨 Prolonged Isolation is associated with an increased behavioural sensitivity to ‘Likes’ on social media. 🧵 Social media rewards are inherently social—but does posting change during social isolation, when in-person social rewards are limited? It turns out, yes!

Annoyed by gross/sexist/AI/... slop in mobile game ads? Now is the time to write about it! Submit to @acmgames.bsky.social Special Issue on Game Advertising, submission deadline Oct 31. All details here: dl.acm.org/journal/game...

I wrote a piece for the Guardian games newsletter this week on my PhD research into preserving play experiences, and why I think that the most archaeological games are those that that actually make you *think* like one 🏺 www.theguardian.com/games/2025/s...

We are about a month away from releasing a complete refresh of the OSF user interface. The team has been working on this for a very long time, and we are very excited to be able to share it soon. A preview picture:

To investigate media effects, do we have to think more clearly about time ⌚? Our new publication in the 🎉*Journal of Communication*🎉 investigates how our conceptualizations of time can affect our conclusions: doi.org/10.1093/joc/... (1/6)

Kids These Days...behavior problems aren't changing. In over 418,000 children from nationally-representative samples, child behavior problems are pretty similar as in the 1980s, with most changes being improvements, not declines. Our work led by Zsofia Takacs #psych #phdsky osf.io/63egm_v1/dow...

I strive to be an inbox zero person so email snoozing is a godsend, but there's no worse feeling than receiving an email I didn't want to deal with, snoozed, and promptly forgot about...for the second time.

The amount of cabbage contained in a single cabbage amazes me every time. Like, I understand why people used to havd 8 children because that's how many I'd need to finish one of these damn things

for the first time in its 83-year modern history, the phrase "peer reviews" appeared in today's NYT crossword! (seemingly one of the few science-friendly institutions the US has left.) The singular form has appeared one other time, in 2012. (No screenshot lest I spoil more than one answer)

We have a ✨NEW PREPRINT✨! Using data from the @clscohorts.bsky.social Millennium Cohort Study and linked healthcare records, we tested the association between social media use and psychiatric diagnoses in secondary care in young people in England. This is still a work in progress - feedback welcome!

As a neurologist, I see the term "dopamine" everywhere: dopamine fasting, dopamine hits, dopamine culture. It's become a cultural shorthand for pleasure. But the real story is far more complex and fascinating. Here’s a thread on what we actually know 🧠

@ludowaltman.bsky.social making up for lost time on the visibility of publication reform here by mentioning publish-review-curate models and @metaror.bsky.social - I happily stand (partially) corrected #metascience2025

remarkable to me how much of (my) #sips2025 was about publishing reform, but how totally absent that has been from #metascience2025 (indeed, the very opposite with an elsevier VP joining a keynote panel) go submit to @psych.peercommunityin.org folks!

tiny gripe of the day: why does apple's emoji recommendations think I want to add the literal translation of the word I just wrote? that's the exact opposite of how I use emojis, namely to *add* contextual sentiment. No one ❌ writes ✍️ like 👍 this☝️

I proposed to my girlfriend last weekend, and even managed to slip in a ggplot documenting the 220k+ km we've traveled together over the years! hard to say if it was because of the figure or in spite of it, but she did say yes

New! 13 ways gaming affects your mental health – for better and worse. Latest study from @oii.ox.ac.uk researchers @nballou.bsky.social, @thomashakman.bsky.social, @matti.vuorre.com, rpsychologist.com and @shuhbillskee.bsky.social. Find out more: bit.ly/44hOl7I 1/4

Ever wondered why you love those old video games? A @newscientist.com article covers a new preprint from @nballou.bsky.social, which found that older gamers play more retro titles (from when they were around 10 years old) until they're about 40. Read more: www.newscientist.com/article/2474...

GDC trip report: - 1.5h delay from MDE - could've barely caught connection, but 1h delay at baggage claim - put on standby for flight 9 hours later - standby flight delayed 1.5h, eventually has no space for me - rebooked on flight 14 hours after original - new rebooked flight delayed 2h 🫠🫠🫠🫠

it continues to blow my mind that I have to spend time digging up conference locations or page ranges (sometimes for a paper published in the *very same journal*) that NO 2025 HUMAN WILL EVER USE to find the paper in question. considering starting to put "Dick’s Knob, Georgia" whenever asked.

wrote a bit about an idea I've been chewing on - TheoryHub, a GitHub-like system for psychological models that seeks to make our field as iterative/cumulative as it purports to be. I'm sure others have thought about this, please point me in their direction! nickballou.com/blog/theoryh...

Excited to share our new article, "A Survey Study on Public Attitudes Toward Gaming Disorder", now published in Media and Communication (@CogitatioMaC)! Download it for free here: www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcomm... #OpenAccess