Instead, the academic publication system serves as a way for academics (primarily, though also other researchers to a lesser extent) to produce currency (articles) with which to buy things that matter to them. Think tenure, grants, speaking engagements, influence, etc. 4/N

1/3 This week has been exhausting. NIH staff are trying to thread a needle with a vanishingly small eye to generate performance evaluation criteria. Because of course they have to change so no one can be rated as “Outstanding”.

I have plenty of reservations about the reliability of funnel-plots and z-curves and such, as well as their interpretation..... But holy shit look at that.

Middle school is so critical for the emergence of gender differences in identity and sense of belonging - now let’s do leadership!

The most important thing to me about my review of this week's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is that I cite Tom Spurgeon in it by name. AKOTSK is a decency fantasy, a term Tom coined—a heroic narrative that puts kindness, cooperation, competence and fundamental humanity above all else. (Gift link)

Need a mood boost? Watch the Pacific Northwest Ballet celebrate the Seattle Seahawks being in the Super Bowl

OK, another question from my 6 year old. If there are any dog psychologists, or animal behavior folks around. (And personally I kind of love this question.) Do dogs know that they are dogs?

Yes and no. A DAG helps communicate your assumptions about the relationships between variables to readers. Readers can decide if your assumptions are reasonable. But your job as well is to ensure your assumptions are reasonable.

This is Emily. She is 6 and a half. She just discovered I'm a scientist. Immediately upon learning this, she asked if I knew any "Black Hole" scientists, and if I did, could I ask this question. So, from Emily: Can black holes swallow other black holes?

Whenever you see a story about how liberals aren't making their conservative peers feel welcome enough, this is who they're talking about.

Academics vying for a spot in Epstein‘s world. There are so many. I feel the need to make a thread, so I don’t keep confusing them. 1/

Whole thing is like a rogues gallery of people who used to try to fire me when I was at science for making the magazine ‘woke’

Pay attention to this. The purpose of these investigations is not just to manufacture evidence to support Trump’s 2020 “voter fraud” accusations, but also to set the stage for another round of efforts to suppress votes and delegitimize election results in 2026 (which the GOP is likely to lose).

An entire community of thousands, here legally, having been demonized with deranged lies about eating pets, is about to be arbitrarily DECLARED illegal so they can be forcibly ethnically cleansed. I don’t want to hear one more fucking word about comparisons to Nazi Germany being overwrought.

What happens when you skip the measurement groundwork and jump right into running "real studies", exhibit 7693782

So infuriating. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

Supremely talented doctoral student Halle Fowler is hoping to put together an ABCT panel related to Deaf and Hard of Hearing suicide prevention or mental health. We have multiple qualitative and quantitative studies on DHH interpretation in mental health settings. We need help finding panelists!

If they can’t blame the victim, they move on to blaming the community, city, state. It’s a classic framing contest and they’re working within group to find a strategic frame that their audiences can use to place blame on the other side for atrocities their eyes (on the video evidence) can’t deny.

Time to learn how Seattle’s grid address system works if you don’t already. Ave: runs N-S. St. Runs E-W. Addresses are based on cross street. www.seattle.gov/images/CityA...

🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year. That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027. A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications. A short 🧵

I just created a series of seven deep-dive videos about AI, which I've posted to youtube and now here. 😊 Targeted to laypeople, they explore how LLMs work, what they can do, and what impacts they have on learning, well-being, disinformation, the workplace, the economy, and the environment.

NEW: Six SPS schools sheltered in place today after credible reports about ICE spotted near campuses in the South End. A procedure developed to protect students against armed threats now has to be used to protect them against the armed federal government.

If our theories have to do with people's daily experience then we really need to know how well we're measuring daily experience. So we need more of what Kevin's team is doing here! Just because your item has the right words in it doesn't mean you know what it measures, or how well.

I kept reading EMA studies claiming to test etiological theories of AUD, but I realized they never actually measured how people experience AUD in their daily lives. So we set out to see what we could learn with existing data. 1/19 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Great read on some basic ideas in psychometrics. This quote was great, and reminded me of a stress induction that @jonasdora.bsky.social used. People told to think of a mild stressor reported everything from being cut off in traffic to a home invasion that caused them to move!

"we don't want people thinking Democrats are for open borders" I am! who gives a shit!!! my life has been immeasurably improved by the presence of immigrants in my community, regardless of their status, there is literally no downside there! why would I give a shit!!!!

They are canceling youth sports across the city in Minneapolis this weekend because lawless masked armed federal paramilitaries are targeting the children and families.

POKEMON WAR THESIS: "I choose you!" = Battle cry/provocation Plot = What characters do with settings Plot twists = Evolutions PTSD = Plot Twists Shift Timelines Hedgehog & Porcupine = Same Pokemon Americans = Hedgehogs trapped in stupid little bubbles until...

In other words it's definitely about iPhones.

ICE keeps saying the people protesting it are being paid without any evidence, but we have receipts showing that the people *defending* ICE are absolutely being paid. And yet we only hear lies about the former on cable news.

Devastating. This administration is staffed with ghouls who don't care a whit about the American people.

A Senate committee is holding a bogus hearing today based on junk science about the abortion pill mifepristone, a safe and effective medication that's the most common form of abortion. This hearing isn't about science — it's about laying the groundwork for banning medication abortion nationwide.

Multiyear funding q. Volkow confirms 50% time. Very concerned. Especially for younger investigators. Nothing about how NIDA Blew it off last year. Koob- dramatic cut to success rate. Mentions 36% hit but unclear on what he meant.

hey European hivemind, I need some help...PhD students here, especially foreign ones, are feeling a lot of concern related to evolving immigration restrictions here. Those students are increasingly looking to postdocs in EU. To help advise them better, what are expectations for postdocs? 1/2

Some adventures in bagel making bring me a little joy in these grim times..

Okay, I've been bullied into it. The 1st Minnesota did indeed make a desperate, heroic charge on July 2nd that wiped out 3/4 or so of the men who made the charge. It's a wonderful story. I'll tell it in a bit. They did indeed capture a Confederate flag that Minnesota refuses to return. BUT.

This is Portland, Oregon, for those who were wondering. Here's a news update: www.opb.org/article/2026...

There's a lot happening. Please be careful to avoid spreading misinformation as stories develop. And be safe out there, folks.

Anyone who has read Copaganda knows that we are in the crucial early moments of virality after an extra-judicial police murder. It's extremely important for ICE that the media plays along with the idea that what happened is contested and there are multiple perspectives.

I can pretty clearly say that there's no evidence that the social connection benefits of drinking do not outweigh the health concerns of drinking. And there's no evidence that geographic/national differences in drinking are systematic or related to health concerns.

Every time I talked to other people with my complaints about behavioral task measures of impulsivity, I heard "Oh yeah, we tried those in our last data collection and we couldn't find anything." I heard it so many times. And the bullshitters convince the rest of us we're doing it wrong somehow.

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.

Postdoctoral positions: Our team at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public is accepting applications for up to two postdoc positions, starting in Fall 2026. Priority deadline is Jan 15. If you know someone who might be interested, let them know!

Claudenfreude: the feeling you get when someone gets busted for using AI when they shouldn’t h/t @ssweatt.bsky.social for coining it

Join me in congratulating @miriforbes.bsky.social for this recognition of her exceptional work! Huge honor well deserved!

For families like ours — who have a kid moving into middle school / high school — thought I’d reshare these science-backed tips on how to study and learn more effectively. Good luck, everyone! #EduSky #PsychSciSky #scicomm

Great takes on cooking sites. ATK and Serious Eats are my go tos One exception is that the King Arthur Flour website has the best recipes for almost anything baked. Bar none.

This one is resonating today. #Andor