Are you applying for one of our @cam.ac.uk summer schools? Don't forget that applications for all University of Cambridge programmes close tomorrow. 🚨 summerschools.suttontrust.com/university-p...

Fascinated though not surprised to see a slow but steady decline in the number of US citizens using any form of social media - especially given all the research that shows people think it’s full of toxic horrible content that makes them feel bad about the world.

Fascinated though not surprised to see a slow but steady decline in the number of US citizens using any form of social media - especially given all the research that shows people think it’s full of toxic horrible content that makes them feel bad about the world.

Research finds that people overestimate how many social media users post harmful content--which makes us think the world is worse than it really is. academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

New planet just dropped and it 1) is almost exactly Earth-sized 2) has a year that's almost exactly 1 Earth year. 3) orbits a star that is not a 💢temperamental little shit M-dwarf 💢but is instead a 🧡 good orange boi 🧡 Me for @science.org based on results presented at #RockyWorlds4: 🔭🧪

Making tests option is a bad idea. New research finds that "test score optional policies harm the likelihood of elite college admission for high achieving applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds" www.nber.org/papers/w33389

Fascinating. A proper AI assistant really appeals to me for the convenience, but also, what does it mean to give your health records to an AI company? open.substack.com/pub/theglp1w...

Writing is thinking Outsourcing the entire task of writing to LLMs will deprive us of the essential creative task of interpreting our findings and generating a deeper theoretical understanding of the world.

"An actuarial review of key #climate change assumptions shows we may have seriously underestimated the rate of warming as well as the related economic impacts. Unless we rapidly change course, climate damages will start to impact growth & future prosperity" #ClimateEmergency

Debate about London is obscured by the false binaries both sides put on it. Best on it is @jburnmurdoch.ft.com who shows it is both case violent crime down (an undisputed good) & crimes of disorder (shop lifting, snatching) up which affects/is visible to more but far less devastating consequences

In this preprint, we (@ruettenauer.bsky.social, David Kretschmer and I) ask and address two questions: (i) How does immigrant-native #segregation vary across urban areas in Europe? (ii) Which urban area- and country-level characteristics are consistently linked to segregation? Check it out ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Free webinar hosted by @relondon.bsky.social for local authorities, businesses, landlords, charities and others wanting support with how to help their communities transition to a low carbon, circular economy. Wednesday 28th Jan 11:30-1pm Register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ab6d56...

Free webinar hosted by @relondon.bsky.social for local authorities, businesses, landlords, charities and others wanting support with how to help their communities transition to a low carbon, circular economy. Wednesday 28th Jan 11:30-1pm Register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ab6d56...

This was quick and worth doing!

Large Language models pose an existential threat to online survey research www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... An AI can now evade a comprehensive suite of data quality checks, achieving a 99.8% pass rate on 6,000 trials of standard attention checks.

Why it’s often a very bad argument to say “oh but X only represents a small % of the total, so it doesn’t really matter.” Eg energy use. Aside from the top 10, most countries each only take up around 1% or less of global energy. If we ignored each of them, we’d ignore a third of total energy use!

Why it’s often a very bad argument to say “oh but X only represents a small % of the total, so it doesn’t really matter.” Eg energy use. Aside from the top 10, most countries each only take up around 1% or less of global energy. If we ignored each of them, we’d ignore a third of total energy use!

Here's a suggestion for a New Year's resolution: If you see influential bad research, say something. One part of the whole replication crisis story is that a lot of psychological researchers privately knew that a lot of stuff was bad, but it wasn't discussed publicly.

I appear to be biologically immune to reality tv. Maybe someone should study me and create a vaccine.

Why do we call people data scientists if all science is data driven? Feels like a weird corporate thing to me.

Conventional aviation fuel watch out, SAF is coming for you!

Record temperatures of almost 20C were reached in Iceland on Christmas Eve, the local meteorological office has confirmed. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

I’m experimenting with ways to help people build their statistics / research skills. Here’s my first attempt to tackle the over-reliance on single studies. What do you think? Does it work?

I’m experimenting with ways to help people build their statistics / research skills. Here’s my first attempt to tackle the over-reliance on single studies. What do you think? Does it work?

Why are we coding pro environmental content as left wing and not right wing? Plenty of people across both the right and left wing will identify as pro environment, even if they don’t agree on everything. Also not all conservatives will be anti abortion etc.

This sort of coding just reinforces polarisation and tribalism. There’s got to be a more objective, impartial way to do this type of analysis.

Why are we coding pro environmental content as left wing and not right wing? Plenty of people across both the right and left wing will identify as pro environment, even if they don’t agree on everything. Also not all conservatives will be anti abortion etc.

Estimating the value of face coverings during the COVID-19 epidemic: a dynamic causal modelling study New from @globalhlthtwit.bsky.social of @independentsage.bsky.social bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/bmjp...

My year-end reflections on science doplomacy out today! Thx Jon @psychmag.bsky.social for the platform to share my @ukri.org Policy Fellowship exp + what it means to be a #psychologist today! @ioe.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk @royalsociety.org @uclpolicylab.bsky.social @ucl-ioe-phd.bsky.social

Cute but evil

Great article. As a side point, I always find it amusing to see “PhDs” used as AI benchmarks as in headlines of the form “X AI model can now outperform biology/law/neuroscience PhDs”. Does that mean they haven’t tested them against the professors or it hasn’t quite got there yet?

This is so interesting- I also read years ago that one of the biggest drivers of energy usage was the invention and mass installation of central heating and AC. So many unintended consequences from technological progress - even ones we now take for granted.

“We have these buildings, we can’t knock ‘em down – what we could do is make them work with us,” said Reverend Annie Blyth, describing how churches and other old stone buildings could be used as refuges during heatwaves. www.thereengineer.pro/p/churches-s...

“It’s the forums and people online, that’s what’s made the difference to me,” @imhelenj.bsky.social told me, about her battles to sort out an inefficient heat pump. “Without that, I would still be in the dark and probably really struggling.” www.thereengineer.pro/p/an-interne...

“When AC was developed […] all the shading systems were removed. People thought, ‘We have AC, we don’t need shading anymore’ – but it’s a shame.” – designer Clément Gaillard on why shutters and awnings are still useful. www.thereengineer.pro/p/the-big-co...

I've heard academics advise their students to carefully check their reference lists after using ChatGPT, to make sure they haven't included any made-up papers My advice is to not cite any papers you haven't actually read

Interested in learning about the importance of university admissions in youth transitions and social mobility? 👩‍🎓📚 Join us in person for a research showcase with @adruk.bsky.social 🕕Tuesday 6th January, 10.30am-4pm 📍Department for Education, London Register: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/using-ucas...

We should just use standardized test scores + grades to admit students into college. Everything else is way too easy to game, allowing the extremely rich to dominate access to prestigious colleges. www.nytimes.com/interactive/... I've been saying this for a long time, but the data makes it clear.

A tiny minority of highly active users produce the majority of online political content, while most users consume content passively and remain largely silent. Toxic comments are more likely to be expressed, even though most people disagree with them, creating false norms. osf.io/preprints/so...

The Explorer is live. It’s free. And it’s built to help anyone — from investors to practitioners to community leaders — focus on the solutions that matter most. 👉 Explore today: www.drawdown.org/explorer @globalecoguy.bsky.social #DrawdownExplorer #ClimateSolutions #ProjectDrawdown

Re-reading this review of wellbeing effects of music events for something I'm working on, and it's a key reading for my project student and crowd behaviour students this term journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Free webinar led by myself & Holly Marquez on how organisations can mitigate the “hidden” risks of AI: the risks you don’t spot until it’s too late. Join us on Monday 24th November 10am here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... Thanks to our hosts @susanmichie.bsky.social @behaviourresuk.bsky.social

Beware the Funhouse Mirror: How Social Media Misleads Us about Public Opinion I gave a talk to the @nationalacademies.org last week about how social media fuels misperceptions and false polarization. You can watch it for free here: www.nationalacademies.org/event/45948_...

Full paper by @mmosleh.bsky.social and colleagues here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Amazing new paper analysed 10 million news posts on 7 social media platforms in January 2024 - they found that most content posted is high quality and politically moderate, including on Twitter/X. The problem is that engagement is much higher for the relatively small portion of low quality content.

Amazing new paper analysed 10 million news posts on 7 social media platforms in January 2024 - they found that most content posted is high quality and politically moderate, including on Twitter/X. The problem is that engagement is much higher for the relatively small portion of low quality content.

Write for us! Here are 26 ideas of articles we'd like to commission. www.worksinprogress.news/p/more-artic...

Social media is a funhouse mirror. I gave a talk yesterday at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine about how social media distorts our perceptions. It's not a mirror, it’s a false polarization machine where the most extreme voices on any issue dominate the conversation.