Neural selectivity for social interactions in the infant brain: https://osf.io/qydmj

How does the brain decide? 🧠 Our new @nature.com paper shows that neural activity switches from an 'evidence gathering' to a 'commitment' state at a precise moment we call nTc. After nTc, new evidence is ignored, revealing a neural marker for the instant when the mind is made up. rdcu.be/eGUrv

Shorthand version of the paper: telling people that "Themaglin is associated with an increased probability of Pneuben” makes people think that Themaglin causes Pneuben. (or maybe it is just associated with an increased probability of that inference?)

Yesterday I posted about how I used comet browser to take a Qualtrics survey almost undetected. Last night, I ran a pilot (N=400) on @joinprolific.bsky.social . I found that almost 10% of "respondents" identified as AI when directly asked.

::slowly stands while clapping::

@qmmmmliu.bsky.social and I just gave a presentation for the UChicago internship program on writing faculty job statements. We talked through what makes them compelling (and what to avoid). Slides are here if interested 👉 osf.io/3skx4/?view_... Thanks to Dr. Shona Vas inviting us!!

It's publication day for our first paper out of the www.csinequality.org lab completed entirely at NU. To write it, we asked: what research in the social psychology of inequality do we like and why do we like it? The answer is this paper:

University of Colorado Boulder Psychology & Neuroscience is searching for TWO tenure track assistant professors!! jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta... #socialpsychology #cogpsyc #PsychSciSky #PsychJob #psycjobs #psychology 1/n

I’m hiring!! 🎉 Looking for a full-time Lab Manager to help launch the Minds, Experiences, and Language Lab at Stanford. We’ll use all-day language recording, eye tracking, & neuroimaging to study how kids & families navigate unequal structural constraints. Please share: phxc1b.rfer.us/STANFORDWcqUYo

UC Davis is hiring! A tenure-track assistant professor of psychology, in human cognition or cognitive neuroscience #psychjobs recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07300

Congress eliminated public media funding, and the president signed it into law. At a time of deep division, public media brings us together. Help keep it strong. Join our monthly donors today: n.pr/458sOhq

OK, It is not just the HBCD release... docs.hbcdstudy.org It’s the ABCD Release time too! docs.abcdstudy.org nbdc-datahub.org That means the ABCC 3.0.0 is live!!! The largest release yet from the ABCD-BIDS Community Collection. This is going to be fun!! 👇 Let’s dig in.

The NIH Brain Development Cohorts (NBDC) Data Hub is now available! •Researchers can explore ABCD & HBCD Study data in one place – with robust query & data analysis tools, documentation, & workflows •Learn more & apply for data access: www.nbdc-datahub.org @theabcdstudy.bsky.social

Super interesting work! Can’t wait to share it with my grad seminar class in fall!

The Spencer Foundation normally hears from 500 scholars applying for grants. This year, it got 2,000. Philanthropies are facing a surge in demand in the wake of cuts to federal research subsidies. But they can't be a full replacement. @mkhaw.bsky.social reports: www.chronicle.com/article/as-t...

Instead they suggest two things: that who we are shapes what we can and do think. And that this means both that we are limited and ALSO that each of us “sees possibilities that the other cannot.” 2/2 KILLER talk by Laura Schulz #SSM2025 #APS2025

Work on curiosity has focused on our drive towards accuracy. Yet, who we are shapes not only what we think but what we CAN think. Laura Schulz shows that boys DON’T learn “what tool X is for” when they see girls using them (and vice versa). This is at odds with accuracy and rational learning. 1/2

NSF GRFPs terminated for those in graduate school and already attending Harvard, too.

NSF Physics was cut by 85%, basically wiping out most of its capacity for supporting research. NSF Astronomy was cut by 53% Undergrad education was cut by 71% and research on learning by 79% Graduate education was cut by 100% to ZERO. #GiftLink ⚛️🔭 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

🚨Postdoc opportunity🚨 We're looking for a postdoc to work on EEG and fNIRS projects with 3-18-month-old infants, looking at whether/how/when infants represent affordances: careers.ceu.edu/job-invite/8... Part of the @simonsfoundation.org SCENE project: www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/04/24/s...

curious what real outcomes this transformation is associated with. is the overall research quality better? do people ask better questions or design better studies? are more results reported in titles, abstracts, & media valid or measured? do fields move forward faster or more effectively? etc.

🎊 New preprint 🎊 w/ Tania Lombrozo Why do people engage in collective actions, even when they believe their actions won't make a difference? Based on evidence from the 2024 election and a hypothetical election, we find that *moral* responsibility, not causal, drives voting osf.io/preprints/ps...

here's my attempt to share some social psychology basics, in the hopes that every little bit will help to reweave our social fabric 🙏🏻 theconversation.com/making-eye-c...

Many of us have heard of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (e.g. the individualistic-collectivist (IC) dimension), but few have looked under the hood of how they were constructed. The data, it turns out, come from self-report surveys of IBM employees ca. 1968-72. Here's McSweeney describing the sample:

🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj

Part of my job is this kind of job, and it's really, really fun!

🚨🚨 NEW PRE-PRINT 🚨🚨 Prominent theories in political psychology argue that threat causes increases in conservatism. Early experimental work supported this idea, but many of these studies were (severely) underpowered, and examined only a few threats and ideological DVs. 1/n osf.io/preprints/ps...

The NIH Director continues to misunderstand (or mischaracterize) the extent to which research is being gutted. I appreciate this program officer for speaking up.

So your research area has been politicized and your federal funding cancelled, what now? I try to give some answers in this opinion piece for @nature.com 1/ www.nature.com/articles/d41...

100% agree with @gordonhodsonphd.bsky.social @lindatropp.bsky.social work is careful and thought-provoking! This piece is no exception!

The new Neil Halloran documentary on Smallpox has completely changed how I see the RFK Jr. version of the world. Neil (softly) argues that realizing that disease isn't the fault of the sick /or/ the fault of the Gods ushered in a new future where we felt the authority to care for each other.

What motivates people to take action and share info about climate change? We tested 17 psychological interventions in a tournament—Discover the winners in our new paper! Out now in @pnas.org w/ @falklab.bsky.social, @michaelemann.bsky.social, & team. Thread ⤵️ 1/9 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

I haven't heard any terrible news out of NSF today, so it really doesn't feel like a Friday.

If we craft our new landing pages around all the projects that line up with the new "priorities" — and exclude projects that e.g. serve underserved communities, feature social sciences, or center human flourishing wrt tech & AI — then we are going to reify their good science / bad science framing.

🧪 National Science Foundation update alert ⚠️⚠️ NSF just made a **lot** of updates to its "priorities" page. It's mixed news. Some good. Some bad. ❌ Not welcome: NSF is now also terminating "environmental justice" awards. The highlighted text here is new: www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p... 1/8... 🧵

Racism, again. www.thetransmitter.org/funding/nida...

If you’re one of the thousands who gave this month – THANK YOU! We love reading your comments about the role public media plays in your life, and are proud to be here for you. If you haven’t had a chance to donate, please give what you can now: n.pr/3EYClNR

Worthwhile read on the different variants of capitalism, the version taught in (U.S.) business schools, and the consequences of U.S. business pedagogy on students and society. www.fastcompany.com/91328885/bus...

1. After getting some further insight into changes at NSF (thanks to those who reached out), I deleted a previous post where I tried to make sense of Cheatham's memo as reported in the Science story below.

With all that is going on at NSF, it’s important for me to describe how important NSF has been for my career and the careers of my trainees over the years. This funding is so important for so many reasons.

NSF is one of the most efficient parts of our government! Any cutting is obviously designed to dismantle the organization. This is obvious but still bears emphasis that they aren’t doing this to save money but solely to destroy the most effective parts of our federal government.

She’s out!! They have released Ozturk from ICE custody!

Despite everything going on, I may have funds to hire a postdoc this year 😬🤞🧑‍🔬 Open to a wide variety of possible projects in social and cognitive neuroscience. Get in touch if you are interested! Reposts appreciated.

This is a delightful applicaiton of network analysis to the papal Conclave, showing that Prevost was highest in eigenvector centrality, which the authors call "status." In my work, I call this "celebrity political capital." Either way, it fits. 👏 www.unibocconi.it/en/news/netw...

🚨 All staff for NSF’s Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM (EES) have just been fired. In email to grantees: “the entire Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM has just been dissolved and the entire staff fired.” High time for scientists, public, Congress, YOU to take action to #SaveNSF

Come join us! I have startup funds to hire a postdoc for Fall 2025 at Rutgers to study intergroup relations. The job ad is at jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/249... & evaluations begin in 1 wk (5/16) w rolling evaluation. See 🧵below for a write-up on what I'm looking for in a postdoc. Please share widely!

Judge Session: I see no evidence of risk or danger of any kind. The court orders ICE to release Rümeysa Öztürk from custody IMMEDIATELY. She is free to return to her home in Massachusetts. Also free to travel within Mass and VT. I'm not going to restrict her travel, because I see no danger of flight

“NSF awards had once been considered prestigious. Now with this post hoc politicization of the merit review process they are merely a stamp indicating that a funded proposal has passed a secretive political test administered by an Administration that is unparalleled in its hostility to U.S. science”

What IRB is overseeing this again