"basic cognitive processes underlying explanatory reasoning give rise to a systematic inherence bias among practicing scientists—a tendency to explain phenomena in terms of their inherent properties rather than external factors" www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I reply here to Mickey Inzlicht’s critique of our assessment of the TMT literature -led by former grad students, Lihan Chen and Rachele Benjamin. We consider the question of how can we best evaluate a literature and, judging from his critique, reach a controversial conclusion.

To be very clear, these kinds of polygenic scores are incredibly shit predictors of individual traits... HT @anjiolina.bsky.social #GATTACA

Short piece in The Conversation about our recent PNAS paper on (even atheists') intuitive preferences for religion! Enjoy & spread as you see fit! theconversation.com/did-humans-e...

Very nice in @pnas.org - people who slept closer to their own culture's norms for sleep duration had better overall health. Sleep duration is more complex than often considered in a strict neuroscientific or biomedical sense. @ChristineOuBC @stevenheine.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Think 8 hours of sleep is the magic number? Research from Dr. @stevenheine.bsky.social included the analysis of over 5,000 people in 20 countries, revealing that the hours of sleep required for good health varies significantly across different cultures. psych.ubc.ca/news/sleep-c...

What’s a healthy amount of sleep? 😴 A new UBC study analyzed sleep data and health outcomes for nearly 5,000 people in 20 countries, which revealed that the hours of sleep required for good health varies significantly across different cultures. Read more: bit.ly/4jEq3JG

"most [psychologists] thought ‘Homo economicus’ (self-interested rationality) poor model human behaviour...split on whether personality largely stable...researchers in evolution/comparative thought theories should focus more on evolution of mental faculties [evo psy]" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excellent critique of childhood development interventions: "The privileged of Global North & South can find solace in the idea they have little responsibility for inequality. If bad childcare & poor brain development are major contributing factors to poverty, then it's parents’ job to overcome it"

I had a great discussion with Kurt and Tim at Behavioral Grooves. The Existential Playbook: How to Make Sense of Your Life behavioralgrooves.com/episode/the-...

New episode (1072), with Dr. Steven Heine (@stevenheine.bsky.social). We talk about his new book, Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times. #psychology #Science YouTube: youtu.be/oQj1VpqU1kQ Podcast: bit.ly/4iWQfOS

I had a great discussion with Ricardo about how people maintain meaningful lives.

Two common findings from sleep research are that 1) short sleep durations predict worse health outcomes, and 2) people from some cultures sleep much less than those from others. Do people from cultures with short sleep durations have worse health outcomes? 🧵

Today "Start Making Sense" was named Book of the Day by the Next Big Idea Club. bookoftheday.nextbigideaclub.com/p/the-world-...

Here's a blogpost I wrote on the ironic challenges that we face from having too many choices in our lives. People tend not to appreciate how much anxiety comes with the responsibility of blazing your own trail. www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/ma...

Thanks Beth for your thoughtful review!

I wrote a piece for Aeon's Psyche Guides on how to find meaning in your life as a buffer against anxiety – psyche.co/guides/how-t... via @aeon.co

Here's a review of Start Making Sense by the Greater Good. Seven Ways to Bring More Meaning to Your Life greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item...

I had a really fun discussion of my book, Start Making Sense, with Kelly Leonard at Second City. www.secondcity.com/network/cate...

I'm thrilled that the @nextbigidea.bsky.social has selected my new book, Start Making Sense, as a monthly must-read! nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/cul...

Nietzsche proclaimed “That which does not kill me makes me stronger.” I write here about how existential psychology has revealed much evidence in support of this. The Curious Relations Between Suffering and Meaning | Psychology Today www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/ma...

Here's a tribute that I wrote for David Lynch. We used his films in our research to reveal how people strive to find meaning in what can seem meaningless. I discuss some of this work in my new book: hachettebookgroup.com/titles/steve...

You can take the DeepSeek out of China but you can’t take the China out of DeepSeek

It’s PUBLICATION DAY!! Very happy to announce the release of my new book, Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help us Build Meaning Lives in Absurd Times. A 🧵 www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/steve...

Thanks so much to Behavioral Scientist for naming my new book, Start Making Sense, as one of the notable book of the year! behavioralscientist.org/behavioral-s...

Got friends into books like The God Delusion, The Righteous Mind, and The WEIRDest People in The World? Try Disbelief, which dives in similar waters! (& at times points out where their evidence is dodgy) Give you & yours the gift of science this year, nerds 📚💙 🧪 www.amazon.com/Disbelief-Or...

New Paper Alert! How can we evaluate the evidential value of a literature? We submitted the published literature on the mortality salience hypothesis (k = 825) to a thorough systematic review consisting of 7 different assessment tools. A 🧵.

👋 Intro 2.0 👋. 💙📚 🧪 When not Science Shitposting™️, I study atheism from a cultural evolution perspective. I also wrote a (kinda shitpostey) book about why humans are a uniquely religious species, and how atheists arise within it. You'll love it, buy 3-7 copies! 🧵👇 www.amazon.com/Disbelief-Or...

Happy to announce that my new book is available for pre-order! Start Making Sense strives to provide the scientific foundation to the pursuit of a meaningful life as an antidote to the absurd times that we’re all living through. www.amazon.com/Start-Making...

osf.io/preprints/ps... Coauthored with Dunigan Folk, Bastiaan Rutjensb, and Michiel Van Elk. 3/3

  They were especially less likely to believe that their existence matters. Conversely, scientific optimism predicted more meaning in life. Some kinds of scientific worldviews appear to have existential costs and we may benefit by being more mindful how we discuss new ideas. 2/3

NEW PAPER ALERT:   We measured the science attitudes of Americans adults and STEM workers. People who held more scientific reductionist attitudes (e.g., “I am comfortable with the idea that the world is just atoms and molecules”) reported lower levels of meaning in life. 1/3

*NEW PREPRINT ALERT*. We compared attitudes towards social chatbots between East Asians and Westerners in 2 studies. osf.io/preprints/ps...  We found that: 1/n

Really pleased to announce that the University of Toronto has an Assistant Professor position in personality/social psychology. Please spread the word! jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

Full draft submitted! - 7 (?) years since first inkling of writing a book - 4 years since first serious progress - a bit over a year of actual writing since first chapter - 14 chapters - 140k words Stay tuned for this bad boy next summer:

Hi everyone, I'm new to Bluesky. I'm a social and cultural psychologist from UBC who is broadly interested in anything related to science, Japan, existentialism, good food, and photography.