The Publications and Communications Board of the American Psychological Association and the Society for the Science of Motivation has opened nominations for the editorship of Motivation Science, a multidisciplinary journal that publishes significant contributions to the study of motivation.

Very problematic beer taste?!

People are lazy--except when they're watching other people work hard. My student Emily Zohar just published her first first-authored paper, and it reveals something surprising about effort and social norms. /1 osf.io/preprints/ps...

I don't usually write grateful posts, but I wanted to thank the people who shaped my career: from my PhD advisor who taught me to write, to the student who taught me courage. New post!

New chapter with @dcameron.bsky.social, Martina Orlandi, and @minzlicht.bsky.social: osf.io/preprints/ps... In this chapter, we argue that instead of debating whether human or AI empathy is superior overall, it is more useful to focus on the distinct trade-offs that each source of empathy offers.

New chapter preprint, led by my graduate student @jdweng.bsky.social -- "What so special about human empathy? Examining AI empathy and its trade-offs". A fun collaboration with @minzlicht.bsky.social and philosopher Martina Orlandi. Considering tradeoffs for *both* is critical to understanding

It would be wrong to say I'm against the idea of cognitive fatigue having an entirely metabolic basis (it's a simpler explanation!), but there are empirical and theoretical hurdles these theories must address before they're (re)adopted as working hypotheses. We don't need a sequel to ego-depletion

A reply to our letter (@minzlicht.bsky.social and I) questioning the need for metabolic costs to explain control induced cognitive fatigue. I worry we're talking past each other here. We're not denying that cognitive fatigue has a metabolic basis (I'm not a dualist) 1/N

Finally, someone has solved a real problem with AI! No more having to take a paper in the format for a journal that rejected you, and reformat it for a new journal. Well done!! formatmypaper.com

I'm republishing my most controversial essay: defending drinking culture in academia. Colleagues got mad. One journal editor loved it. Online reactions ranged from "fascinating" to demands for retraction. Now it's free to read.

🚨New WP!🚨 Structured AI Dialogues Can Increase Happiness and Meaning in Life In a preregistered RCT, four psychology-grounded #AI chatbots improved well-being across several outcomes. Co-authors: Jonas Schoene, Johannes Eichstaedt, Aadesh Salecha, Sonja Lyubomirsky 🧵👇

Can AI be a friend? At the third Technophilosophy Soirée, led by @karinavold.bsky.social, SRI brought together scholars to ask how AI companionship is changing the way we connect, empathize and understand each other. 🎥→ tinyurl.com/ys4wdzeb #AIethics @minzlicht.bsky.social @uoftethics.bsky.social

53 posts, one sabbatical, and five dead psychological theories later: reflecting on a year of Speak Now Regret Later. Also 40% off annual subs through October because apparently I enjoy controversy.

Thread on a bunch of my issues with "cognition" and "cognitive" talk in the Mind Sciences.

New review! We synthesized literature on empathic AI: AI-generated emotional support is rated higher than human responses, but people's knowledge of the source shapes their perceptions. W/ @desmond-ong.bsky.social @amit-goldenberg.bsky.social @anatperry.bsky.social osf.io/preprints/ps...

What happens when the data say no, but our feelings say yes? From stereotype threat to implicit bias, psychology keeps choosing vibes over evidence. Maybe the data was just decoration?

It's publication day! Check out this thread for a summary of our new paper ❝Delegation to AI can increase unethical behaviour❞ Lots of love and labor got into this paper and I'm thrilled to see it out in the wild today

I've been shushed my entire life—in Starbucks, by strangers, even by my own wife. But maybe the problem isn't that I'm loud. Maybe it's that we automatically assume quiet is virtuous. Am I the asshole? You tell me.

Just found out that I am the 2025 recipient of the Diener Award in Social Psychology from SPSP. I couldn’t have done it without my mentors (official and otherwise), students, and collaborators. I'm proud of this, but mostly just grateful I get to do work I love.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.” It costs a lot less to house people.

New paper! Different to my usual schtick concerning cognitive costs. We analysed differences in learning between depressed and healthy students and whether Pavlovian biases differed between them. We found mixed evidence... have a read! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In a new paper, my colleagues and I set out to demonstrate how method biases can create spurious findings in relationship science, by using a seemingly meaningless scale (e.g., "My relationship has very good Saturn") to predict relationship outcomes. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Major new paper by finds implicit measures like the IAT are no better than asking people directly about their biases. After decades of avoiding self-reports, turns out our sophisticated replacement tools work no better than what we abandoned. New post!

Exciting news! I'll be working with the Center for Digital Thriving @digitalthriving.bsky.social as a fellow to develop an intervention aimed at improving the well-being of youth on social media. The intervention will train youth to engage skilfully with emotions on their feed using wise empathy.

Universities have writing centers but no public speaking centers. We just throw academics on stage and hope for the best. New post breaks down 10 ways to connect with your audience and actually enjoy giving talks (yes, it's possible).

Online Now: Are metabolic costs needed to explain cognitive fatigue?

My Globe and Mail opinion piece on the attack this week at our local “kosher Loblaws.” It is now being investigated as a hate motivated crime. I reflect on what it now means to go grocery shopping while Jewish in Canada in 2025. www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/bc5ccfd...

The far left hates Jews for being “white colonizers.” The far right hates Jews for not being white enough. Antisemitism comes from all sides, and it must be condemned every single time. This poster, seen in Maine, is shocking and must never be normalized. Never again.

"The framework requires a commitment to actively fighting racism; choosing to be simply 'non-prejudiced' or 'non-racist' can unintentionally support passive racism." (Inzlicht, 2025) #EduSky #PsychSciSky #Psychology #PsychSky #SocialPsych #SocialPsychology #AcademicSky

Interesting research finding: when trying to reduce prejudice, the how matters as much as the what. Coercive approaches can sometimes backfire. New post exploring the psychology of persuasion and a frustrating academic story.

Adam Raine, 16, died from suicide in April after months on ChatGPT discussing plans to end his life. His parents have filed the first known case against OpenAI for wrongful death. Overwhelming at times to work on this story, but here it is. My latest on AI chatbots: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/t...

I set out to learn pickleball and accidentally discovered what diversity workshops wish they could create. 84-year-old widowers, Vietnamese mothers, recovering alcoholics all united by willingness to look ridiculous chasing plastic balls. Sometimes the joke is the point.

Time to confess and unburden. A reader chose love over studying in France, then got dumped 2 years later. Another confesses to creating a vicious echo chamber during online debates. Plus me having no regrets about a recent post that cost me readers.

Does cognitive fatigue require metabolic explanations? @jakeembrey.bsky.social and I argue the evidence is pretty thin. Computational & motivational theories may be sufficient without invoking depleting brain glucose or accumulating neurotoxins like glutamate. New commentary, in press at TiCS

We can probably laugh away claims that AI is evil or racist and such like, but there are others that merit being taken more seriously. @minzlicht.bsky.social rounds up the AI takes that worry him and those that don’t: buff.ly/tQS3Gfg

Hot take: Using AI to write your college essay might be BETTER for the environment than writing it yourself. But AI that enables your worst impulses while degrading critical thinking? I mind, man! The Dude minds. New essay sorting AI wheat from chaff.

Beautiful essay by an 81-year old clinical psychologist. "ChatGPT may not understand, but it made understanding possible. More than anything, it offered steadiness. And for someone who spent a life helping others hold their thoughts, that steadiness mattered more than I ever expected."

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.

Effort feels bad. We dodge it, minimize it, complain about it. But we also crave it. In our new paper, we revisit the effort paradox and show why the aversion and the attraction make sense. With @aidanvcampbell.bsky.social & @blairsaunders.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Last week I declared terror management theory dead and accused my friend Steve Heine of motivated reasoning. Steve responded like the mensch he is with a solid rebuttal instead of blocking me. Read his guest post and tell us both who you think is right in the comments!

This new AESP chapter piqued my interest. As someone studying procrastination, I can see why effort is avoided (e.g., part of task aversion) & is also valued (e.g., deep satisfaction, work ethic). I look forward to taking a deep dive & gaining new insights into the role of effort in procrastination.

New lab paper on leisure, effort, and meaning by @aidanvcampbell.bsky.social, @gregdepow.bsky.social, and Srishti Agarwal from @amuselabs.bsky.social. Check it out!

For decades, psychologists believed reminding people of death would make them fry themselves in tanning booths, recommend harsher punishments for prostitutes, support martyrdom, and spend more on luxury goods. Rigorous testing revealed: nope. But dead theories have a way of refusing to stay buried.

Western University is offering new scholarships of up to 40k CAD for four years to doctoral students who are studying at, have an offer from, or have had an offer rescinded from one of the top 100 American universities. Come and study with me or one of my colleagues!

I absolutely loved @paulbloomatyale.bsky.social's article. It starts one way and ends in another. Beautifully written, and as usual with Paul, reveals something interesting and true. Read it!

Apparently hanging your diplomas in your office is a dead giveaway that you don't belong in academia. Who knew? Growing up in a house with no degrees, my mom's synagogue volunteer plaques were the only "achievements" on our walls. So yeah, my diplomas are staying up. New post.

This is an important piece on philosophy of science from @minzlicht.bsky.social. It also should be a wake-up call for journal editors who demand more & greater theoretical contributions for publication. Theories can build from bottom up descriptives. And that allows perspectivism a la Bill McGuire.

I just became president of a scientific society and my first act was to disagree with one of my heroes...Arie Kruglanski gave a keynote arguing social psychology needs MORE Big Beautiful Theories. I think that's exactly backwards. Here's why...

Motivation and Emotion is seeking a new Editor-in-Chief! 4-year term starting Jan 2025. Looking for someone with vision, experience in motivation/emotion research, and editorial chops. Deadline: Aug 1. Ready to shape the field? Details: [email protected]