I’ve been reading Jeremy Bentham on the Panopticon—the circular prison where authorities can see what all the prisoners are doing (the prisoners cannot tell when they’re being monitored). The point of openness is —> surveillance, a hallmark of distrust. It is **designed** to be demotivating.

Paul Feyerabend, Against Method. Prescriptions about how science MUST be done? Simply a bad, authoritarian idea. And based on the history of science, not good for scientific progress. #metasci

I know that #JamesDobson has died, and people have feelings, including ill will. But I want to point you toward Sojourners magazine, which is an excellent antidote to the authoritarian approach to narrow, disapproving Christianity. sojo.net/articles/sor...

I have some good news, and some bad news.

Shai Davidai has pissed a lot of people off, but he’s also been a very productive and interesting social psychologist. It really does seem he’s been pushed out of Columbia for showing up and speaking, which is a reasonable expectation for a professor. www.tabletmag.com/sections/new...

Looking forward to the seminar after this, where Brian Wansink will present on best practices in data management

I know Chicago winter is a huge departure from our usual SPSP locations, but Chicago is worth it!!! There’s so much good food here! Come hang out!

I am privileged to announce the publication of the Anti-Autocracy Handbook: sks.to/autocracy 1/12

"Reporting critical-effect-size values can. . . underscore how the distinction between a significant & nonsignificant result is not determined solely by the presence/absence of a true effect but also by sample size and complexity of the analysis." #metascience journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

The Perspectives on Psych Science Editor has published a provocative editorial. The journal \site has erased the previous editor from history, jumping the editor prior to him. I realize his departure was controversial, but the erasure isn't very transparent. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Engaging with art helps us think in abstract ways, new study says www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/newsree...

Thrilled to have won @nature.com 2025 #ScientistAtWork photo competition! 🧪🐳📷 www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Something to brighten up your Friday😊April's images of the month features a tattooed tardigrade, dazzling auroras and some super-trippy maths illustrations. By me in @nature.com www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

Academic friends, if your NSF grants have been terminated by the administration, FABBS is hosting a webinar Friday about appealing the decisions. It's important that as many people appeal as possible to show we're not accepting this targeting of science. Link to the webinar registration is below.

This short blog post about NC elections is worth it.

Sending lots of support to the NSF and NIH program officers who have been serving the science community in so many ways. Thank you 🙏

The #1 thing faculty can do now is what we're best at--teaching students and doing research. The long game is undergraduate education, and we must play it. Teaching is partly for making good citizens, and this is our duty.

A few years ago, seeing democracy threatened, I wrote a short essay on how science promotes democracy, as a civil institution, as a path to knowledge, as an alternative voice about reality. www.researchgate.net/publication/...

When I was a kid, current events were things that happened elsewhere, far off and never touching our little Republican spot tucked away on the Michigan tundra. Something seems up.

Looking for reviewers for this paper I am editing for PCI RR, but it has been difficult to get a second reviewer. If this is in your area and you would like to support PCI RR please reach out!

I have tariffed the penguins that are on Heard Island and which you were probably assuming did not export goods forgive me they were taking advantage of us so cunning and so cold

It was Trump's Tariff-able, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Revealed preferences theory suggests that Wall Street executives value their ability to call their subordinates gay at approximately 8 trillion dollars

Donald Trump has committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era. Almost everything he said—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was utterly deluded econ.st/3YbbFjq

Attention metascience & AI enthusiasts: SSHRC is offering $140K/2yr postdoc fellowships, and I'd be happy to sponsor someone to work in my lab at UofT. If you're interested in how AI might transform scientific practice (for better or worse), apply by April 8. Let's question everything together.

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard Medical School, was detained at Logan Airport after returning from France and sent to an ICE detention in Louisiana, The Insider reports. A big critic of Putin and the war in Ukraine, she may now be deported to Russia.

Oh.

Chud got his shit rocked by a retired professor in her 70s.

humiliation HOF first ballot

Been hearing concerns about holding SPSP conventions in the USA in the near future. Must acknowledge this reality. 1. It is quite difficult & VERY expensive to move a conference in a 5-yr window. The number of moving parts is legion.

Great thread about the current situation, and who we are.

🏆 Research integrity consultant and image forensics expert @elisabethbik.bsky.social has uncovered fraudulent data in over 7,600 scientific papers and exposed the practices of ‘paper mills’ that produce counterfeit scientific articles. She is honoured with the €200K Individual Award. Congrats!

Large effect comparing sample, newsworthy. "With Trump as President, the country will be: On the right track / On the wrong track" F(1,192)=6,420.8, p<.001, ηp2=.97 Samples compared: Participants in a left-wing non-profit meet-up vs. People in line to attend Trump's inauguration in DC.

Since it apparently needs to be said: As a Jew who works on a university campus, I am safest in a country that protects academic freedom and liberal values of due process of law. Anyone who supports extrajudicial detention of students for "wrong" ideological opinions is not doing it for my safety.

Like a lot of us were saying things like “even Special Government Employees still have to follow conflicts of interests rules” but the White House discovered that the founders included a special exemption for the richest man in the world written in invisible ink

Does anybody else find themselves hearing/singing a little Irving Berlin every time they sign onto this site?

Passing along some "science and democracy" resources. Science helped create democracy, and that science helps sustain democracy. How? I have some sources. A 🧵.

Does the culture you grow up in shape the way you see the world? In a new Psych Review paper, @chazfirestone.bsky.social & I tackle this centuries-old question using the Müller-Lyer illusion as a case study. Come think through one of history's mysteries with us🧵(1/13):

I am looking for a potential master’s student for my Group Dynamics and Social Change Lab! If you are interested, please reach out to me and/or apply for the Lehigh Psychology Graduate Program by March 15! psychology.cas.lehigh.edu/graduate

Just making sure that everyone is aware of this crab that NOAA scientists found

My statement on the Special Counsel’s final report:

Assistant Professor position at San Diego State University – Imperial Valley Campus in Social and/or Developmental Psychology. careers.sdsu.edu/en-us/job/54... Please apply or share with anyone who might be interested. Thanks! #socpsy #socialpsych #socialpsychology

Thread, up+down! The groupthink nature of some (only some) of proposed reforms proposed compels one to run to Feyerabend for relief. If you've not read Against Method, this end-of/beginning-of-year is a great time. Available cheaply or online. It's lovely, funny & fun. monoskop.org/images/7/7e/...

Pre-tenure faculty studying diversity, please apply for the CASBS Institute on Diversity, co-directed by @marycmurphy.bsky.social and me. See Mary's post for more information!

This new Atlantic piece about the rise of blatant misogyny reminds me of @chriscran.bsky.social classic paper (Crandall, Eshelman, & O'Brien, 2002) showing that the expression of prejudice is highly correlated with its social approval. Sexism doesn't go away; it just waits to become acceptable.

Looking for folk from Central/South America to join PSPR as Associate Editor. Modest honorarium, a great career opportunity, and an invitation to impact on the field. Please share! spsp.wufoo.com/forms/spsp-e...