I guess even the best of us get bad days sometimes 🤓 Happy birthday Charlie!

Don't forget to register for SAS 2026! While you can still register up til the day of the conference, you get the best rates with the early bird special 🐥🦜🐦‍⬛ #SAS2026

I need a postdoc for my project “Panel Studies of Optimism Bias and Positive Mood”. I need someone with an interest in affective science, very strong English and writing skills, and experience of using SEM with longitudinal data. Thread continues ...

Bodmin Moor was looking gorgeous this morning ... misty and mysterious ...

Today, TÜBİTAK have funded my project on optimism bias and positive mood. Thanks, folks! 🤓 This means I will soon need a postdoc. If you are interested in affective science, and have some experience with longitudinal SEM analyses, please get in touch with me!

Veronika the cow shows evidence of tool use? Wow! "There is no suggestion that Veronika’s skills are evidence of the evolution of an ominous new species of super-cow." 🤓 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

Halfway through dinner, my Turkish/English boy spontaneously made himself a meatball-and-yogurt sandwich 🥰 🧿 Happy New Year! İyi seneler!

New preprint! Not a headline-grabber, but an important step for my lab group: Demonstrating the good psychometric properties of my probability bias (expectancy bias) measure. The preprint, and the measure in both English and Turkish, are freely available here: doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GXJK8

Turns out @mikeflanaganfilm.com , @stephenking.bsky.social and @markhamillofficial.bsky.social were right: I just saw The Life of Chuck, and it really is excellent. Well done, lads.

New preprint! "Increasing Depressive Symptoms of Students in Turkey (Türkiye), 1990-2023: Effects of Gender, Socioeconomic Status, Anxiety, and the COVID-19 Pandemic" This is under review: the final published version may end up looking very different to this ;) doi.org/10.17605/OSF...

Trying to submit my paper from the cafe at Dolmabahçe Palace today ... Keep getting distracted by dolphins 😍

Really enjoyed @helenlewis.bsky.social 's new book, The Genius Myth. Interesting historical perspective, and I love the idea of 'scenius' Pairs nicely with The Intelligence Trap ( @davidarobson.bsky.social )

Had a nice little rec dive in Cyprus last week. Thanks to Ray at Dive Point Cyprus! youtu.be/7RxSp_naDiU?...

I'm very late mentioning this, but I had a good time at the European Congress of Psychology in Cyprus last week! Spoke about my recent paper on the Best Possible Self intervention, and met some nice people :)

Just bagged tickets to see @danielsloss.bsky.social in Istanbul... Again! Said to my wife: "Daniel Sloss is coming back" She said: "Why..?"

“I asked chatGPT-“ ok, and I asked Tinsel, and she said you’re an uninspired, vapid dork who needs a computer to think for them.

The wildest thing about being a professor is that it's somehow acceptable to email the smartest experts in the world to help you with your homework, and they just...write you back with help. Sometimes they compliment your question, or even thank you for asking. It's bonkers.

I'm gonna give my barista the benefit of the doubt, and assume this was meant to be a heart

Sabanci University, Istanbul, is accepting applications for master's and PhD programs in Psychology! There will be events on 8th May (Tuzla campus; 14:30, FASS 1089) and 13th May (Minerva Han, Karaköy; 16:00-19:00) where you can meet some of us, and learn about the programs and scholarships.

‘Dangerous nonsense’: AI-authored books about ADHD for sale on Amazon

New preprint! Probability Bias Predicts Depressive Symptom Severity, Independently of Optimism/Pessimism and Intolerance of Uncertainty By Robert W. Booth (me!) and Dinkar Sharma. Freely available from the link below. NOT YET PEER REVIEWED, will probably change! doi.org/10.17605/OSF...

PC did a weird update today, and threw me a spectacular error message. I guess it HAS been a while since I worked on that document!

Interesting time at the International Conference on Positive Psychology at Üsküdar U. last weekend. Thanks to Ebru Morgül for chairing the session! Presented my recent work, showing that optimism bias (optimistic expectancies) predict positive mood up to 4 weeks later. Preprint coming soon ...

We are so excited to announce our Free Summer Prize Draw!​ Spotted any ghost gear whilst diving? You can win a GFUK prize bundle worth up to £100! It includes a hoody, tee and a bracelet. Competition information and full T&Cs here www.ghostfishing.co.uk/competition/

Just sharing this interesting new paper from Duffy et al. In two studies, the Best Possible Self intervention reduced anxiety scores, by about half a standard deviation. This is consistent with my recent RCT. Can the BPS be useful for anxious people? Worth following up! doi.org/10.1080/1743...

Happy to share this new article published open access in BRAT🎉📢: In a relatively large experimental study funded by @dfg.de, we examined cognitive immunisation as a mechanism of biased belief updating in depression. Results suggest a nuanced picture. See more 👇 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I've recently finished A Human History of Emotion by Richard Firth-Godbehere, and it was excellent! @profrichfg.bsky.social has written an authoritative, accessible book about the history of emotions and emotion concepts, which goes right up to the present day. Highly recommended!

Back home from my Erasmus visit to the Trinity Centre for Global Health, at @tcddublin.bsky.social. Had a great time talking about social emotions! Thanks to Frédérique Vallieres for hosting and good conversation 🤓

If you are visiting Istanbul's old town, why not try some traditional Smurf meatballs?

My recent paper was, apparently, very much appreciated by Sabanci University's Foundations Development Directorate, who posted about it on Insta 🤓 (Come on people, join us cool kids on Bluesky ...) www.instagram.com/p/DEhrfoWtx_...

Just walked in on this.

Istanbul-style driving lessons. İstanbul'daki sürücü eğitimi. "Who'd I hit? Oh, right."

My article "The best possible self task has direct effects on expectancies and mood, and an indirect effect on anxiety symptom severity" is published in Emotion! My co-authors are four non-Psychology undergrads, who had no idea what they were getting into 😂 doi.org/10.1037/emo0...

Amy is having an early night, and waiting for Santa. Happy holidays! 🎄

Good times at the Neuroscience, Law, Psychology and Beyond conference yesterday! Had a good discussion with @albertalisalah.bsky.social about the validity of 'emotion recognition' tech; with me leaning heavily on @lisafeldmanbarrett.bsky.social's work. Thanks @ozanerozden.bsky.social for hosting!

🍾New article out in @natrevpsych.bsky.social🍾: We review how social expectations form and change in individuals with depression and how they shape the onset, course, and severity of depression. Particular emphasis is on why social expectations persist despite pos info. www.nature.com/articles/s44...