We are deeply concerned by reports that military commanders are framing the Iran war as “God’s plan” and invoking Armageddon in official briefings. Service members swear an oath to the Constitution — not to any religion. We are reviewing these reports and will demand accountability.

And, quick plug for Elon University undergraduate student Dani Rudd’s poster on a theoretical approach to thinking about authenticity in human-AI relations. This is Dani’s first #SPSP2026. She was in my Careers in Psychology class last Fall and is looking at PhD programs and lab manager positions!

In the #SPSP2026 symposium she chaired, @abbycassario.bsky.social presented work investigating how attitudes get pulled into the moral domain; while prior explanations have focused on emotions and intra-attitudinal features, she suggested researchers should also consider *inter*-attitude structures.

Interesting research presented by Zarnab Zahoor at #SPSP2026 found that across 9 democracies (7 Christian-majority, 1 Hindu-majority, and 1 Jewish-majority), all samples showed a positive association between religious nationalism and conservatism (this effect was especially pronounced in the U.S.).

No justification, no authorization from Congress, and no clear objective. But none of that matters to Donald Trump — and apparently neither do the safety and lives of American service members.

If you're curious: Yes, of course Trump is at Mar-a-Lago as his unilateral war kicks off. www.pbump.net/o/an-officia...

In the past, sometimes presidents have said it’s just a military operation or limited airstrikes to skirt Congress. Trump has unilaterally launched major combat operations, declaring war with the goal of regime change. A major violation of the U.S. Constitution, also illegal under international law

“Some have even argued that private funding is superior, maintaining that it is more flexible, less prone to groupthink, and reduces the “burden” on taxpayers. But can the private sector really replace public funding? History suggests not” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

At SOTU, Trump claimed that young men were becoming more religious because of Charlie Kirk. There's no evidence they are, and certainly not because of him. So why say it? www.ms.now/opinion/trum...

Is there a revival of churchgoing among US young adults? According to Opt-in online polls: Yes Surveys using random samples of the population: No https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/01/23/has-there-been-a-christian-revival-among-young-adults-in-the-uk-recent-surveys-may-be-misleading/

I have spent the past several months studying the cutting-edge research on modern democracies that have defeated authoritarian leaders. I've learned that the conventional wisdom on the topic is wrong — in ways that have clear implications for the US going forward THREAD www.vox.com/politics/479...

It’s the first year I can remember that I chose not to even try watching the State of the Union.

Attending @spspnews.bsky.social ews.bsky.social in our home city of Chicago this coming week? Be sure to check out the cool work being done by members of our lab, including postdoc @ncaluori.bsky.social, grad students @marykatz.bsky.social & Zarnab Zahoor, and undergrad Yahel Tirosh!

New preprint with @jayvanbavel.bsky.social: Novel social identities shape belief in true and false information In 3 exps (N = 1,459) we randomly assigned people to one of two novel groups. People trusted (and then believed claims more from) their in-group osf.io/preprints/ps... Thread 🧵

PRRI new data: 70% of Christian nationalist adherents approve of concentration camps for immigrants can be held until deportation.

We must speak plainly about the agenda Elon Musk & other MAGA leaders are pushing. It’s white nationalism. There’s no room for Black, Hispanic/Latino, Asian, Native, Jewish or all other Americans in Musk’s monocultural vision. Multiculturalism is superior. We can’t allow Musk & others to end it.

Trump and his goons pushed out (or didn't replace) more than 10,000 federal government STEM Ph.D.s since he took office, representing 106,636 years of federal work experience. www.science.org/content/arti...

Anti-vaccine sentiment is going to kill and impoverish quality of life not only in the U.S., but the world.

📊 Sometimes belonging comes down to a checkbox. Our new paper in PSPB led by Brenda Straka finds that the way Latino identity is formatted on demo forms, especially the traditional two-question census format, can subtly undermine feelings of inclusion and belonging news.illinois.edu/study-demogr...

(Mic check 1-2-3) I'm on the job market🚨 I’m a social psychologist building computational models to study social cognition, attitudes, polarization, and how people update beliefs. Evidence accumulation models, Hierarchical Bayes, Agent-based models, NLP, etc. Interested in formal theorizing!

Postdoc position! Myself and @jordanaxt.bsky.social are seeking applications for a shared post-doctoral researcher at McGill, beginning Fall 2026. Topic area broadly centered on intergroup dynamics, prejudice, discrimination Full description here: hehmanlab.org/ad 1/2

NEW: “CBS Evening News” producer Alicia Hastey sends a bombshell farewell note: Stories are “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations.”

Note the repeated references to fertility and how all women are to blame for declining fertility “because they are getting educated.” He recommends the be sent to “the breeding gulags.” www.mediamatters.org/nick-fuentes...

this is a level of complicity that had not occurred to me

The purpose is to disincentivize investments in vaccine development

Friends from Minneapolis reporting to me that things are at the point where folks are being hidden in other people's houses and we are in the "again" part of "never again" which the "never" was supposed to preclude

About 10 years ago, I set out to better understand the drivers of radicalization and deradicalization into white supremacy. Work from our endeavors is starting to come out, and I am no longer concerned about sharing it. I want to share the findings from one of these studies, published last March. 🧵

2025 #ThrowBackPaper (open access): In (Western) Europe, #Islamophobia is closely linked to #farright attitudes. But both are unrelated to religiosity 📄🔁📊

Blatantly impeachable offenses.

MAGA: “I ain’t watching the halftime show!!!! I’m watching the pro-family TPUSA one headlined by KID ROCK MAGAAA!!!!” Kid Rock song: “ladies, young ladies, I like 'em underage, see. Some say that's statutory (but I say that's mandatory)”

Thrilled to share our latest paper, out now in Science Advances! We explored the development of cooperative behaviors — fairness, trustworthiness, forgiveness, & honesty —  across five societies, culturally contextualizing them & seeing how they correlate. (1/5) www.science.org/doi/full/10....

ICE told nurses this Minneapolis man “purposefully ran headfirst into a brick wall.” What actually happened is that they pulled him from a car, beat him so viciously with a steel baton that he had 8 skull fractures, 5 life-threatening brain hemorrhages, and couldn’t remember he had a daughter.

Today seems like a nice day to re-up @leahchristiani.bsky.social 's excellent research on when white people approve of blatantly racist political messages. Not sure what made me think of it today, but anyway. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

1. It was not an accident. 2. It was not a staffer. 3. While the president may have dementia his racism is not due to dementia. 4. He isn’t sorry. He means every racist thought he shares. 5. His base agrees with him. 6. He will do it again. 7. No one in power will hold him accountable.

Dozens of articles yesterday reported on Trump's rambling, profane remarks at National Prayer Breakfast. But I was only 1 to cover the more dangerous #ChristianNationalist remarks by Pete Hegseth: publicwitness.wordandway.org/p/at-nationa...

A national embarrassment. May our press, congress, and GOP wake up from this fever dream and get us back on track toward responsible governance that protects life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone.

McGill is hiring a faculty lecturer in social psychology, in a (non-adjunct) permanent teaching position. Please consider being my colleague, Montreal is really great: mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

INBOX: Washington Post Ukraine Correspondent Lizzie Johnson announces that she has been laid off in the middle of a below-freezing war zone without power, heat, or running water.

Just out—a piece I wrote a piece for the APS Observer (@psychscience.bsky.social) in which I share recommendations and resources for running a research lab at a small, liberal arts college. I hope it helps others in the same boat! www.psychologicalscience.org/publications...

Floored by this story. A man wrote a pollite email to a federal prosecutor objecting to the deportation of an Afghan seeking asylum. DHS responded with an administrative warrant to get the man's info from Google, then visited his home to intimidate him.

Illinois is joining the World Health Organization's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. I refuse to sit by as Donald Trump undermines science and weakens our nation's ability to detect and respond to global health threats.

Thanks to @sargeinpolipsych.bsky.social for having me and Eric McDaniel on his Circumscription podcast, where we talked about background leading up to this moment in U.S. history, what it might take for change to occur, and what social science can tell us about all of that. Check it out here:

I had such a great time chatting about belief, belonging, and intergroup relations on #ThisisUIC — the official podcast of the University of Illinois Chicago! You can Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at today.uic.edu/podcast/beli...

New and open access, in @psrm.bsky.social: What happens when we make politicians draw distributions? Nic Dias, @jacklucas.bsky.social and I explore whether the large errors politicians make about public opinion are artificially inflated by how researchers ask them to estimate it /1 cup.org/4kltoyE

Please contact Nina if you're interested in working with us! Much of this work is also with @dgrand.bsky.social & @tomcostello.bsky.social, and others! Very fun collaborative environment. And Nina is wonderful to work with!! (She is also the coolest among us, FWIW)

SPSP is just around the corner and in our backyard of Chicago! @lydiaemery.bsky.social and I love the Chicago food scene, and we've put together a list of places we like. We hope this will help you enjoy and explore Chicago!! See y'all soon!! docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Did Trump’s 2024 re-election make it okay to be openly prejudiced? New work from @chriscrandall.bsky.social suggests it did. The more negatively Trump spoke about a group, the more okay it became to express prejudice (and the more prejudiced people were) towards that group after the election.

The administration that spent the first half of 2025 telling us there was nothing wrong with coordinating literally classified war plans on Signal now is saying that it believes it’s a crime to post publicly available information on Signal.

I called my senators today. Did you? Having worked in DC politics, it's easy to think these calls don't matter. I promise, they do! If you can't get through to your senator's D.C. office because the phone lines are jammed, consider calling (or even showing up at) a local office. 5calls.org

Way to go mom (@kathyhirshpasek.bsky.social)! So cool to see her on Good Morning America talking about her newly revised book, Einstein Never Flashcards! The key message for all parents: PLAY. It's not just about fun, but one of the best ways to learn! abcnews.go.com/GMA/Culture/...