I'm looking for a PhD student to do some trailblazing at the frontier of personality genomics and lifespan gene-environment transactions (start Fall 2026)! If you want to work with me: psychology.msu.edu/graduatestud... (PS @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social is taking a student too, in moral psych/dev!)

(No) Labor Day

Not that there would be anything wrong with demonizing meat...

I'm disappointed in NPR's sensationalist coverage of this new UN report. They paint the issue as a problem (it's complicated), hold women responsible (they're not), and mainly describe the perspective of pro-natal think-tanks. For a different take on the issue, check out thechildfree.org

In a new paper, Payton Nault and Michele Morningstar demonstrate that hat hostile attribution bias is linked to youth’s evaluation of tone of voice when selecting responses to peer provocation onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Publication alert! A 4-year longitudinal study by Xiyuan Xu and Lijn Zhang illustrates the complex interplay between temperament and culture in the development and differentiation of shyness in childhood. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

I just found out that the Sunbelt in Paris has a bluesky account! @sunbelt2025paris.bsky.social‬

Another excellent piece from a demographer, this time Stuart Gietel-Basten, on how "pronatalism is a dead end" "Without addressing the root causes of low fertility—inequality, instability, and the incompatibility of work and family life—top-down efforts to “encourage” childbearing will fail"

A common claim in #EvoPsych is that the persistence of psychological sex differences in gender-egalitarian* countries shows that the differences are innate. I've argued that ignores the highly-gender-unequal media environment. Now @larawood.bsky.social has proved me right! #EHBEA #HBES

Ironic that transit from #NetSci2025 @netsciconf.bsky.social is disrupted due to failure of a high-betweenness node.

Children’s animated films inaccurately and consistently portray predators as male and prey as female. Young children learn and maintain these gender stereotypes into adulthood.   See thread by @larawood.bsky.social or read the whole paper onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Software and Data satellite at @netsciconf.bsky.social:

🚨New publication... Children's films contain innacurate gender stereotypes and these corresespond to children's (and adult's) implicit and explicit gendered associations. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... Read thread for more details...

I'm excited to be participating in this #NetSci2025 satellite on sharing network data and software next week!

Hi #AcademicBluesky I'm prepping a new writing intensive undergrad course & am looking for resources and fun activities to build writing skills. Any recommendations of what has worked for you? Bonus points for content related to AI, crafting clear arguments, and outlining papers. Thanks!

𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐀𝐋𝐒 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐨𝐧 "𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬" Do you use a classroom activity to help students understand networks? Share it with others in Connections! Submit your abstract (up to 300 words) to [email protected] by 15 September 2025

No thank you

When what a tie is/represents remains undefined, interpreting any network analysis of those "data" becomes an impossible exercise in reading tea leaves.

Our new paper finds that knowledge and comfort predict greater teaching about sexism: link.springer.com/article/10.1..., which is why we created a website with resources for teachers: www.teachgenderequality.org. Please share our resources! @surreypsychology.bsky.social @socialpsychology.bsky.social

Check out this paper by Planalp and colleagues who show that empathy, while essential in human relationships, can be a risky strength, as it may lead to personal distress and higher depressive risk. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Interested in the intersection of #OpenScience and #NetworkScience? Check out the new @insna.bsky.social Recommendations for Sharing Network Data and Materials. Read the recommendations 👉 www.zacharyneal.com/datasharing Endorse the recommendations 👉 forms.gle/sgpjyUnkufJF...

1. Quick—which of these shapes is different from the others?

AERA, in partnership with the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education over the unlawful dismantling of the Institute of Education Sciences. www.aera.net/Newsroom/AER...

It's been a heavy week! The only heaviness these otters have to worry about is the weight of their favorite object. Rock on, otters! 🪨🦦 Goodnight!

My expertise is not in autism, but I find this to be a good explainer of why rates of autism have increased. And it ain’t vaccines. www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-....

An MSU study found that the percentage of nonparents in the United States who never want children has doubled over the past 20 years. Full story here: psychology.msu.edu/news-events/... Co-authors of study: @zpneal.bsky.social @jennawneal.bsky.social ✨ #PsychologyResearch #Childfree

I had a wonderful time talking about my research with @zpneal.bsky.social on #childfree adults on the Pondering Thoughts podcast. Thanks Kay Wilkes for the great discussion! www.buzzsprout.com/2228030/epis...

Join us on Reddit r/science for an AMA about our new study on non-parents (see below)!

I'll take any excuse to post the Pokemons dancing to Orinoco Flow again.

Masking discourse is on again and I’ll just say if you see people masking when few others are it’s likely because they’ve determined that for them, in that setting, the benefit of not catching (or spreading) whatever’s going around is worth the cost of masking. It’s rarely more complicated than that

Collecting my thoughts at the end of one of the worst days of my life... At NIH, > 1300 people were RIFed. These range all across the board from institute directors to low level administrative staff. Communication staff and procurement appear to be hardest hit as anticipated from the HHS plan 1/n

Everyone is at risk of Long COVID and other serious health issues from COVID-19. And lots of people don’t have paid sick days or the ability to take time off from work, caretaking, school or more if they get sick. EVERYONE has a right to wear a mask. #NoNYMaskBan

I wrote an op-ed about my experience as an early career researcher right now… TLDR, it’s pretty rough out there guys Thank you to @sufsnewmexico.bsky.social for inspiring the piece and to ABQ Journal for publishing

Over and out with some good news and cuteness to close. 🐈‍⬛

INSNA endorses the new Recommendations for Sharing Network Data and Materials. There is significant and valuable diversity in how social network research is conducted; we encourage researchers to consider benefits and concerns to data sharing articulated in this paper. doi.org/10.1017/nws.2024.16

In this new paper with @zpneal.bsky.social, we use data from the 2022-2023 US National Survey of Family Growth to show that nearly 30% of all non-parents in the US do not want to have children (i.e. are #childfree). doi.org/10.1111/jomf...

I’m excited that @socialdevelopment.bsky.social (edited by @doctinak.bsky.social, @harriet-tenenbaum.bsky.social, & me) is now on Bluesky! Follow us for current news about the journal and our latest published research.

The National Institutes of Health had to stop considering new grant applications, delaying funding for research into diseases ranging from heart disease and cancer to Alzheimer's and allergies.

You know Kate Winslet in Contagion? Where she runs into a hot zone, risking her life, so Americans could be safer? She was an EIS officer. That’s who was just fired at CDC today. EIS officers. And many, many more public servants fighting every day for your health.

Make no mistake. This is an all-out attack on health in America. Not only is the EIS vital to controlling infectious disease; it was where a remarkably high fraction of our public health leaders received formative training and experience. www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/t...

Well what do you know? The Regime has just admitted that they must in fact follow a judge’s court order and release NIH funds to grantees. Thanks to @pinktweets.bsky.social for alerting me. popular.info/p/breaking-n...

A temporary restraining order has been issued by a judge in Massachusetts against the 15% indirect cost rate cap that was released by NIH last week. Twenty other states have also filed suit. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Short version: it's (currently) illegal for NIH to do what they did. A helpful deeper dive.

1/8. This week I had a few different conversations with scholars who, in the face of the attacks on science and institutions of learning in the U.S., are wondering what to do. One suggestion I have is: keep doing your work. It matters in and of itself. Why do I say that? A few reasons.

1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%. I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

I'm not sure how to explain how financially devastating this will be for universities. This is, literally, catastrophic for universities and for science in the United States.

Interesting recommendations prepared by a group led by @zpneal.bsky.social regarding the sharing of Network Data and Materials. www.zacharyneal.com/datasharing The working group includes @aaronclauset.bsky.social, @tiago.skewed.de, @asteixeira.bsky.social among others!

Good news! Staten Island Chuck predicts we’ll have an early Spring! His predictions are statistically more accurate than Punxsutawney Phil’s. 😁 www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Currently putting together SRCD SECC Conversation Hour "Building Your Career: Postdoc and Academic Job Market Insights" to take place during the conference. Who has been on the postdoc and/or job market **this** year and can talk about their experiences and will be at the SRCD conference?