We gave 30 couples without kids an infant simulator for the weekend and tracked how they handled it. Nope, this isn't a reality show: it's a scientific paper! 🍼 New in Human Nature 👇🔗

psych post-bacc jobs are scattered across wikis, twitter/bsky, and random lab sites. hard to find if you're not already in the field. I started a slack to pool them in one place — a low-effort bulletin board, channels by subfield, updated live! 🔗⬇️

Thrilled to share I'll be starting a PhD in Psychology at Yale this fall with Melissa Ferguson — and that I was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to support my work! Can't wait to get started! 🥳 #NSFGRFP

🚨 New paper in Personality and Individual Differences! We introduce the Words Can Harm Scale (WCHS): a 10-item measure of the belief that speech can cause lasting psychological harm. Who believes that words can harm, and what does this belief predict?🧵 ⬇️

We noticed a broad trend: liberals tended to amplify group differences in vulnerability (the environment and othered are VERY vulnerable and the powerful and divine are VERY invulnerable) whereas conservatives viewed all groups as more equally vulnerable to suffering.

Check out what people are saying about our paper on r/science: www.reddit.com/r/science/co... And huge shoutout to the co-authors that are on here! @jakewomick.bsky.social @emilykubin.bsky.social @helenldevine.bsky.social @keithpayne.bsky.social @kurtjgray.bsky.social

This past weekend, I attended @ap-ls.org in Reno, Nevada and presented a poster on the co-occurrence of true crime consumption & victim-blaming attitudes. 🧪⚖️ #apls2026

Last month, I presented my poster on how true crime consumption relates to victim blaming at #SPSP2026 in Chicago — and I'm so honored to have received the Best Poster Award at the Moral Psychology pre-conference! 🎉

One week left to submit to the Mind & Machine Alignment Summit! ⏳ Propose a talk, experience, or project idea by March 16. We have a phenomenal lineup of speakers doing cutting-edge work in this space, and we’re excited to hear your ideas!

⚖️ New paper in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences! Legal decisions hinge on who counts as a victim — but our judgments are biased & hard to change. We propose solutions: victim impact statements, funding restorative justice, & acknowledgments for exonerees.

✍️ New Preprint: "Sticks and stones may break my bones..." but can words really harm? We created the Words Can Harm Scale (WCHS) to measure the belief that speech can cause lasting psychological harm. You can take the online assessment here: sampratt99.github.io/Words-Can-Ha...

New preprint: Do people care more about their pet dog than about other people? 🐶 > 🫂 Our findings suggest that increases in "soulmate" emotional reliance on dogs is associated with reduced moral concern for people. 🧵

This week's Science to Impact symposium at Ohio State hosted experts in all kinds of science communication! Grateful to have helped organize this event and heard from these minds in one room. 🧠 🧪

Smile if you’re moving to Columbus!! It was a great year at UNC. This summer, @mshastry.bsky.social and I are moving with @kurtjgray.bsky.social ’s Deepest Beliefs Lab to Ohio State! Excited to join. (forever Go Blue, though 🤗〽️)

New post: What do a physicist in a strip club, a pop star in a church, and government officials making war plans in a group chat have in common? 🔬🎤💣 The setting is all wrong—so wrong that their decisions start to feel immoral. (🔗 in thread)

Last month, I attended @aplssc.bsky.social in sunny San Juan! 🌤️ #APLS2025 I presented work showing that humans are worse at judging guilt based on walking style than a computer algorithm trained on the same dataset. w/ @kurtjgray.bsky.social Poster: tinyurl.com/devineposter...

I had a great time at #SPSP25 in Denver this weekend! 🏔️🧸 I presented research on 1) how social influences change consent requests and 2) how fear of crime may explain increased victim blaming rhetoric. More on both in this thread! 🧵(1/3)

Looking forward to presenting at @SPSPnews next week! Come find me 😊 ⚖️ Flash talk at legal precon: Keep your friends close, but your rights closer: Social support and compliance with consent requests (Thurs 9a) 📢 Poster on how fear of crime shapes victim blaming (Thurs 6-7p)

Why are so many people celebrating the recent assassination of UnitedHealthcare's CEO? Insights from psychology can help explain why the perpetrator has become a 'Robin Hood'-like vigilante. 🏹

Well. What's next? This platform is full of frustration. Animosity will likely rise. It's easy to hate everything. And yet... with @kurtjgray @sampratt99

New @DeepBeliefsLab substack: Why do some of us get so enraged by minor social norm violations? Turns out anger over slow walkers and double parkers can be adaptive—and in some cases, actually improve— our society. 🤯 w/ @kurtjgray & @sampratt99 www.moralunderstandingnewsletter.com/p/the-psycho...

So excited to be joining @UNCPsych as a lab manager working in @kurtjgray 's Deepest Beliefs lab!! I *deeply believe* it's going to be a great time. 😆